Business Enabling Environment (BEE) Specialist

About Palladium: Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 3,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Project Overview: The USAID/Central Asia’s Future Growth Initiative (FGI) is designed to spur productive economic activity across Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, by increasing the competitiveness of high-growth industries and providing jobs and incomes for Central Asia’s growing workforce, propelling the region toward self-reliance. Target sectors: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Light Manufacturing (Apparel/ Garments/ Textiles), Tourism and Food Processing and Beverages. The FGI will transform market systems in ways that help high-potential firms, leading organizations, and sectors grow, foster market linkages to match the demand for workforce skills with training offered to youth and women, link entrepreneurs to high-growth markets, and build more business- and worker-friendly policy environments and institutions to sustain private sector-driven growth. USAID FGI will address legal and regulatory constraints if they are determined to be significant inhibitors to growth.

This Opportunity: The FGI team in Turkmenistan has been working for almost three years, mainly focusing on private sector development. Since early 2022, FGI has started to collaborate with the state institutions of Turkmenistan, including the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE), the Ashgabat Stock Exchange (ASE) and others, including on capital market development, export promotion, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) standards, eCommerce, eTax, Startup Ecosystem development.

As part of this work and collaboration with state bodies, the Public Policy Specialist will design and coordinate the implementation of FGI Turkmenistan’s technical assistance activities aimed at building the more business-enabling environment (BEE) and institutions to sustain private sector-driven growth.

Location: The position is based in Palladium’s Ashgabat, Turkmenistan office.

You and Your Career: If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in public economic and finance policy design and implementation we are interested in hearing from you.

We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start. We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting and Supervision: To the Country Manager and coordinate her/his activities with the Components 3 Leader. Cooperate with FGI’s Government Liaison Officer.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Propose solutions to address technical assistance needs of counterpart institutions as part of FGI Component 3 (Business Enabling Environment / BEE)
• Elaborate technical assistance interventions with counterpart institutions, both in the context of FGI’s Component 3 (BEE), but also on behalf of USAID where necessary.
• Develop and draft concept notes and budgets for technical assignments with/for counterpart institutions
• Seek approval of concept notes and budgets and ensure formal closing of the approved engagements
• Conduct research into public-policy related thematic areas and issues (e.g., eCommerce, eTax, ESG, capital markets policies) to support the Component 3 team’s decision-making concerning potential technical assistance activities
• Cooperate with the Component 3 team concerning identification and selection of short-term experts to implement technical assistance activities for public-sector counterparts
• Develop policy papers, reports, presentations, recommendations, and other deliverables, where appropriate (e.g., related to eCommerce, eTax, ESG, capital markets policies), as part of the partnership engagements with the Component 3 counterparts
• Ensure successful implementation of partnership engagements with public-sector counterparts
• Cooperate with the Component 3 team concerning identification and solutions of obstacles in BEE and ensure successful accomplishment of relevant objectives and indicators
• Perform monitoring and evaluation activities of Component 3
• Track, monitor, evaluate and report on results after each activity with counterpart institutions to Palladium
• Draft, translate, arrange publishing, and disseminate relevant articles and media/PR materials.
• Other duties as assigned

Key Competencies Required:

• Master’s degree in relevant discipline (business, economics, finance, public finance, public policy, trade policy, banking, business law, etc.)
• At least 5 years of experience working in the public sector in the field of economic development, public finance, tax / trade / investment policy and/or access to finance
• Demonstrated skills and understanding of economic development, public finance, tax / trade / investment policy and/or access to finance
• Experience designing and implementing technical assistance interventions for public institutions
• Demonstrated skills in project management
• Proficient in English, Turkmen and Russian (written and verbal)

Professional Expertise/Competencies Preferred:

• Ability to work under pressure and meet hard deadlines
• Experience working with multidisciplinary teams with a focus on social inclusion
• Experience reporting to multiple lines
• Creativity, agility and team spirit
• Excellent communication skills

Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2022

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at [email protected] and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.