Government Liaison Officer

Job Description

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 regulation, eTax, Startup Ecosystem development.

As part of this work and collaboration with state bodies, the Government Liaison Officer will work on part-time basis to develop and coordinate FGI Turkmenistan’s engagement with state counterpart bodies as part of FGI’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 experience working in public economic and finance policy, including in or with state bodies, 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 Lead and the FGI Public Policy Specialist.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Build and maintain collaborative and constructive relations with counterpart institutions within the Government of Turkmenistan, including primarily the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan, as well as other institutions as part of FGI Turkmenistan’s BEE Component (Rysgal Bank, Ashgabat Stock Exchange)
• Define technical assistance needs of counterpart institutions and propose solutions to address them to Palladium as part of Component 3 (BEE)
• Negotiate and 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.
• Manage partnership engagements with public-sector counterparts and ensure their successful implementation
• Cooperate with the Component 3 team concerning identification and solutions of obstacles in BEE and ensure successful accomplishment of relevant objectives and indicators
• Liaise with other donor programs, international organizations, government institutions, professional bodies, NGOs and private sector initiatives to facilitate Component 3 activities
• Support the Public Policy Specialist in tracking, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on results after each activity with counterpart institutions to Palladium
• Identify opportunities for publicizing Component 3 activities
• 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 Turkmen and Russian (written and verbal); English is an advantage

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

About the Organization

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. 

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 accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com 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.