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, 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). We aim 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 Unit is seeking to recruit seasoned senior economist (G2) to make significant contributions to the analytical and strategy outputs in shaping the operation of the unit, which ranges from the production of macroeconomics reports as well as sector analytics, including country private sector diagnostics (CPSDs) with the view to sharpen reform recommendations to create opportunities for private investment.

We seek a motivated and dynamic professional with strong economic analytical skills, private sector development related policy experience, and team spirit. The position is based in Accra, Ghana.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Senior Economist will work under the general supervision of the manager of Country Advisory and Economics in North, West, and Central Africa to ensure the high-quality diagnostics and advisory delivery. Specifically, he/she will

• Lead the macroeconomic analysis to support IFC investment operations, including due diligence, to feed into relevant project documents for the clusters covered by IFC Division Director (Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo and Benin) with an economist based in Abidjan.

• Lead the monitoring of economic and policy conditions and trends for countries in the abovementioned countries, identifying the potential risks to IFC investments, and advising the IFC Division Director, Country Managers, and operational teams on the strategies to mitigate them.

• Provide intellectual and technical inputs on topics of economic or strategic relevance to IFC and produce or support the production of policy and technical notes, briefs, presentations, and country reports as requested by the senior management.

• Lead and/or contribute to all the WBG core diagnostics and provide IFC input to WBG Country Engagement products, including Country Partnership Frameworks, Progress and Learning Reviews, and other joint initiatives.

• Lead and/or contribute to the preparation of IFC Reform Tracker.

• Lead and/or contribute to knowledge management by facilitating the exchange of expertise and knowledge with the broader IFC Economics VPU and Industries Departments