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, namely: energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa.
THE COMPLEX:
Within the Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Complex (RDVP), the Bank has five (5) Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery (RDIBD) Directorates, one in each region of Africa: North, South, East, West, and Central. Each Regional Directorate is headed by a Director General (DG) and is staffed with the relevant sectoral functions and administrative capabilities for rapid delivery of services to client countries. The Regional Directorates provide overall strategic direction to country offices within the regions and are responsible for the Bank’s operations, business development, project management and overall effective delivery of the Bank’s High 5s of ‘Light up and Power Africa,’ ‘Feed Africa,’ ‘Industrialize Africa,’ ‘Integrate Africa,’ ‘Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa.
THE HIRING DEPARTMENT/DIVISION:
The Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS) is responsible for leading and implementing African Development Bank Group (the Bank) Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in its Regional Member Countries. It coordinates the Bank’s work on addressing fragility and building resilience, including activities of all fragility and resilience professionals stationed in the various Regional Hubs or Country Offices. Over the past decade, Africa has seen enormous growth and transformation that has expanded opportunities and improved living conditions for millions of people. More than two-thirds of African countries have strengthened their quality of governance, improved basic services, and expanded economic opportunities. Yet, there are significant risks that this momentum could be undermined by important pressures—continuing patterns of exclusion and poverty, unemployment, high migration, rapid urbanization, climate change and poor management of natural resources that threaten to overwhelm existing institutional capacities for managing political, economic, social and environmental challenges. These pressures are making every single African country more vulnerable. RDTS aims to place the Bank at the center of Africa’s efforts to address fragility and pave the way for a more resilient and inclusive development trajectory. A major part of RDTS’ activities involves the identification of the main drivers of fragility, including economic, social, political and environmental dimensions, and how the Bank’s programs and projects can contribute to equity and inclusive development. Central to RDTS engagement is the systematic application of a fragility lens to identify, respond to and prevent fragility and to build resilience and focus the Bank’s engagement in the areas where it can have the biggest impact.
THE POSITION:
Under the supervision of the Lead Coordinator, the Senior Fragility and Resilience Officer works closely with other staff at the Transition States Coordination Office to implement its work program annually. Under the guidance and supervision of the Lead Coordinator, he/she provides support and intellectual inputs into the Bank’s Economic and Sector Work programs aimed at deepening the understanding of root causes and consequences of fragility, and the best approaches of addressing them and to strengthen institution and people’s resilience at both national and regional contexts. The analysis would be grounded in the Bank Group’s experience in implementing its Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience and the Transition Support Facility as well as global good practices in dealing with fragility. The work will entail analyzing issues related to politics, economy, social, environment, institutions, focusing on how these issues affect people at the community level, hamper socioeconomic development, and developing strategies for bridging those issues to achieve sustained inclusive growth. The Senior Fragility and Resilience Officer’s work is an integral part of RDTS’ effort to institutionalize the fragility agenda, and her/his responsibilities also include preparation of analytical papers, fragility lens application, fragility assessments, and policy advocacy.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Under the supervision of the Lead Coordinator, the Senior Fragility and Resilience Officer will perform the following duties:
- Conduct country analysis of fragility drivers and resilience sources in assigned TSF-beneficiary countries to determine eligibility for continuing support;
- Contribute to RDTS team’s efforts for institutionalizing and applying the fragility lens through an appropriate mainstreaming of fragility considerations in the Bank’s strategies and operations. In close collaboration with key Bank Sectoral and Operational Departments/Units, including Regional Delivery Hubs and Country Offices, participate in the preparation, peer-review, and readiness reviews processes of the Country Diagnostic Notes (CDNs), Regional Diagnostic Notes (RDNs), Country Strategy Papers (CSPs), Regional Integration Strategy Papers (RISPs), Project Concept Notes (PCNs), and Project Appraisal Reports (PARs) to ensure fragility is mainstreamed into Bank operations;
- Provide technical inputs into the development of relevant tools, frameworks and guidelines and work with regional and sector departments for the integration of fragility and resilience consideration into Bank Group’s operational strategies such as country strategic papers, country briefs and project appraisal documents;
- Provide technical inputs into the preparation of project appraisal reports, including various risk analysis and financial/economic analysis, for presentation to the various review committees and the Board of Directors;
- Contribute to the preparation and the peer-reviewing of RDTS analytical products, including regional and national Full-Fledged Fragility Assessments, the annual Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA) Report, Economic and Sector Work (ESW) studies, as well as briefing notes as relevant to facilitating informed interventions in addressing fragility;
- Work with external partner institutions at the local, national and regional levels to ensure that peacebuilding activities that complement the Bank Group’s core mandate and areas of competitive advantages are sufficiently addressed in order to comprehensively deal with the root causes of fragility and avoid slippage in the peace/state-building process;
- Contribute to the preparation of key documents for resource mobilization, especially for the Transition Support Facility (TSF) during the replenishment and mid-term review discussions of the African Development Fund (ADF) in close coordination with relevant Bank units;
- Work with fragility experts as well as sectoral experts to forecast political, economic and social trends and to adopt and use appropriate tools and approaches for conducting policy dialogue with national authorities in assigned countries/region;
- Participate in the Bank’s departmental and inter-departmental working groups and provide technical inputs that help the understanding and mainstreaming of fragility issues and approaches in the design, validation and implementation of Bank interventions in countries facing fragile situations;
- Work with Regional Economic Communities (REC) and international development partners, as well as peace-building and humanitarian actors for the development of joint collaboration platforms for exchange of experiences and information-sharing on issues, dynamics and best practices around the African fragility agenda;
- In coordination with appropriate Bank authorities, develop a clear and practical roadmap to foster dialogue with RMCs on drivers of fragility which will have arisen from the assessments with a view to identifying targeted entry points for building institutional capacities and resilience through design and implementation of mitigation measures;
- Undertake any other assignments and tasks as may be assigned by the Director (RDTS) and/or the Vice-President (RDVP). Such assignments may involve working with Bank teams and/or staff within or outside RDTS.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
The successful candidate is expected to have the following qualifications and competencies:
- Hold at least a Master’s degree in economics, business administration, peace and conflict resolution, political economy, political science, development economics, public administration, or any related qualification.
- Have a minimum of five (5) years’ relevant experience in economic research, peace and state building, design and/or implementation of fragility and conflict sensitive interventions, and strong experience in developing and delivering projects/programs in fragile contexts including assessments, sensitivity analysis and applications.
- Innovation and Creativity: The commitment to search for and produce innovative creative approaches to activities in order to enhance performance and create added benefits to the Bank and its clients.
- Communication: Provide clear and concise oral and written communication; presents oral information with clarity and appropriate style and adapt language and style to suit the requirements of a particular audience.
- Problem Solving: Apply business knowledge to the resolution of problems and identify solutions to the benefit of the client (internal and external) and the organization.
- Client Orientation: Ensure that the client is considered to be of primary importance in all transactions and interactions. Strive to understand, and when appropriate, anticipate client needs, and ensures that the client receives the best possible service from the Bank.
- Team Working and Relationships: Work with others to maximize the effectiveness of the team as a whole. Sharing the knowledge and workload. Develop strong working relationships with colleagues and contribute to creation of a positive team environment.
- Ability to communicate orally and in writing effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
- Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint).
THIS POSITION IS CLASSIFIED INTERNATIONAL STATUS AND ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT