Principal Fragility and Resilience Officer, RDTS at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/20/177
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50000942

The Complex

• Within the Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Complex (RDVP), the Bank has five (5) Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Directorates, one in each region of Africa: North, South, East, West, and Central. Each Regional Directorate is headed by a Director General (DG) and is staffed with the relevant sectoral functions and administrative capabilities for rapid delivery of services to client countries.
• The Regional Directorates provide overall strategic direction to country offices within the regions and are responsible for the Bank’s operations, business development, project management and overall effective delivery of the Bank’s High 5s agenda.

The Hiring Department

• The Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS) oversees the implementation of the Bank’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in its Regional Member Countries (RMCs). It also coordinates lending and non-lending activities of fragility and resilience experts stationed in the Bank’s Regional Directorates and Country Offices as well as external partners such as the Regional Economic Communities (RECs); the African Union Commission (AUC); Specialized Regional Bodies such as Basin Commissions, Sahel Alliance and others; the United Nations System (UNS); Development Partners; Foundations; Civil Society Organizations; and other Partners.
• Over the past decade, Africa has seen enormous growth and transformation that has expanded opportunities and improved living conditions for millions of people. More than two-thirds of African countries have strengthened their quality of governance, improved basic services, and expanded economic opportunities. Yet, there are significant risks that this momentum could be undermined by important pressures—continuing patterns of exclusion and poverty, unemployment, high migration, rapid urbanization, climate change and poor management of natural resources—that threaten to overwhelm existing institutional capacities for managing political, economic, social and environmental challenges. These pressures are making every single African country more vulnerable.
• The mandate of RDTS is to place the Bank at the center of Africa’s efforts to address fragility and pave the way for a more resilient and inclusive development trajectory. A major part of RDTS’ activities involves the identification of the main drivers of fragility, including economic, social, political and environmental dimensions. RDTS also plays a crucial role in mainstreaming fragility considerations in the Bank’s strategies and programs, both at country and regional level, towards sustainable and inclusive development. Central to RDTS engagement is the systematic application of a fragility lens in Bank Group programming.

The Position

• Under the supervision of the RDTS Director, the main responsibility of the Principal Fragility and Resilience Officer entails the design of fragility interventions into Bank Group operations at the regional and national level as well as the programme and project level to ensure that the Bank’s agenda for addressing fragility and building resilience in Africa is mainstreamed into Bank operations.
• Her / his responsibilities also include preparation of analytical papers, fragility lens application, fragility assessments, building partnerships, resource mobilization and policy advocacy.

Duties and Responsibilities
The Principal Fragility and Resilience Officer will work closely with other RDTS team members on the operationalization of the Bank’s Fragility Agenda. Her/his duties are:

• Under the operationalization of the Bank’s strategy for addressing fragility and building resilience, prepare and undertake Fragility Assessments (FA) based on the Country Resilience Fragility Assessment (CRFA) Tool with a view to mainstreaming the Bank’s operational approach for tackling fragility, its fragility analytical tools, its financing instruments, as well as the fragility lens application.
• In coordination with appropriate Bank authorities, develop a clear and practical roadmaps to foster dialogue with RMCs on drivers of fragility which will have arisen from the assessments with a view to  identifying targeted entry points for building institutional capacities and resilience through design and implementation of mitigation measures. This includes strengthening RMCs capacities, especially those that are in conflict-affected and fragile situations, to apply the fragility lens towards the preparation of fragility-sensitive national programmes, frameworks, sectorial strategies, and development plans.
• Work with Regional Economic Communities (REC) and international development partners, as well as peace-building and humanitarian actors for the development of joint collaboration platforms for exchange of experiences and information-sharing on issues, dynamics and best practices around the African fragility agenda.
• Contribute to the preparation and the peer-reviewing of RDTS analytical products, including regional and national Full-Fledged Fragility Assessments (3FFAs), the annual Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA) Report, Economic and Sector Work (ESW) studies, as well as briefing notes as relevant to facilitating informed interventions in addressing fragility.
• Contribute to RDTS team’s efforts for institutionalizing and applying the fragility lens through an appropriate mainstreaming of fragility considerations in the Bank’s strategies and operations. In close collaboration with key Bank Sectoral and Operational Departments / Units, including Regional Delivery Hubs and Country Offices, participate in the preparation, peer-review, and readiness reviews processes of the Country Diagnostic Notes (CDNs), Regional Diagnostic Notes (RDNs) Country Strategy Papers (CSPs), Regional Integration Strategy Papers (RISPs), Project Concept Notes (PCNs), and Project Appraisal Reports (PARs) to ensure fragility is mainstreamed into Bank operations.
• Develop approaches for integrating fragility assessments more effectively in the Bank’s lending and non-lending activities. Among others, these include the integration of fragility, in PCNs and PARs, fragility-sensitive components in investment projects promoting policy dialogue and sectorial policy reforms.
• Provide technical inputs to improve portfolio management in order to enhance project performance (cancellation of older projects, improvement of portfolio management in consultation with implementing project agencies, maintaining a continuous dialogue with governments and other development partners, training of project units, improved projects reporting system and promoting good governance, etc.)
• Support the institutionalization of the fragility lens application through the development of internal sensitization for the benefit of Bank operational, sectorial, and corporate  staff. This includes the development of training series and training accreditation modules on the CRFA, FAs and Fragility Lens in coordination with appropriate units in the Bank.
• Participate in the Bank's departmental and inter-departmental working groups and provide technical inputs that help the understanding and mainstreaming of fragility issues and approaches in the design, validation and implementation of Bank interventions in countries facing fragile situations.
• Devise innovative and sustainable national and regional inclusive approaches to dealing with fragility to guide the Bank’s Fragility Agenda and development interventions in transition States.
• Contribute to preparing key documents for resource mobilization, especially for the Transition Support Facility (TSF) during the replenishment and mid-term review discussions of the African Development Fund (ADF) in close coordination with relevant Bank units.
• Undertake any other assignments and tasks as may be assigned by the Director (RDTS) and / or the Vice-President (RDVP). Such assignments may involve working with Bank teams and / or staff within or outside RDTS.

Selection Criteria
The successful candidate is expected to have the following qualifications and competencies:

• Hold at least a Master's or equivalent degree in Economics, Political Science, Social Sciences, International Relations, Human Resources Management, Organizational Development, Business Administration or related discipline;
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience in economic research, peace and state building, social cohesion, public-private dialogue, management consulting and strong experience in developing and delivering programs in fragility including assessments, modelling, sensitivity analysis and applications;
• Experience in assessing, designing, developing, delivering and evaluating programmes, projects and interventions to address drivers of fragility in RMCs, RECs, Basin Organizations and other Specialized Agencies dealing with fragility;
• Solid understanding of fragility issues, dynamics and complexities and experience in designing and delivering mitigation measures including problem solving;
• Creativity and innovation in dealing with the rapidly changing landscape of fragility across the world and across Africa (such as COVID-19) and ability to adapt to and operate in a rapidly changing environment;
• Good planning, organization and inter-personal skills;
• Strong familiarity with the Bank’s operations, procedures and policies, and deep knowledge of macroeconomic, economic policy and development issues in RMCs;
• Demonstrated ability to multi-task and manage their time effectively to deal with multiple demands and deadlines among competing needs and priorities;
• Ability to drive training programs, mobilize resource persons, apply innovative approaches, work independently and apply new methods to solve problems, while remaining efficient in a fast-paced, changing and challenging institutional environment;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and demonstrated ability to work across institutional boundaries within multi-sectoral teams in a productive way;
• 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 Microsoft Office software and familiarity with SAP.