Advisor to the Chief Economist and Vice President, ECON at African Development Bank - AfDB

Under the supervision of the Vice President and Chief Economist, the Advisor will provide strategic support and guidance to the ECON Complex and with respect to its collaboration with other Bank Complexes. The Advisor will thus be responsible for reviewing and providing advice on policies, directives and other procedures and for proposing necessary changes to improve the overall effectiveness of Bank activities. 

Duties and responsibilities

The incumbent will be specifically responsible for:

• Advising on the budget and the activities of the Chief Economist’s office.
• Advising the Chief Economist on operational issues of the Office in close consultation with the management of its Departments and Units.
• Undertaking individual research tasks as required.
• Providing critical analysis of corporate management policies, directives and advising on procedures and approaches for the implementation of the Chief Economist mandate.
• Advising the Chief Economist on various reports/documents submitted by the President’s Office, other Complexes as well as ECON Departments and Units.
• Coordinating and reviewing policies, directives, initiatives and elaboration from Departments and Units in collaboration with relevant Departments and Units of ECON.
• Monitoring the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the ECON Complex and alerting the Chief Economist of slippages.
• Coordinating and harmonizing the preparation of the work programs of the respective Departments and Units in order to ensure consistency with ECON’s Strategic Plan, and following up on their implementation.
• Preparing briefs on operational policy issues of concern to ECON and monitoring as necessary the preparation of papers by the Departments and Units.
• Monitoring progress on the implementation of audit recommendations, the work program relating to ECON and reporting periodically on the status of implementation to the Chief Economist and subsequently to the President and the Board if requested.
• Drafting and reviewing speeches for the Chief Economist.
• Participating in inter and intra-complex meetings as requested by the Chief Economist.
• Liaising with external and sister institutions and attending 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 initiative of common interest.
• Undertaking ad hoc assignments as requested by the Chief Economist.

Selection Criteria

Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience

• At least a Ph.D in Economics, Social Sciences, Management or related areas.
• At least eight (8) years of relevant and progressive professional experience in Applied Research, Business Administration or in General Administration or in any related fields, gained within major international organizations.
• Evidence of international standard recently published works in economics or finance.
• Excellent knowledge of the international development institutions’ policies, guidelines and procedures.
• Strong ability to interpret institutional policies, guidelines and procedures and ability to draw personal judgments serving as a basis for appropriate advice to the Chief Economist. 
• A very good background in corporate services activities in particular in procurement management, fixed assets management for public development organizations.
• Ability to communicate and write effectively in English and/or French with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of Microsoft standard software applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Knowledge of SAP highly desirable.