Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                           Senior Policy Economist –  Policy Unit

Term of Employment:   One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):              Addis Ababa

Required Number:         One

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

Application Deadline:    January 18, 2020

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyse agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results. 

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals. 

About the Policy Unit:

The Policy Unit has a number of main areas of focus:

Coordinate visits and discussions with international scholars for senior policy‐makers

Undertake or oversee broader studies or policy assessments to inform agenda‐setting, and coordinate joint planning and alignment workshops with partners

Undertake or oversee studies on macro and micro policy issues to inform decision‐making, and share or present these studies to policy‐makers and at policy forums or roundtables

Support design or enhancement of institutions and institutional arrangements, or regulatory processes, to support effective implementation of policies

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Policy Economist is a critical new senior role in the Policy Unit- Implementation Support Vertical, and will be involved across the Unit’s various areas of focus, noted above. In particular, the Senior Policy Economist, With guidance from the Policy Unit Director, who heads the policy unit of ATA and to whom she or he reports to, will be involved with two to four internally executed policy-focused studies at a time, which focus on identifying and assessing policy options for the Ethiopian government in a range of challenging agricultural and trade policy areas.

 The Senior Policy Economist will work closely with the Principals and Case Team Leaders, in the ATA’s Analytics team, to provide thought partnership, guidance and support on the existing policy situation, how policy-makers can be most effectively engaged, and the specific policy and economic analysis required.

 With guidance from the Policy Unit Director, she or he will also manage a number of policy studies outsourced to local and international study partners, including the procurement of services from these partners. She or he will review and input to policy study TORs and plans, facilitate interaction between study partners and key stakeholders, and manage regular updates and other activities to ensure the studies are completed on time and to the quality required.

 To ensure the impact of the Policy Unit’s work, the Senior Policy Economist will need to maintain strong relationships and lead discussions with senior policy-makers across government, as well as relevant development sector and private sector partners.

 Significant experience and proven success in leading and delivering high-impact, challenging policy-related economic analysis, stakeholder consultation, and engagement with policy-makers is therefore required. A strong passion for transforming agriculture and improving the lives of smallholder farmers is highly preferred. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• With guidance from the Policy Unit Director, oversee policy assessments to inform agenda‐setting and identification and prioritization of sector-wide or sub-sector policy issues
• Coordinate and/or participate in joint planning and alignment workshops with partners focused on policy issues
• Share or present studies to policymakers at existing policy forums or by organizing round-table discussions focused on policy work
• Contributing to the development of the ATA’s approach to policy focused work, including prioritization of   policy analyses, preferred analytical approaches and tools, engagement model with clients, local partners and senior policy makers, standard output formats, and other areas
• Join Analytical case teams to take on   policy-focused work, including problem structuring, data collection, quantitative and qualitative analysis, leading stakeholder engagement
• Provide expert guidance and advisory support to other case teams where lighter support such as validation of methodology, modeling approach, assumptions or outputs is required
• Drive development of strategic data solutions to support economic policy analysis
• With guidance from the Policy Unit Director, Develop the approach to contract out policy analysis to partner institutions and service providers, locally and internationally, and oversee quality control of the deliverables
• Manage relationships with specific partners and service providers for externally contracted work, and oversee specific engagements to ensure outputs are fit for purpose
• Develop and run trainings on economic policy analysis and other related topics for staff in the Analytics Team as well as the broader organization
• The position reports to the Policy Unit Director – Implementation Support Vertical

• At least a Master's Degree in Economics and related fields
• At least eight years of combined experience in structuring and managing economic policy analysis within government, at a research / think-tank organization or a private sector consulting firm
• Proven ability to undertake Ex-ante and Ex-post Economic Impact Assessment of policy and regulatory reform options
• Experience in developing and employing modelling techniques such as Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and other simulation models and tools
• Proven ability to develop credible, evidence-based policy advice and effectively liaise with senior policymakers, as well as development partners, non-governmental and private sector organizations
• Policy analysis experience in consulting or government setting, in areas such as program design and evaluation, cost-benefit analysis / investment cases, price stabilization and minimum support prices for agricultural commodities, investment incentives and private sector development, design / enhancement of regulatory processes and enforcement mechanisms (e.g. for seed, fertilizer agrochemicals), tax, trade, agro-industrial and firm development, value chain analysis and development
• Remaining current with relevant major macro-economic and micro-economic policy changes and carry out analytical work associated with the changes to generate evidence to inform and guide policy and regulatory reforms
• Exceptional ability to communicate clearly and effectively with a range of stakeholders in a cross-cultural environment (fluency in English is essential)
• Highly collaborative working style and demonstrated success in managing and developing high-performing staff and teams
• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service
• Undertakes additional tasks as may be required by her/his supervisor.