Advisor to Vice President at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/275
Location: Africa
Grade: PL2
Position N°: 50068654

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Private Sector Infrastructure and Industrialization is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy Hi 5s priority of “Industrialize Africa”.
• The objectives of the Complex are to: (i) develop the ‘Africa Industrial Strategy’; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by leveraging on experienced individuals who can be consulted on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) act as the Bank’s Spoke person on “Industrialize Africa”.

The Position

• The Advisor will provide required assistance to the Vice President in performing his daily duties in the areas of Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization and where relevant represent the Vice President. The assistance will cover advice on strategic matters, operational aspects as well as on corporate matters. Emphasis will be put on coordination and monitoring with the sector departments, corporate departments and outside stakeholders.
• The main objective of the job is to provide strategic, technical and administrative support to the Vice President in order to perform and deliver satisfactorily on the complex’s mandate.
• The job holder will analyze policy and strategy issues and documents along with corporate matters and advise the Vice President on the way forward or decisions to be taken. The Advisor will help in coordinating sector departments’ activities and organizing the Vice President’s external commitments. The Advisor will also lead on specific strategic initiatives, assignments and engagements with internal and external stakeholders as delegated by the Vice President.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Vice President the Advisor will perform the following duties:

• Work closely with directors to prepare the annual Work Program of the complex;
• Provide support to Vice President in monitoring the implementation of the work program;
• Accompany the Vice President to relevant internal and external meetings;
• Represent the Vice President in internal and external meetings and events as required;
• Prepare or coordinate preparation of reports requested by the Vice President and speeches, presentations for meetings related to resource mobilization,  partnership/relationship-building activities and other activities;
• Prepare briefs for Operation Committee Secretariat, Senior Management Coordination Committee and Board meetings;
• Review format, presentation, substance, compliance with the policies, rules and the Delegation of Authority Matrix, language of correspondences, memoranda and reports prepared by sector Departments and submitted for the Vice President's signature/clearance or onward transmission to the President’s Office;
• Review incoming correspondences with a view to directing them to the appropriate team(s);
• Prepare and attend Vice Presidency Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization management coordination meetings and follow up on the decisions taken;
• Provide thought leadership and manage select special initiatives and engagements with external partners.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in in Business Administration,  Finance, Economics, Public Policy, Management or other related discipline;
• Have a minimum of eight (8) years of relevant practical working experience with a solid credibility on development issues;
• Having private sector experience will be an added advantage;
• Working experience with governments, utilities, development institutions and private sector including at the senior management level;
• Familiarity with partnerships frameworks;
• Good knowledge sharing and communication approach is desirable;
• Experience working across multiple institutions and ensuring collaboration across public, private, and civil society sectors is advantageous;
• Ability to innovate and create approaches to activities in order to enhance performance of the complex;
• Proven ability to communicate effectively with senior management and mobilize key actors to delivery;
• Proven ability to build and direct a high performing team to achieve visionary and challenging goals;
• Highly developed negotiation skills proven to yield positive outcomes with counterparts,
• both internal and external;
• Team work and relationships;
• Discretion;
• Proactivity;
• Strong knowledge of corporate Bank policies; strategies; guidelines, procedures and review processes;
• Proven skills in communication as the coordination activities require regular contacts with high level partners inside and outside the Bank;
• Ability to draft speeches for both inside audiences and outside stakeholders/partners;
• Ability to summarize strategic documents and highlight main ideas for consideration by the decision-making bodies, including Vice President;
• Strong problem solving capacity;
• Strong coordination capacity including coordination of activities of management, notably the complex directors;
• Highly developed strategic thinking skills with the ability to identify opportunities for growing the Bank’s business and reputation;
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, with a working knowledge of the other;
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) and knowledge of SAP is desirable.