Senior Economist

IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities. Our mission is to leverage the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. For more information, please visit www.ifc.org. 

The IFC 3.0 strategy aims to stimulate more investment activity across emerging markets, especially in Low Income Countries (LICs) and Fragile and Conflict affected States (FCS). Our goal is to create, deepen, and expand markets and design and develop impactful investment projects. This strategy is, in part, premised on improved country/sector diagnostic, strategic, and public sector engagement capabilities, which seek to: 1) resolve obstacles to private sector growth via diagnostic and strategic work that informs both IFC operations and relevant IBRD/IDA policy operations; and 2) overcome the shortage of investable projects in priority markets by proactively improving the private sector ecosystem at the country and regional level.

The IFC’s Country Advisory and Economics unit for Europe (CEUAE) is seeking to recruit a Senior Economist to be based in Paris (or Vienna) and reporting to its manager – based in Paris.

The CEUAE team is responsible for:

1) Producing both regional and country-level economic assessments to support IFC’s strategy and operations;

2) Leading/Collaborating with World Bank Group (WBG) colleagues to produce analytical products such as Country Private Sector Diagnostics (CPSDs) and IFC Country Strategies;

3) Significantly contributing to WBG country engagement, including analytical and strategic products such as Systematic Country Diagnostics (SCD), Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDR), as well as IBRD/IDA lending operations; and

4) Putting IFC’s country strategy and diagnostic recommendations into practice through Advisory projects that engage with governments, regulators, civil society, development partners and other relevant stakeholders to reform markets and sectors and address key bottlenecks to private sector development.

Duties and accountabilities : 

The Senior economist is expected to contribute to all three primary functions of CEUAE, namely: strategic and economic analysis, operational delivery, and operational support. She/he will be responsible for:

• Contributing to regional work on formulating country and regional strategies to maximize IFC’s impact and address development challenges.
• Leading/Contributing to select WBG analytical work, including CCDRs and CPSDs, and other analytical products, with a particular focus on financial sector topics.
• Leading/contributing to IFC’s engagement with the World Bank and IFC advisory and investment teams to help advance select private sector reform priorities. with a focus on financial sector reforms, capital and insurance market development, financial inclusion, and intermediation through the World Bank operations (including policy-based lending and investment lending) and IFC’s upstream and advisory work.
• Leading/contributing to design and economic appraisal/analysis of CAE operational projects that support reforms in financial sector, capital and insurance markets and its direct/indirect impact on economic benefits, financial stability, inclusion, intermediation, and private capital mobilization.
• Leading/contributing to the operationalization of key strategic and diagnostic recommendations through the design and implementation of client-facing Advisory Services projects that support reform implementation and investment facilitation in line with IFC’s strategic priorities.
• Facilitate consultations with various stakeholders including other development finance institutions, financial sector entities, civil society and enterprise sector.
• Mentoring and providing quality control of strategic and analytical work, as well as operational projects delivered by junior members of the team.

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