Operations Officer at International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Job #: req10159
Location: Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire or Nigeria
Organization: IFC
Sector: Gender
Grade: GF
Term Duration: 3 years 0 months
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment

Background

• The Gender and Economic Inclusion Group at IFC works toward a private and public sector that provides all genders and underserved communities with equal opportunities as leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, consumers, and community members to participate in and benefit from the economy and to improve their quality of life.
• We develop research and evidence on what works to reduce gender and other exclusionary gaps; support mobilization through impact investing and social bond principles; work with IFC funds and clients to identify and promote best practices; and provide operational and policy solutions that create socioeconomic opportunities and development for all.
• The Group sets a strategic agenda, develops common targets, improves knowledge, develops practical gender approaches, measures results, and forges key partnerships that strengthen the private sector’s contribution to sustainable development solutions.
• The team is now seeking a passionate, energetic and experienced private sector gender expert based in either Cote d’Ivoire or Nigeria who works as part of the team to innovate solutions and roll out programs that help close gaps between men and women in the private sector and with IFC’s clients.

Duties and Accountabilities

• IFC is now recruiting an experienced individual in the area of private sector development and gender to support IFC’s gender work in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Private Sector Gender Specialist will report to and work with the Regional Gender Lead in SSA in engaging the private sector and providing direct client services in this area.
• For this work, the Private Sector Gender Specialist will support business development, project design and support day-to-day delivery of advisory services to clients as well as knowledge management, communications and research.
• In addition, the specialist will serve as a resource for various project teams in the Africa Region, with flexibility to travel across the region.
• The operations officer (Private Sector Gender Specialist) is expected to travel as necessary to countries within the region and undertake tasks as assigned by the Regional Gender Lead.  

Scope of Work
Specific duties and accountabilities include, but are not limited to:

Program Design and Delivery:

• Design and manage the delivery of gender projects in women’s access to jobs and assets across various sectors and countries;
• Design firm-level gender advisory services in closing gaps for women in jobs and assets;
• Serve as a technical expert and resource to investment and advisory teams where gender opportunities can be defined early on in project design;
• Support business development with clients through research and proposal development especially in fragile contexts as defined by IFC;
• Develop key project documents including preparatory research work, pre-read briefs etc, needed for scoping missions related to the area of women’s employment and gender-inclusive agricultural value chains;
• Structure and prepare project work plan with timelines and deliverables across all project components
• Closely collaborate with IFC colleagues (i.e. client relationship managers, project/country teams, global specialists and the results measurement team);
• Customize gender approaches to fragile contexts i.e. including mental health approaches, different dimensions of gender-based violence etc.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships Development:  

• Identify and establish strategic partnerships for the implementation of IFC’s gender work;
• Represent IFC to stakeholders at multiple levels including companies, NGOs, government, private sector associations;
• Manage day-to-day stakeholder relationships at project level.  

Communications and Reporting:

• Draft company case studies on gender, contribute to research and strategy documents including country SCDs/CPFs among others;
• Draft project communications and stakeholder engagement strategies as well as project reports as required by IFC, clients and development partners according to IFC standards and guidelines;
• Support the organization of major events and conferences;
• Develop tools such as blogs, events, partnerships etc. for raising the profile of IFC’s gender work in the region in collaborations with communications colleagues;
• Solicit opportunities to externally profile IFC’s gender work in SSA.

Knowledge Management:

• Conceptualize and implement research projects with specific deliverable of bridging private sector specific gender data gaps in Africa;
• Develop specific reference, learning materials, case studies and training initiatives in response to internal/external demand;
• Systematically consolidate and analyze lessons learned from project implementation experience and share with team members and colleagues across the region;
• Document results and lessons learned and support their dissemination;
• Provide cross-support to other projects and make inputs into gender flag, AIMMS, strategy docs

Project Governance:

• Leading project governance using IFC’s systems;
• Procurement and contracting of consulting firm(s) to deliver gender advisory services and/or research projects;
• Manage consultants as and when required.

Results Measurement:

• Support the Regional Gender Lead in monitoring, measuring and reporting on gender including tracking the integration of gender into advisory and investment projects.

Selection Criteria

• Master's Degree in Economics, Finance, Business or other relevant discipline required;
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in fields relevant to private sector development; experience working with gender and private sector necessary;
• Work experience in an emerging market environment strongly preferred, experience in SSA especially Anglophone and Francophone West Africa desired;
• Proven ability to conceptualize, design and implement client engagements and to produce comprehensive analytical reports for clients;  
• Strong project management skills with proven ability to support execution of projects, management of resources and delivery against timelines;
• Fluent in English and French;
• Excellent team building and relationship management skills across different stakeholders
• Thorough understanding of international development frameworks such as Sustainable Development Goals etc. desirable.

Required Language(s):     

• English, French.