Principal Quality Assurance Officer, Non-Sovereign Operations at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/310
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50093728

The Complex

• The Senior Vice-Presidency is responsible for supporting the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group to achieve its strategic objective and drive performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results.
• The Senior Vice-Presidency will provide effective leadership and exceptional coordination to ensure implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions as well as the identification of necessary corrective measures and actions.
• The Senior Vice-Presidency will lead senior management discussions, decision-making processes and the implementation of key Board and Management decisions.

The Hiring Department

• Located within the Senior Vice-Presidency Complex, the Department in charge of Quality Assurance and the Operations Committee Secretariat works to continuously enhance the quality and timely delivery of Bank operations.
• The Department coordinates and supports the Bank’s global efforts towards sharpening the country focus, strategic selectivity and quality of the Bank’s operations.
• Within the Department in charge of Quality Assurance and the Operations Committee Secretariat, the Quality Assurance Division has an operational support function, aimed at enhancing and mainstreaming the quality and results focus of the Bank’s strategies and operations.
• To this end, it is responsible for:
  • Setting quality standards for the Bank’s interventions;
  • Developing and strengthening tools and processes throughout the operational cycles; and
  • Strengthening staff capacities and facilitating operational knowledge.

The Position

• Within Quality Assurance Division, the Principal Quality Assurance Officer, non-sovereign operations will lead the non-sovereign operations work stream of the Division, managing relationships with relevant Bank Departments including those in charge of private sector operations and financial sector development.
• The incumbent will be responsible for developing and mainstreaming quality assurance and results tools in the project cycle of non-sovereign operations, enhancing the Bank’s overall capacity to report and account for its operational performance and development results.
• The incumbent will be responsible for developing and mainstreaming quality assurance and results tools in the project cycle of non-sovereign operations, enhancing the Bank’s overall capacity to report and account for its operational performance and development results.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, Quality Assurance, the Principal Quality Assurance Officer, non-sovereign operations will:

• Staff guidelines and operational tools: Develop quality assurance and results reporting tools for the Bank’s non-sovereign operations; organize consultations and manage the process of designing, testing and rolling out the new tools along the project cycle from entry to exit; contribute to the elaboration of formats and templates for supervision and exit reporting; develop staff guidelines and technical notes to facilitate the use of new quality assurance tools and the application of the operational rating system.
• Quality-at-entry assessment: Support quality-at-entry assessment of non-sovereign operations, in particular by advising teams on the quality of appraisal reports, logical frameworks and additionality and development outcome assessments.
• Operational performance assessment: Develop evidence-based and results-focused rating systems to capture performance along the project cycle at the level of individual operations and portfolios.
• Quality control: Develop mechanisms to ensure adherence to quality standards and verify the integrity of the rating system for non-sovereign operations.
• Analytic work: Contribute to the preparation of the knowledge work with the objective of improving results tracking and enhance the development effectiveness of the Bank’s operations.
• Staff learning and coaching: Facilitate staff workshops and learning events for operational staff including in Bank field offices and regional resource centres; support coaching of investment officers in the rolling-out phase of the new tools.
• Helpdesk management and quality assurance clinics: Contribute to the Helpdesk and provide support to the quality assurance clinics on issues related to private sector operations.
• Relationship management: Maintain effective working relationships with staff of Regional and Sector Departments with the aim of ensuring wide ownership of the quality assurance tools.
• Miscellaneous: Undertake other duties as assigned by the Manager, Quality Assurance.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master's degree or its equivalent in Business Administration, Economics, Development Studies or related discipline.
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant professional experience, gained mainly in an operational department as an investment officers; additional private sector experience desirable.
• Knowledge of private sector policies and non-sovereign operations business processes in multilateral development banks.
• Experience of training workshops facilitation.
• Having private sector experience will be an added advantage.
• Knowledge of results based approaches.
• Experience in evaluations of private sector operations will be an asset.
• Client orientation, especially dealing with sensitive issues in a multi-cultural environment.
• Innovation and creativity.
• Ability to work independently with little supervision.
• Ability to work as part of multidisciplinary teams and to coordinate interdepartmental team efforts.
• Proven, leadership, coaching and team management skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software applications (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint), it would be desirable to have experience with SAP.