The Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) is looking for qualified candidates to apply for positions of Fellow or Senior Fellow, to join ISE’s fiscal policy advisory team in field missions in Afghanistan to:
- Facilitate effective policy dialogue with government counterparts by providing timely technical advice and analysis;
- Work with ministry departments to implement a performance management system for fiscal performance improvement.
In Afghanistan, ISE has been working on a major government-led reform program focused on building national accountability and capacity for public financial management. The system focuses on improving the performance and capacity of ministry teams to deliver services to the public via sound public financial management. The fiscal policy team welcomes candidates that demonstrate a broad range of experience. Candidates must be willing to embark on a one to two-year time frame, with an anticipated 2-3 trips per year to Kabul, Afghanistan, and possible additional trips to other countries (approx. 40-80 days of work per year).
Qualifications (Senior Fellows)
- Post graduate degree in public finance, economic development, public policy, pubic administration or related field (master’s preferred)
- At least 10 yrs of demonstrated experience in a particular PFM field, i.e. facilitating design and implementation of budget support programs.
- Ability to build strong relationships with senior officials and policy makers in central government agencies in order to identify opportunities for reform.
- Experience with major international development programming and business processes (such as World Bank, USAID, DFID, AusAID, etc.), including procurement and contracting processes; program management tools; financial management policies; and aid effectiveness reporting
Responsibilities (Senior Fellows)
- Facilitate effective policy dialogue with government counterparts by providing timely technical advice and commissioning targeted research and analysis;
- Support the fiscal policy team in conducting mid-year and year-end assessments of the participating teams’ progress against their individual performance plans.
- Provide analysis and reporting on the domestic political and economic situation in Afghanistan to provide context to the mid-year and year-end reports;
- Facilitate intensive team discussions to help ensure updated or new team-level performance plans are being developed/rolled over properly.
- Support the technical aspects of the report’s development, such as developing formulas to aggregate and synthesize data from team-level plans within the Finance Ministry and other agencies participating in the fiscal reform plan
Qualifications (Fellows)
- Post graduate degree in public finance, international economic development, public policy, pubic administration or related field (Masters degree preferred);
- 5-7 years experience in public financial management reform, fiscal policy development and/or performance management;
- Demonstrated knowledge of challenges and trends in providing budget support to fragile and/or conflict-affected states;
- Advanced proficiency with excel; spreadsheet maintenance and development;
- Ability to format documents and data into cohesive fact sheets, executive summaries, infographics, and other useful communications tools;
- Field experience preferred, particularly in fragile, conflict, or post-conflict regions. Training for working in conflict environments such as Hostile Environments & Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT) desirable.
- Ability to work well under pressure and amidst challenging environments.
Responsibilities (Fellow)
- Support the fiscal policy team in independently evaluating the progress of the ongoing implementation of the team-based performance management framework and rolling 5-year fiscal plans within the ministry and other agencies;
- Provide input on the team’s methodology;
- Develop useful communications tools to supplement the team’s mid-year and annual assessment reports for non-technical audiences;
- Report on meetings, conferences and planning sessions held within Kabul; and
- Outreach, facilitation and tracking of several key teams in need of developing/rolling their performance plans.
ISE will invite eligible candidates to a workshop to brief them on the fiscal policy advisory team’s work. The workshop will be in Washington D.C. in late June 2017.
- Start Date: Anticipated for July 2017
- Compensation: ISE will provide a daily rate commensurate with experience and based on competitive rates for hardship environments for days worked in Kabul, Afghanistan.