Rural Development and Agriculture Expert

The Expert will provide substantial technical input regarding procedures and systems aimed at supporting and financing the development of High Value Agriculture (HVA), including measures to improve the food safety system in Moldova. The Expert will have relevant experience in value chain development especially regarding packing, storage, distribution and marketing of HVA products. The Expert will be responsible for supervising and coordinating all aspects of the project technical work, ensuring good and effective communication with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry as well as organizing and overseeing administrative and logistical support. As such, the Rural Development and Agriculture Expert shall cover, but not exclusively, the following: Under the responsibility of the Team Leader, support the coordination of activities and implementation notably with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry; Provide operational management of the technical assistance team in line with the team’s schedule of activities and work plans; Provide policy advice to Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry on HVA supporting infrastructure development and other related policy issues; Coordinate the activity of other experts involved in the Project with services related to work area 2; Qualifications and skills: University degree (where a university degree has been awarded on completion of four (4) years study in a university) in the fields of agriculture or agricultural economics or related field or nine (9) years of professional experience including years and experience as described under General professional experience; General Experience: At least ten (10) years of international experience in agricultural development; In depth knowledge of the agricultural sector development issues in the framework of international rural development programmes; Specific Professional Experience: At least five (5) years working experience in transition countries and more specifically in Eastern European countries; Demonstrable understanding of institutional development, in particular in the area of business support infrastructure in the rural area; Minimum three (3) though ideally five (5) years of proven experience and expertise, ideally within the framework of donor-funded agricultural/rural development projects and/or agricultural/rural development sector budgetary assistance programmes that have a direct relevance to the tasks in the assigned work area (HVA enterprise support infrastructure – policy advice, feasibility studies, project proposal appraisal, formulation of procedures and regulations in formulating and selecting project proposals,...); Good knowledge and writing ability in English; Good working knowledge of use of standard computer software (word processing, spreadsheets, etc); Working knowledge of state language of Moldova/Russian language will be an asset.