Team Assistant - AHAI.2 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/18/090
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: GS7
Position N°: 50070431

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 (i) to develop, policy and strategy; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) 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 / Division

• The Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department provides support for the delivery of Feed Africa: Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa, 2016-2025.
• The strategy aims to end hunger and rural poverty in the next decade through self-sufficiency in eighteen (18) priority commodity value chains specific to the continent’s agro-ecological zones.
• Realizing the objectives set forth in the strategy requires increased productivity; value addition; investment in infrastructure; an enabling agribusiness environment; capital flows; and inclusivity, sustainability and effective nutrition.
• The Department leads the effort to transform African agricultural systems for greater competitiveness, inclusivity and sustainability, and for enhanced job creation and poverty reduction in Regional Member Countries.
• The role of the Agriculture Research, Production and Sustainability Division is amongst others, to: (i) coordinate the implementation of the Flagship - Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (ii) support wide-scale deployment of innovative farmer extension models including effective private sector led approaches to the provision of farmer extension services; (iii) provide specialist advice and support to internal and external clients on a range of fisheries, aquaculture, blue economy development issues including, knowledge generation and sharing, policy development advice, fish commodity value addition, complex operations formulation, training and marine and inland water bodies ecosystems resilience building; (iv) support increasing investment into livestock research and technology dissemination on the continent and support the scaling up of proven technologies and  wide-scale deployment of innovative livestock producers extension models; (v) coordinate climate resilience actions to support climate adaptation and climate-smart agriculture practices including large-scale sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, agroforestry, ecotourism, and agri-tourism projects; (vi) support Bank engagements in global and continental climate change events of interest to the Bank such as the Annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa and The Conference of Parties on Climate Change, the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture.

The Position

• Under the general supervision of the Division Manager AHAI.2, the Team Assistant will play a supportive role in the coordination and delivery of the unit. He/She will lead on the establishment and maintenance of all information management systems and databases (e.g. SAP) to enable the effective result-based management. 
• He/She will generate information and reports to inform on the progress, achievements and outcomes of the AHAI.2 funded projects and the AHAI as a whole.
• He/She will oversee the smooth operation of the offices’ support work and related systems by assuming responsibility for the organisation and coordination of work flow as well as reviewing, processing and executing a variety of accounting and resource management transactions.

Duties and Responsibilities
Reporting to the Manager, Agriculture Research, Production and Sustainability Division, the Operations Assistant is responsible for:

Resources Management:

• Manage systems; create and process expense reports in SAP.
• Assist the management in issues concerning resources such as the administrative budget; monitor and review expenses and bring issues to the attention of Manager.
• Participate in the preparation of the annual and mid-year budget review by inputting data and the monitoring thereof.

Analytical Work:

• Produce documents, briefing papers, reports, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Take notes at meetings, write letters, and prepare minutes as requested.
• Assist where applicable with the programming of operational activities by using the appropriate software, entering project information and producing the Department’s various status reports i.e. CSPs, Active Projects, Portfolio Reviews, etc.

Problem Solving:

• Respond to inquiries on operational matters from Bank Executives; liaise with member countries and other staff; coordinate with other members of management and partners; work with other operations assistants, secretaries and groups in different locations.
• Carry out background research in field of competence and present in a logical manner.
• Perform any other duties reasonably requested by management.

Workflow management:

• Devise and maintain efficient office systems.
• Track and follow up on documents; deal with incoming email, faxes and general mail.

Office Administration:

• Organize and attend to multiple meetings, appointments and events to ensure that responsible management are well prepared.
• Arrange travel, visa and accommodation; travel occasionally with management to provide general assistance.
• Initiate and prepare various administrative documents and forms, such as staff list, staff travels, staff absence (annual leave, home leave, excused absence and maternity leave) as well as statistical data when required on staff;
• Assist Task Managers in the preparation of reports.
• Create contracts for hiring consultants in DACON.
• Create contracts from projects in SAP.
• SAP entry of project information

Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Bachelor’s degree / Maitrise or equivalent Diploma, Higher Education in Business Administration, Economics and / or Statistics would be an asset;
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of professional work experience in project management, work programme and budget preparation, and information management.
• Good understanding of the functions, organization and procedures of the Bank; leadership; strong research capabilities and problem solving;
• Excellent organizational skills, ability to prioritization in its own program of work, ability to perform the tasks in a timely and effective manner;
• Good interpersonal skills, ability to establish and maintain effective working relations in a multicultural environment;
• 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, SAP and/or other integrated document management system).