Join IWMI's team in Uzbekistan as a Researcher Hydro-Economist and you will be perform tasks relevant to the economic analysis of all project activities in the IWMI-Central Asia Office. You will conduct research on maximizing water’s value for current and future use when faced with limited budgets, uncertain future conditions, and competing demands. You will develop practical decision-support tools and analysis and hydro-economic solutions through combined expertise in both the natural and social sciences, which can help to evaluate economic trade-offs and optimize the management of water and other natural resources. You will also organize project-related events, workshops, training, and field-work involving a variety of stakeholders and will contribute to donor reports and research publications.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Hydro-economic analysis of the water-energy-food nexus in selected basins of Central Asia.
- Quantify shared benefits and analyze trade-offs from small hydropower constructions and other contributions
- Economic valuation methods for measuring water resources benefits and ecosystem services including nonmarket valuation approaches.
- Economic simulation and optimization modeling of natural resources in the Central Asia.
- Cost-benefit and return-on-investment analyses for evaluating water infrastructure, management and policy decisions.
- Use standard economic and financial analytic methodologies to conduct complete economic analyses and draft reports for water resource management studies for wide variety of projects.
- Undertake water pricing studies and elaboration of recommendations for rational water use and incentives for water savings based on improved on-farm water accounting and monitoring in selected cotton clusters as well as Water Consumer Associations at donor funded cotton project.
- Conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis using different data sources, including labour force and household surveys, administrative records, and geospatial information to prepare reports and summaries of economic factors for assessing impacts without and with project interventions.
- Draft reports on the economic benefits of the water re-allocation among different sectors - agriculture, domestic, industry, and environment - for the study area.
- Develop and evaluate economic and financial indicators for improved water usage measurement in meeting the objectives of the State policy for introduction water saving technologies.
- Integrate research findings into effective economic policy recommendations and disseminate information through relevant guidelines and policy briefs.
- Determine economic impact of village hydro/wind/biomass project designated by the Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development.
- Conduct impact evaluation of the previous scaling successes and failures of services and solutions resulting from factors such as policies, institutions, regulatory frameworks and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
- Draft project and research reports.
- Produce articles for peer-reviewed publications.
Requirements
The successful candidate will posses the following:
- Ph.D. degree in resource economics or environmental economics with statistics and quantitative analysis coursework for natural resources management.
- Training in econometric methods using micro-data or data science techniques.
- Proven record of peer-reviewed scientific publications in well reputed international journals.
- A minimum of 3 years’ research experience in natural resources management.
- Demonstrable working experience with various stakeholders ranging from government, international development organizations, academics and private sector.
- Demonstrable knowledge and experience in the area of water pricing and water tariff.
- Working knowledge of agricultural economics and relevant policy development initiatives in Central Asia.
- Knowledge of integrated economic-environmental-social assessments of water, energy and climate systems.
- Excellent technical knowledge in quantitative methodologies, understanding of applied econometric methods using micro-data or data science techniques, both cross-sectional and time series.
- Excellent analytical, organizational skills and ability to prioritize, manage time effectively and multi-task.
- Ability to adapt to changing priorities and new procedures quickly.
- Attention to detail, precision, and problem-solving skills.
- Personal attributes include high standards of conduct, respect, flexibility, and sound work ethics.
- Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
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