View Vacancy - Prosperity Fund Economist

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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
Economic and Prosperity

The British Embassy in Mexico City is looking for a Locally-Engaged C4 (L) Prosperity Fund Economist to provide technical economic and statistical expertise and analysis for the Embassy’s multi-strand Prosperity Fund programme.

 

Prosperity is one of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s three Foreign Policy Priorities under which we actively seek to create the conditions for global growth. The Prosperity Fund

is the British Government’s £1.3bn dedicated fund to support prosperity overseas, using Official Development Assistance to ensure sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction (the ‘primary benefit’) and to open new markets to international, including UK, business (the ‘secondary benefit’).

 

In Mexico, through targeted programmes, it aims to secure primary and secondary benefit particularly in the following areas: Financial Services, Education, Health, Energy, Smart Cities and Rule of Law.  We expect to spend over £60m in the next three years, subject to Ministerial approval.

 

The role will support the Embassy’s work on Prosperity through the provision of analysis and expertise to:

1)    Develop a strong economic appraisal case for the Prosperity Fund programme in Mexico, setting out the economic argument for each strand (including assumptions and sensitivity analysis), and using evidence-based economic analysis to estimate the programme’s predicted additionally in terms of primary and secondary benefit;

2)    Help programme and policy teams to align their programmes to the Mexico and global Theory of Change based on solid economic evidence;

3)    Design and implement a monitoring system for programmes in Mexico (to be implemented by outsourced providers) with a robust set of indicators which aligns with and complements the global monitoring system for the Prosperity Fund;

4)    Manage relationships with i) the contract holders for the Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning (MREL) element of the programme and ii) the individuals with responsibility for MREL in each of the implementers of the Mexico programme;

 

This is a great opportunity for a talented individual to work at the heart of everything the British Embassy Mexico does, supporting our Commercial, Programme, and Policy Teams in building a strong UK/Mexico partnership.

 

Roles and responsibilities:

The role will support the Her Majesty’s Government’s work on the Prosperity Fund programme in Mexico in the following ways:

  • Strategy (40%).  Develop the economic appraisal case for the Prosperity Fund programme in Mexico, which will be reviewed by London and will have an impact on resource allocation.  Ensure the evidence base is robust and assumptions clear, with sensitivity analysis to mitigate against risk.  Use desk research, Embassy analysis and advice from policy and trade colleagues to calculate defensible NPV for both primary and secondary benefit of the programme (focusing on additionality of ODA spend).  Provide similar support for colleagues developing global Prosperity Fund programmes on Education, Health, Trade, Infrastructure and others as necessary.
  • Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation, Learning (30%).  Use economic expertise to assist in  designing robust monitoring and evaluation policies working closely with central MREL contractors, particularly in data verification and quality assurance.  Ensure that all the projects are consistent with the economic channels described in the Theory of Change and economic diagnostics of the strands in order to support adaptive programming and analysis to support this.  Provide presentations, workshops and advice to a range of internal and external stakeholders around the full spectrum of economic issues in Mexico, and econometric and evaluation techniques. Manage the relationship with the central MREL team, and MREL leads within each strand of the Mexico programme.
  • Analysis (20%).  Develop and communicate economic analysis, ensuring that messages are clear, well structured and tailored for a wide audience.  Develop analytical papers for the Ambassador, Programme Management Committee and others on specific themes related to the Prosperity Fund (on either strategic or management aspects of the programme).  Provide economic quality control for data provided by our key implementers, including for Annual Reviews,
  • Corporate (10%).  Contribute to the broader work of the economic/trade team (e.g. line management, Monthly Economic Reports, overseeing others’ work in their absence) and to the corporate life of the Embassy (playing an active part in corporate projects or Embassy Committees).

All of this is underpinned by the creation of strong networks: across the Embassy; with economist colleagues in other British Embassies (particularly Bogota and Brasilia) and in London; and with analysts in the Mexican Government (particularly AMEXCID, Hacienda and Economia) and wider civil society in Mexico, including international organisations such as the World Bank, IADB and other large bilateral donors operating in Mexico.

 

There will be possibilities for travel as part of the role. Relevant job related training will be given as required.

  • Have a Bachelors degree in Economics (or related subject);
  • Have economic experience and expertise on public policy and evaluation;
  • Experience analysing and estimating economic activities, and policy;
  • Familiarity with macroeconomic issues within foreign and development policy;
  • Ability to translate complex and technical issues into readable papers for wider audiences;
  • Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills in English and Spanish (which will be tested on interview);
  • A proactive and creative self-starter with strong interpersonal skills;
  • Proven ability to deliver results in a fast-paced work environment, working largely unsupervised, to short deadlines and agreed targets;
  • Experience working with Mexican and international databases;
  • Experience on data mining and Excel;
  • Intermediate understanding on econometrics and estimation techniques.
  • Masters degree in Economics (or related subject).
  • Work experience in public policy, indicators or/and evaluation.
  • Understanding of core international trade concepts e.g. WTO
  • Knowledge of statistical software (Stata, Eviews, SPSS)
  • Knowledge of trade statistics (Trade map, UN Comtrade, OECD stats)
22 October 2017
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)
Fixed Term, Full-time
38
Latin America and Spanish speaking Caribbean
Mexico
Mexico City
British Embassy
1
MXN
41,670
20 November 2017
  • 14 days of public holidays.
  • 16 days of annual leave during the first year then 20 days on the second year.
  • 50% Annual leave entitlement.
  • 13th Month salary.
  • Medical Insurance.
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This opportunity is closed to applications.