Energy Initiatives and Partnerships Officer at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/524
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50052500

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:
  • To develop policy and strategy;
  • 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;
  • To develop new financing instruments;
  • To act as spokesperson to represent the Bank with external stakeholders on all aspects of “Light Up and Power Africa”. The Complex focuses on areas of Power systems, policy and regulation, renewable energy; and, Climate and Green Growth.

The Hiring Department/Division

• The Energy Partnerships Department’s core objective is building, strengthening, and maintaining the Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa. This will require broad engagement with other DFIs, Regional Member Countries, Non-Regional Member Countries, and the private sector (corporates and financial institutions).
• The Public Energy Initiatives and Partnerships Division places the Transformative Partnerships as the unifying platform for increased coherence and coordination amongst various energy sector stakeholders and initiatives leading to greater impact and investment

The Position

• The Energy Initiatives and Partnerships Officer will be responsible for coordinating partner engagement, mobilizing co-financing and supporting the design of new programmes for the successful implementation of the New Deal on Energy for Africa (NDEA).
• More specifically, the incumbent will be responsible for actively managing partner relationships, supporting energy experts in resource mobilization for their projects, including the management and quality assurance of funding requests with internal/external facilities, and supporting the PENP team in designing new programmes and instruments to crowd-in public/private finance towards the NDEA objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision and guidance of the  Division Manager, the Energy Initiatives and Partnership Officer will perform the following:

Partners Engagement:

• Contribute to the coordination of the Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa to align with other development partners to help reduce duplication of efforts and to help pool resources;
• Map the key donor stakeholders at regional and country level, manage relationship with relevant contact persons for the energy sector, and maintain up-to-date records on priority partnership activities.
• Collaborate with governments, the regional economic communities, regional power pools and other authorities to identify investment needs;
• Contribute to capacity building for national and regional coordination efforts in the energy sector and resource mobilization for this purpose;
• Manage relationships with Governments, Regional Organizations, and Regional Economic Communities through transparent and effective arrangements;
• Contribute to and manage in-country and regional energy sector stakeholder coordination mechanisms;
• Organize convening events, providing content and logistical support, as well as supporting the deliberations and achievements of results.

Resource Mobilization:

• Collaborate with public-sector multilateral and bilateral development banks, donors co-financing platforms and AfDB-hosted trust fund to mobilize co-financing for project preparation and project finance, as well as technical assistance to for public-sector capacity-building and enabling environment.
• Support energy experts and investment officers in the Complex in the identification of co-financing sources as well as in the preparation of well-articulated and technically sound funding applications.
• Develop and manage a pipeline of projects for co-financing, monitor funding application processes and ensure timely delivery to high quality standards.
• Design a monitoring & evaluation framework for all the Bank’s co-financing activities in the energy sector and produce quarterly and annual reports on the Bank’s resource mobilization activities for the energy sector.
• Administer a list of national and regional priority action projects for the development of Africa’s energy sector;

Programme/Project Design:

• Support PENP team in the conceptualization and development of new programmes and initiatives aimed at addressing key bottlenecks in the energy sector and crowding-in resources from public-sector stakeholders (DFIs, Donors, Governments) as well as private players (impact and institutional investors, foundations).
• Support energy experts and investment officers in the design and appraisal of new investment operations, with the view of crowding-in additional resources from partner institutions.
• Contribute to the delivery of analytical and research work (“economic and sector work”) related to the energy sector to identify gaps and inform programme/project design.
• Conduct gap analysis and national and regional sector planning in collaboration with other energy programmes and initiatives;

Selection Criteria
Including Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• At least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in Engineering, Economics, Finance, Business Administration, International Relations, Public Policy Management or other related discipline;
• Have a minimum of six (06) years of relevant practical working experience in energy sector issues, including energy sector policy and planning, public and/or private sector energy finance, resource mobilization and development of partnerships
• Experience in energy initiatives and/ in a coordination/partnership role or regional energy institution
• Experience working across multiple institutions and ensuring collaboration across public, private, and civil society sectors is essential;
• Experience in a combination of the following areas is essential: infrastructure development and public-private sector partnerships, preferable in the energy sector.
• Experience/understanding of public sector energy finance
• Experience/understanding of blended public-private finance and application to energy sector.
• Private sector experience is advantageous.
• Clear understanding of the drivers and barriers to success in complex regulatory, political and cultural environments;
• Knowledge of energy sector development in Africa and familiarity with the work of major entities active in the energy sector;
• Experience working across multiple institutions and ensuring collaboration across public, private, and civil society sectors;
• Experience in combinations of the following areas (preferably in the energy sector): Government or a regional organization, infrastructure development, sector analysis and planning, public-private sector partnerships, development bank, project preparation facilities;
• Experience in bi-lateral and multi-lateral public sector entities, preferably in Africa, and in a coordination/partnership role;
• Proven ability to build multi-stakeholder partnerships to manage complex objectives and achieve results;
• Knowledge of energy sector development in Africa, including sector gap and planning analyses, and familiarity with the work of major national and regional entities active in the energy sector, including development banks and key donors;
• Proven track record of building partnerships for development impact;
• Innovation & Creativity
• Communication
• Client Orientation
• Problem Solving
• Team working and relationships
• Operational Effectiveness
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint); Knowledge of SAP is an added advantage.