Fragility and Resilience Officer, RDTS at African Development Bank - AfDB

Grade: LP5

Position N°: 50071756

Reference: ADB/19/234

Publication date: 07-Dec-2019

Closing date: 19-Dec-2019

Duty station: Antananarivo, Madagascar

THE HIRING DEPARTMENT:

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 Lead Coordinator/Fragility Expert, the local Fragility and Resilience Officer facilitates the work of RDTS Experts in drafting policy documents as well as designing the interventions to enhance client countries resilience and capacity.

The local Fragility and Resilience Officer assists RDTS background research and data gathering as inputs into drafting Economic and Sector Works and the development of sustainable project interventions in Transition Countries. This includes assisting with origination, appraisal and approval of projects.  It also includes promoting and showcasing the Bank’s development impact achievements in transition countries in Africa, and projecting the Bank’s image as a leader in transition countries through representation in various fora, publications, and networking with key stakeholders.

Duties and responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Lead Coordinator/Fragility Expert, the local Fragility and Resilience Officer is expected to perform the following duties:

• Carry out regular and periodic analytical and research work on drivers of fragility and resilience in and on countries and regions of assignment for internal decision making and programming (e.g. situation briefs, country overviews and fragility assessments) and/or for publication/dissemination within or outside the Bank; Clients/Stakeholders Support the experts in discussions and negotiations with potential partners in order to foster business relationships with the Bank;
• Conduct/contribute to fragility assessment of the bank’s projects, programs, policies and strategic documents (e.g. Country Strategy Papers) in countries of assignment or at the request of the Lead Coordinator/Fragility Expert;
• Carry out economic policy and strategic analysis work in and on countries of assignment using the fragility lens;
• Contribute to the department’s research work related to fragility and dissemination of knowledge products such as discussion/research papers and publications;
• Conduct/participate in the advisory work carried out by the fragile situations department;
• Contribute to the development and constant improvement of the Bank’s tools and methodologies for economic growth diagnostic and forecast (trend analysis) using the fragility perspective;
• Conduct economic growth diagnostic and trend analysis in countries of assignment applying the fragility lens;
• Contribute to the department’s work in arrears clearance, revenues’ management and public goods and services delivery from the fragility perspective;
• Actively support the dissemination and implementation of the Bank’s strategy for engagement in fragile situations, including the Fragile States Facility in countries/regions of assignment;
• Provide quality enhancement services (as commentator or peer reviewer) to analytical work of the department as well as provide comments and inputs to relevant reports and publications initiated by other units of the Bank;
• Build partnerships in countries of assignment, with a view to implement the Bank’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience;
• Attend/represent the Bank in external events (conferences, seminars, workshops) related to fragility at the request of the Lead Coordinator/Fragility Expert;
• Attend and contribute to the activities of the Public Finance Working Groups (group of donors providing direct budget support) in countries of assignment;
• Perform any other assignments and tasks as requested by the Lead Coordinator/Fragility Expert and/or the RDTS Director.

Selection Criteria:

• A minimum of a Master’s degree (or its University Equivalent) in Development Economics, Macroeconomics, Public Finance, Public Sector Accounting or Auditing;
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in public policy, economic policy, or government financial management, as well as experience in development policy and operations as well as project management, preferably in a bilateral or multilateral development finance institution, at least three (3) years of which should be focused on developing countries;
• Experience in the conduction of economic and policy analysis;
• Ability to carry out independent research and to manager outsourced research activities;
• Sound understanding of public finance issues in developing countries is a plus;
• Ability to apply innovative approaches, work independently and apply new methods to solve problems, while remaining efficient in a fast-paced, changing and challenging institutional environment;
• Ability to communicate and write effectively in English, with a good working knowledge of French;
• Competence in the use of Microsoft standard software (Word, Excel, Access, Power Point, MS Projects); knowledge of SAP desirable.

Note:
THIS POSITION DOES NOT ATTRACT INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS. THE POSITION HOLDER WILL BE RECRUITED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL AND WILL THEREFORE NOT HAVE INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. ONLY NATIONALS OF MADAGASCAR OR BANK MEMBER COUNTRIES WHO HAVE THE RIGHT TO RESIDE AND WORK IN MADAGASCAR WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION. THE BANK DOES NOT SPONSOR OR SUPPORT APPLICATIONS FOR WORK PERMITS AND RELOCATIONS FOR THE POSITION IN QUESTION.