Investment Officer - Affirmative Finance Action For Women In Africa (AFAWA) at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/032
Location: Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Kenya, South Africa
Grade: PL4
Position N°: N/A

The Complex
The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on two of the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy High 5s priority of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”. The complex objectives are:

• To develop, policy and strategy;
• Provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions;
• Develop new financing instruments;
• The Vice President will act as the spokesperson to represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

The Hiring Department

• The role of the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department is under the Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex focusing on the Bank’s TYS High 5s priority of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.
• Furthermore, “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa” will be operationalized with focus on Gender, Women and Civil Society.
• The Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Program is a flagship program of the Bank that was first announced during the Dakar Summit on Agricultural Transformation in Africa as the Bank’s contribution to supporting women in business in Africa, particularly in the agricultural sector.
• AFAWA was then developed to address the financing gap that exists with respect to access to finance by women in business, by catalyzing and optimally deploying resources towards the objective of improving women's access to finance.

The Position:

• The Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa Investment Officer will be based in the African Development Bank’s Regional Development, Integration, and Business Delivery Offices, under the supervision of the AFAWA Program Coordinator and the leadership of the Director, Gender Women and Civil Society Department.
• The AFAWA Investment Officers will work on the design, structure and implementation of operations under the four pillars of the AFAWA Program (financing window, technical assistance, enabling environment and empowerment lab), with a prime responsibility of delivering transformative investment and technical assistance projects that will create a positive impact on the empowerment of women in business across Africa.

Duties and Responsibilities  The AFAWA Investment Officers under the oversight of the AFAWA Program Coordinator (AHGC.0), will perform the following duties and have the following responsibilities:

• Generate (originate, develop, structure) and evaluate AFAWA-related projects, with a particular focus on adopting the holistic approach of AFAWA, where the four pillars are developed around the projects; participate in project teams to influence on AFAWA activities and outcomes.
• Participate in or lead the review of both lending and non-lending projects, including policy-based operations within the ambit of the AFAWA Program, strengthening the provision of operational inputs for the mainstreaming of each AFAWA key performance indicators, including the identification of women entrepreneurship indicators and development outcomes and specific technical assistance and enabling environment activities.
• Provide appropriate technical expertise to the evolution of the AFAWA Program, to be translated into specific investment solutions based on the initial implementation phase of the Program.
• Provide market intelligence on the women’s market and business case for investing in women; recommend innovative and operational products/toolkits with the aim of addressing adequately the challenges women entrepreneurs face in accessing finance and achieve the objective of the AFAWA Program.
• Work closely with the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department, as well as the Financial Sector, Private Sector and other Sector Departments (notably the Agriculture Finance and Rural Development Department), to harmonize the integration of AFAWA in Bank’s operations.
• Contribute to policy dialogue in the regions on financial inclusion, economic opportunities, empowerment and leadership, trade and integrated value chains; attend technical trainings, seminars and policy summits in related areas.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, global and regional private businesses, banking and multilateral partners to develop specific investment opportunities. Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Selection Criteria
Including Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Hold at least a Master’s Degree or equivalent in Development Finance, Economics, or related field; relevant qualification in investment appraisal and project finance is a plus.
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of investment finance experience, with track record in investment structuring and Small & Medium-size Enterprise finance - experience in developing gender financing products is an asset.
• Good command of undertaking comprehensive due diligence, including financial and economic analysis of clients (financial institutions, Small & Medium-size Enterprises and larger enterprises);
• Experience in financial and investment policy engagement, particularly in relation to inclusive finance and women’s access to credit.
• Demonstrated good knowledge of applying a variety of investment instruments such as debt, equity, guarantees, and other complex financial deal structuring, specifically responding to the needs of the ultimate beneficiaries.
• Experience in addressing the challenges of developing business enabling environment, with good knowledge of the specific barriers faced by women entrepreneurs.
• Demonstrate understanding of regional social and economic issues, analysis and policy formulation; knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in African countries is an added advantage.
• Ability to identify possible shortcomings of clients (and to propose solutions, formulated through detailed technical assistance proposals.
• Demonstrate strong analytical and reporting skills.
• Ability to perform in non-traditional sectors and work autonomously within deadline.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, with a working knowledge of the other.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint); knowledge of SAP is desirable.