Evaluation Officer, BDEV1 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/19/208
Location: Abidjan, Cote D'ivoire
Grade: PL6
Position N°: 50090782

The Complex

• The Board of Directors provides oversight and strategic direction to the African Development Bank Group. It is composed of Executive Directors who are representatives of the African Development Bank member countries. Specifically the Board is responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the Bank, and carries out the following functions:
  • Determine the general structure of the Bank’s services;
  • Approve the financing policy and take decisions concerning loans, guarantees, equity investments and fund loans by the Bank;
  • Determine the interest rates of loans and guarantee commissions;
  • Approve the Bank’s operations program and administrative budget;
  • Prepare the work of the Board of Governors; and
  • Submit accounts and annual reports, as well as the administrative budgets for the approval of the Board of Governors.
• The Board does its work through a series of permanent Committees that review and discuss policy and program documents and make appropriate recommendations to the whole Board. The Independent Development Evaluation (BDEV); Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (BCRM); Secretariat to the Sanctions Appeals Board (BSAB); Administrative Tribunal (BATR) report to the Board.

The Hiring Department

• The overarching mission of the African Development Bank’s Independent Development Evaluation is to enhance the development effectiveness of the Bank and foster sustainable growth and poverty reduction in its regional member countries through independent and influential evaluations, oversight over self-evaluation processes and products, and proactive engagement in evaluation partnerships and knowledge-sharing activities. To support the Bank Group in achieving greater development effectiveness, the independent evaluation function has adopted three core objectives:
• Contribute to enhanced learning in the Bank and regional member countries to improve current and future policies, strategies, programs, projects, and processes.
• Provide a basis for accountability to the public and to member countries by documenting the use and results of the Bank Group’s assistance.
• Promote an evaluation culture in the Bank and regional member countries to encourage a focus on development results, learning, and continuous quality improvement.
• The core mandate of Independent Development Evaluation is to conduct independent evaluation studies, provide relevant lessons, develop and harmonize standards and practices, support evaluation capacity development together with partner agencies and attest to the validity of both processes and the results of African Development Bank’s self-evaluation activities. Independent Development Evaluation also collaborates and exchanges information with bilateral and multilateral development agencies’ evaluation departments, and undertakes joint evaluation of co-financed projects and programs.
• Independent Development Evaluation has three divisions: The Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth; Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization; and Integration Evaluations Division (BDEV.1), the Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Corporate and Country Evaluations Division (BDEV.2) and the Knowledge Management, Outreach and Capacity Development Division (BDEV.3). The Divisions 1 and 2 focus on undertaking evaluations whilst Division 3 works on Knowledge Management, Outreach and Capacity Development.

The Position

• The evaluation officer contributes to the delivery of the division work program by leading components of evaluations, participating in evaluation teams, and supporting work program implementation and BDEV’s quality assurance activities.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager BDEV1 the Evaluation Officer will:

• Contribute to or undertake Evaluation Activities: Design (including literature review, evaluation question framing, approach, data sources and methods), conduct and report on evaluations in accordance with the Bank’s Evaluation Policy and Strategy and international evaluation standards (e.g., OECD DAC evaluation standards and the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) Good Practice Standards).
• to Meta-Evaluations and Meta-Analyses; design, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• to updating the BDEV evaluation quality standards, and quality assurance processes, tools and capacity.
• to the capture and dissemination of evaluation results and lessons learned, and also to the follow-up of BDEV evaluation recommendations.
• Contribute to the effective and efficient management of evaluation human and financial resources especially in ensuring timely data gathering, analysis and reporting.
• Promote the mandate of the evaluation function and contribute to the creation of an evaluation culture in the Bank and in Regional Member Countries (RMCs).
• Contribute to positioning BDEV as an innovator and leading-edge among other multilateral institutions and to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Bank’s Evaluation Function.
• Contribute to building strategic alliances and partnerships with key stakeholders within and outside the Bank to further the Evaluation Function’s mandate and engage in evaluation communities of practice within and outside the Bank.
• Contribute to the preparation of BDEV’s three-year rolling work programme and annual report.
• Perform any other assigned tasks.

Selection Criteria

• Holds at least a Master's degree or its equivalent in Economics, Development Evaluation, Evaluation Science, Finance (Economic Finance; Financial Market Analysis), Business Administration, Sociology, Development, Statistics, Policy analysis, Public administration, Infrastructure or Private and Financial Sector Development, related field.
• Holds also a certificate in development evaluation, or development oriented research and/or program/project planning, management and evaluation (desirable).
• A minimum of four (4) years’ experience in designing, conducting, managing and reporting development evaluation/research studies.
• Significant knowledge in quantitative and/or qualitative evaluation methods.
• Broad knowledge of evaluation theories and practice including evaluation needs assessment, design and implementation.
• Operational and field experience working in private and/or financial sector development and /or other complex development programs (desirable).
• Knowledge of operational/policy areas, procedures and practice of the AfDB or other multilateral development Banks and/or other international development agencies.
• Operational experience relating, in particular, to areas covered by BDEV 1 (private sector, infrastructure (including transport, ICT, urban development, water and sanitation), industrialization, power, energy,climate change, green growth and regional integration).
• Experience in development planning, management and evaluation in Multilateral Development Banks or other international development agencies.
• Strong theoretical and operational knowledge of international development issues and theories relating, in particular, to Africa.
• Experience in providing strategic advice to management.
• Experience in managing human and financial resources.
• Experience to working in multidisciplinary teams, and in diverse and multi-cultural settings.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications (Word, Excel, Access and Power Point); knowledge of integrated document management system and/or quantitative and qualitative data analysis packages is an added advantage.