Improving the investment climate in Africa is one of three core priorities of the IFC/World Bank Group strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group comprise staff based in the hub offices of Nairobi, Dakar and Johannesburg and across the continent, working with a team of product specialists in Washington, DC, and Istanbul. The Investment Climate Advisory Services have been implementing reform programs in Sub-Saharan for almost a decade, and have scaled up their efforts significantly in recent years. The programs focus on a range of economy-wide investment climate reforms, including business registration and licensing, investment promotion, inspection reform, business taxation, trade logistics, regulatory governance and special economic zones.

The World Bank Group’s Investment Climate Department (CIC) assists governments of developing countries and transition economies in reforming their business environments, with emphasis on regulatory simplification and investment generation. CIC relies on close collaboration with World Bank Group partners and donors to leverage value and deliver tangible results.

CIC is seeking to recruit an experienced Investment Policy Officer to support the management and delivery of its projects to assist the client governments to design and implement policy reforms that make the country more attractive for investment.

The Investment Policy (IP) Product helps client governments improve investment laws, policies and incentives regimes and reduce economy-wide investment barriers in order to stimulate private domestic and foreign direct investment flows. Investment climate benchmarks are used to catalyze governments’ actions and frame IP reform interventions. In particular the team is about to launch an investment policy program to assist ECOWAS Commission and its member states.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The Sr Investment Policy Officer will be involved in supporting technical assistance and advisory work in the following areas:

•   Lead missions to client countries and prepare written reports as necessary (e.g., diagnostic analysis, findings, recommendations, case studies, etc.);
•   Operational support and management of advisory projects with investment policy components in West and Central Africa, including both regional programs (ECOWAS, UEMOA, OHADA) or country specific;
•   Provide technical expertise to lead the IP components of selected client-focused projects, undertaking project diagnostic and implementation activities and liaising with clients and development partners;
•   Provide quality control of projects, recruit and supervise consultants and manage program implementation, monitoring the budget and spent on each program, and reporting on progress, activities, outputs and outcomes.
•   Contribute to knowledge management, research and analysis of selected policy and regulatory issues in support of the global investment policy advisory work, such as helping to generate and disseminate best practice case studies, databases and other materials in relevant themes.
•   Contribute to the development of collaborative partnerships with external partners and all other World Bank Group teams involved in promoting competition in client countries (FPD, PREM, other IFC Advisory Services, and IFC Investment).
•   Contribute to an active role as member of a global IP product team and ensure optimal client response, knowledge generation and dissemination of best practice on competition policies across countries and regions.

Qualification Required & Experience

Selection Criteria:

•   A graduate qualification (i.e. Masters level), or equivalent, in a relevant discipline (economics, law, international finance, political science or business).
•   At least 10 years work experience, at least 4 of which should be in the area of private sector development and investment policy issues in a developing country context.
•   Good knowledge of business environment indicator products, as well as a solid general technical understanding of indicator construction and benchmarking techniques.
•   Experience in and understanding of private sector business operations, either through direct experience or through academic study.
•   Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and French.
•   Strong interpersonal and team skills; ability to develop effective relations with clients.
•   High degree of self-motivation and proven ability to work independently under limited supervision. Ability to multitask and work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
•   Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with a capacity to deliver high-quality outputs and results under tight deadlines.

If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 4 year term appointment.

Location: Accra

How To Apply For The Job

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Closing Date: 07 July, 2013