USPSC - Senior Economic Governance Advisor

As the home base for USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) programs, the Center for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG Center) within the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI) focuses on advocating for democratic governance, driving important research, and supporting over 90 field missions worldwide to develop programs. USAID’s DRG sector includes support for democratic and economic governance, rule of law, elections and political processes, civil society and media, human rights, and other DRG fields. 

The DRG Center’s Democratic Resilience and Innovation (DRI) team supports the Agency in addressing domestic and international drivers of authoritarianism, identifying incentives for governments and societies to align with democratic values and recalibrating existing interventions to build resilience to democratic backsliding.  The DRI team does this through research and technical assistance for field programming.  A key component of the DRI team approach is to better understand the economic drivers, incentives and tactics of authoritarian leaders - domestic and transnational - in order to inform and improve USAID democracy and development programming.

As part of DRG/DRI, the Senior Economic Governance Advisor is expected to advise USAID field teams and Washington on local and international economic drivers and conditions that underpin authoritarianism and approaches to advance democratization.  This position lies at the intersection of economics, private sector development and democracy.  This includes issues such as domestic and transnational corruption, public finance, debt management and transparency, and economic and private sector approaches of authoritarian regimes.  The Advisor may work on a variety of topics, for example, the People’s Republic of China’s Belt and Road Initiative or other debt arrangements, developing economic approaches to combat disinformation, advising on private sector approaches to strengthen democratic competition and rules-based economic norms.  The Adviser will bring to bear knowledge and expertise in finance, private sector development, and political economy to contribute to USAID’s efforts to advance democratic resilience and consolidation.

The incumbent is expected to carry out work assignments using independent professional judgment to ensure the effective technical leadership and technical support for USAID’s DRG sector in Washington and overseas Missions. The Senior Economic Governance Advisor will work closely with USAID and other U.S. Government colleagues, implementing partners, academics, and recognized experts in the DRG sector to advance DRI initiatives. The incumbent’s responsibilities will be geographically world-wide, varied, and dynamic to reflect changing circumstances facing USAID and the DRG Center. The position will be based in Washington, D.C. and may include temporary duty assignments overseas as needed.