Agriculture is one of the 14 Global Practices and its agenda is essential for achieving the Bank’s twin goals of eliminating poverty and boosting shared prosperity: 75% of the world’s poor are rural, and most are engaged in farming. Over 842 million people go to bed hungry every day, 26 percent of all children under age five are stunted, and 30 percent suffer from Vitamin A deficiency. The world needs to produce about 50 percent more food to feed the world’s expected population of nine billion by 2050. A changing climate means that, in Africa alone, a warming scenario of 1.5°C to 2°C for the 2030s and 2040s will trigger a 40 to 80 percent reduction of area where maize, millet and sorghum are currently grown. Accordingly, agriculture is critical for fighting hunger, boosting food and nutrition security, improving incomes, creating jobs, providing environmental services, and stopping a “4°C world.”
The Agriculture Global Practice (GFADR) consists of about 280 staffs of which 36% are located in country offices. The active portfolio consists of about 240 projects representing about US$18 billion in lending commitments. There are about 200 ongoing knowledge activities. Areas of focus include, among other: (i) increasing smallholder agricultural productivity, and it’s resilience through support to improved land and water management in irrigated and rainfed areas; (ii) linking farmers to markets and strengthening value chains through support for improved infrastructure, information technology, postharvest handling; (iii) facilitating rural nonfarm income by improving the rural investment climate and skills development; (iv) reducing risk, vulnerability and gender inequality through support to risk management mechanisms ; and (v) enhancing environmental services and sustainability. To advance this agenda, GFADR collaborates closely with numerous other GPs; it is also one of the joined GPs with IFC.
Duties and Accountabilities:
• Initiate and maintain a high level and quality of engagement and dialogue with key stakeholders, including government, civil society, private sector and research/academic community on strategic and policy issues concerning agriculture, irrigation and natural resources in Mali;
• Participate in the dialogue with relevant representatives of the private sector in order to keep abreast with issues related to the business investment climate and identify possible areas of collaboration through public-private-partnerships;
• Lead/initiate/participate in analytical and strategic work pertaining to agricultural growth and productivity, including work managed by GFADR and that managed by other units, but requiring input from agricultural staff, such as public expenditure analysis;
• Identify innovative new opportunities or ways to address existing needs in the agricultural sector, by bringing in experience from other regions and with a wide range of instruments;
• Lead complex operations as Task Team Leader (TTL), both in agriculture and multi-sectoral operations, assuring quality in all stages of the project cycle;
• Serve as an advisor to colleagues who are themselves TTLs of demanding operations, providing them with mentoring, advice and support;
• Assume an active role in the Mali country team with the aim to ensure adequate and appropriate integration of relevant aspects of the agriculture and rural development agenda in core Bank products, including systematic country diagnostics, country partnership frameworks, country economic memorandum and the like.
• Serve as an active member of the GFADR Global Practice, including contributing to the scale up of the Bank’s engagement on agriculture in Africa;
• Work across sectors with staff of other Global Practices and IFC to ensure coherence and integration of the agriculture portfolio in West-Africa and beyond.
• As necessary, represent the Bank and GFADR management at public events with agriculture sector focus.
Desired Skills and Experience
• Postgraduate degree in Agricultural Economics or related discipline;
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant working experience in agriculture;
• Strong technical and analytical skills in a range of issues of relevance to agriculture;
• In-depth knowledge of the issues faced by smallholders participating in modern value chains;
• Recognized and respected by peers; demonstrated commitment to team work and ability to interact effectively and collegially with peers at all levels;
• Familiarity with the institutional context of Africa, and the Sahel in particular, and experience interacting with institutions involved in agriculture and rural development;
• Demonstrated familiarity with Bank procedures, directives, business practices and experience in identifying, preparing, appraising, and supervising operations, as a task team leader or team member;
• Ability to think innovatively and strategically in dealing with policy issues while maintaining a strong client focus;
• Ability to take principled and balanced positions on complex issues and to communicate and defend them orally and in writing to Senior Bank management and Senior Government officials;
• Excellent interpersonal, problem-solving, and team skills with ability to think innovatively and strategically to find balanced, pragmatic and implementable solutions;
• High degree of discretion, ethics, tact and sensitivity in handling confidential and sensitive information;
• Ability to work under pressure while retaining perspective and a sense of humor;
• Very high level of energy, initiative and self-motivation, coupled with willingness to travel extensively and work under challenging conditions;
• English essential, French essential.
For further details and to apply, please go to www.worldbank.org/careers and under “current job openings” seek vacancy number 150212. Deadline for applications is March 4, 2015.
