Senior Investment Officer / Clean Cooking Specialist at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/193
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL5
Position N°: 50093653

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for ‘Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth’ is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s Ten Years Strategy, High 5s priority of "Light up and Power Africa".
• The complex’s objectives are (i) to develop policy and strategy; (ii) to provide deep sector technical expertise to the Regions by gathering pool of experienced individuals who can be consulted for their expertise on complicated transactions; (iii) to develop new financing instruments; (iv) to act as spokesperson to represent the Bank with external stakeholders on all aspects of “Light Up and Power Africa".
• The Complex will focus on areas of Power systems, policy and regulation, renewable energy; and, Climate and Green Growth.

The Hiring Department

• The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department has the broad objective of promoting the development of renewable energy - both large and small scale - and promoting energy efficiency along with clean cooking.
• It is the responsibility of the Director to build an organization to help deliver these objectives for the Bank and for the Regional Member Countries.
• The department comprises of two divisions: Renewable Energy Division and Energy Efficiency and Clean Cooking Division.
• The Energy Efficiency and Clean Cooking Division has overall responsibility for promoting energy efficiency and clean cooking throughout the continent.

The Position

• The Senior Investment Officer - Clean Cooking Specialist is responsible for providing policy support to enhance the enabling environment for cleaner cooking and to undertake clean cooking-related investments including supply-side support to Small and Medium Enterprises providing clean cooking solutions and promotion of clean cooking on the demand side.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Division Manager - Energy Efficiency and Clean Cooking,  the Senior Investment Officer - Clean Cooking Specialist will perform the following:

• Contribute to the delivery of flagships as relevant to ensure delivery of the New Deal on Energy objectives;
• Assist and advise Regional Member Countries in the development and implementation of conducive policy environment for cleaner cooking including the setting up of quality standards systems;
• Support the implementation of technical assistance and projects aiming at designing policy, regulatory and capacity-development interventions towards supporting clean cooking;
• Take a leading role, along with Hub based personnel, in the process of identification and preparation of operations related to clean cooking (including supply-side support to Small and Medium Enterprises providing clean cooking solutions and promotion of clean cooking on the demand side), whilst ensuring country ownership;
• Provide deep sector expertise for quality assurance of feasibility studies related to the development of clean cooking projects : preparation of terms of reference, review and validation process;
• Review and quality assurance of project preparation and appraisal documents vis-à-vis technical requirements;
• Lead or participate in the identification, development, structuring and processing projects to be considered for private sector financing, undertaking the needed due diligence, risk analysis and mitigation work towards the structuring of loans (project finance and corporate loans), equity investments, guarantees or other forms of assistance, in close coordination with Hub teams and the Complex’ other Directorates(Power Systems, Energy Solutions, Climate Change and Green Growth, Partnership);
• Lead or participate in due diligence missions and provide technical support in negotiations with project developers, sponsors, and financiers
• Manage the drafting of project documents including evaluation notes, concept notes, project issues lists, project appraisal reports and other briefs for presentation of transactions to country team, credit committee, operational committee, Board of Directors and other meetings.
• Liaise with the Energy Solutions Directorate for the design of innovative financing approaches and the mobilization of resources to develop clean cooking;
• Contribute to the preparation of knowledge and analytical work to inform country strategic work as well as new operations in the field of clean cooking;
• Undertake any other task that the Division Manager or Director may assign.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold a Master's degree or its equivalent in energy engineering, energy efficiency or any related field. Additional qualification in decentralized energy solutions, renewable energy is an asset.
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in the clean cooking or energy efficiency business development and/or policy advisory.
• Experience in clean cooking project structuring and advisory (e.g. business models, financial structuring, fund-raising, technical development, community engagement) is advantageous.
• Proven experience in private sector deal structuring and advisory (e.g. business models, financial structuring, fund-raising, technical development, community engagement).
• Proven ability to assess and provide technical and financial advisory services to both public and private sector stakeholders in the clean cooking space
• Solid understanding of policy and regulatory issues, as well as public sector institutional capacity, required to enable clean cooking investments
• Full understanding of the principles of project cycle and project implementation;
• Good communication skills with demonstrated ability to present and win support for ideas as well as make effective and timely decisions;
• Proven ability to interact competently with both public and private sector stakeholders in the energy efficiency space
• Problem solving skills
• Client orientation
• Team working and relations
• 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)