Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 81 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten-Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas (High 5s), all of which will accelerate our delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa. The Bank is seeking to build a management team that will lead the successful implementation of this vision.
THE COMPLEX:
The core mandate of the Vice Presidency (ECVP) is to lead the Bank Group on prioritizing the generation, analysis, dissemination, brokering and implementation of relevant knowledge solutions in all High-5 operational priorities and the cross-cutting themes of its Ten-Year Strategy. Such solutions must be a clear response to priority development challenges facing regional member countries (RMCs), individually or collectively and need to involve RMCs in both the planning and implementation of the solutions. The solutions include: (i) research on major development issues facing Africa and their relation to global economic governance and other major global public goods; (ii) country diagnostics and future perspectives; (iii) policy dialogue and advisory services; (iv) economic, sector, and thematic knowledge work; (v) improving national and sub-regional statistical systems; (vi) preparation, design and support to implementation of public financial management and Governance operations; (vii) capacity development for policy formulation and implementation; (viii) technical assistance and advice related to RMCs’ management of natural resources; and (vii) knowledge dissemination and development of national, regional, and inter-regional knowledge networks.
THE HIRING DEPARTMENT:
The Office of the Chief Economist and Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management has the main responsibility of providing advice and analysis to the President, Senior Management and Board of Directors on key development issues facing Africa and the Bank in the following areas: research programs, economic issues, financial and non-financial products, knowledge dissemination and communication. The Office coordinates the Bank’s efforts to achieving this strategic mandate of being a knowledge institution.
THE POSITION:
The Advisor to Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management will be responsible for leading the effort to strengthen the link between the research work of the Bank and its economic and sector work, and help ensure that the Bank’s Country Strategy Papers are based on solid research and Economic and Sector Work. More generally, the Advisor will provide support to the Chief Economist and Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management to deliver on the Complex mandate.
KEY FUNCTIONS:
Under the supervision and guidance of the Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, the Advisor will:
a) Technical advisory role
- Provide leadership to the expanded research program of the Bank.
- Launch major research initiatives to respond to the new development policy challenges and constraints facing the Bank, e.g. the role of the Bank in the evolving global aid architecture.
- Lead the network of the Bank’s economists engaged in research-related work, in order to make the Bank the major reference institution on key African economic data.
- Provide critical analysis of corporate management policies, directives and advises on procedures and approaches for the Chief Economist mandate.
- Advise the Chief Economist on various reports/documents submitted by the President’s Office, other Complexes as well as departments and units of the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex.
- Prepare briefs on operational policy issues of concern to the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex and monitor as necessary the preparation of papers by the Departments and Units.
- Draft and review speeches for the Chief Economist.
- Facilitate stronger linkages and synergy between the knowledge-generating departments of the Bank.
b) Office activities coordination
- Manage the budget and the activities of the Chief Economist’s Office.
- Coordinate and review policies, directives, initiatives and elaborates from Departments and Units in collaboration with relevant departments and Units of the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex.
- Advises the Chief Economist on operational issues of the Office in close consultation with the management of its departments and units.
- Monitor the decisions the implementation of the decisions made by the Board, the President and the Chief Economist in respect of Departments and units under the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex.
- Coordinate and harmonize the preparation of the work programme of the respective Departments and Units in order to ensure consistency with the Chief Economist and Vice-President’s complex strategic plan, and follow up on their implementation.
- Monitor progress on the implementation of audit recommendations, the work program relating to the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex and report periodically on the status of the implementation to the Chief Economist and subsequently to the President and the Board if requested.
- Participate in intra and inter Complex meetings as requested by the Chief Economist.
- Liaise with external and sister organizations and attend meetings as requested by the Chief Economist to share views and best practice examples on key corporate management issues and policies in order to build synergy in development assistance strategies and initiatives of common interest.
- Undertake ad hoc assignments as requested by the Chief Economist.
COMPETENCIES (skills, experience and knowledge):
- Hold at least Masters degree in Economics, Public Policy, Governance or International development, with relevant experience.
- Have a minimum of eight (8) years of relevant work experience, at least three (3) of which should be in a managerial role in comparable organizations.
- Good understanding of the Institution, and willingness to learn and to listen.
- Strong knowledge of African economic and development issues; capacity for conceptual and strategic analysis, good command of recent cutting-edge economic issues.
- Strong versatility, and capacity to deal with diverse issues and problems related to Economic Governance and Knowledge Management.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently under pressure and tight deadlines, and to perform various tasks simultaneously.
- Strong analytical and organizational skills, and ability to deliver results on time.
- Strong negotiation skills, and capacity to interact with various stakeholders at all levels, and especially Operational Directors and Managers, as well as Directors and Managers in the Chief Economist and Vice-President complex.
- Strong ability to analyse data, synthetize issues and ideas, and to prepare powerful messages to stakeholders at all levels.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
- Competence in the use of standard Bank software, namely MS Office applications (MS Word, Excel, Power-Point etc), SAP.
THIS POSITION IS CLASSIFIED INTERNATIONAL STATUS AND ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT.