Azerbaijan_Strengthening of agricultural advisory services

Qualifications and skills

• At least Master’s degree in a relevant discipline such as agricultural economics, management, law, or other relevant field related to this contract or a bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline as described before and 3 years above the required general professional experience in a field related to this contract;
• Good spoken and written English;
• Working knowledge of Azerbaijani, Russian or Turkish is an asset.

General professional experience

• Professional experience of at least 10 years but preferably 15 years working in the area of defining and implementing public support programmes9 for agriculture and/or rural development;
• Professional experience acquired while working in the agriculture and /or rural development sector in EU member state(s) and country(ies) covered by the IPA regulation and/or former Soviet Union Country(ies) is an asset.

Specific professional experience

• In the past 8 years team leader in at least one technical assistance or twinning project of comparable duration and size (minimum 18 months duration, minimum €1.5 million budget, minimum WD input TA-TL 250 work days) and having as objective the institutional development and/or capacity building of a public agricultural/rural development administration with objective to better respond to legislative and/or market requirements;
• In the past 8 years participation as key expert (or equivalent) or component leader or team leader in at least one study or technical assistance - or twinning project with objective of developing an institutional - or subsector or sector development strategy and action plan in the agricultural or rural development sector;
• Professional experience with privatization of functions previously assumed by the public agricultural/rural development administration and/or collaborative models between institutions of the public agricultural/rural development administration and privatized formerly public services is an asset;
• Professional experience in agricultural advisory service development and/or delivery while working for an agricultural advisory service in an EU member state is an asset.