Senior ICT & Digital Education Officer, AHHD1 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Reference: ADB/21/071
Grade: PL5
Position N°: 50078547

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy High 5s priorities of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”. The complex objectives are;
  • To develop, policy and strategy;
  • Provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions;
  • Develop new financing instruments;
  • 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 Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD), within the Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex will spearhead the achievement of the High 5s on “Improving the Quality of Life of People in Africa” and contribute to the other High 5s.
• The Department has two divisions (i) Education, Human Capital and Employment Division, which focuses on scaling-up of Bank’s support to education, human capital and employment/livelihoods including the implementation of Jobs for Youth Strategy; and (ii) Public Health, Security and Nutrition Division focusing on strengthening health systems and nutrition for human wellbeing.
• It also hosts various pertinent initiatives and trust funds. Education and skills training for development and gender analysis are central to the Department’s approach to strengthen the Bank’s role in helping the RMCs build the human capital they need for economic transformation in the context of globalization and the Fourth industrial revolution.
• The Human Capital Strategy 2014-2018 and the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy 2016-2025 are the sector policy and strategy frameworks for Department’s work.
• The Education and Skills Division focuses on human capital development, skills training, employment creation and empowerment, poverty reduction for improved and sustainable wellbeing and livelihoods. The Division:
• Leads the development and promotion of Bank’s policy and strategy work so that operations which are identified, developed and executed by the regional hubs effectively implement the Bank’s relevant sector policies and strategies;
• Provides technical guidance/advisory services and expertise to regional hubs by generating relevant knowledge and gathering a pool of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide technical advice on complex transactions (Community of Practice);
• Fosters strategic partnerships with regional and global partners to leverage resources into the human and social development sectors. It also directly contributes to the work of the various initiatives and trust funds hosted under the Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department; and provides expertise to support Vice President’s role as the Bank’s spokesperson to external audiences, and;
• Ensures coherence of the Bank’s action in education and skills development across regions.

The Position

• The Division will lead the Bank’s agenda on Education and skills development. It will promote activities related to improving the demand responsiveness of the education & training system to the skills needs of the labour market and for job creation on the continent.
• Specifically, activities focusing on improving post-secondary, technical and vocational training, tertiary education, sciences, technology and innovation as well as gender issues in education will be undertaken.

In this context the main objectives of the Senior  ICT and Digital  Education  Officer  will be to:

• Support developing the knowledge work regarding ICT/Digital  education and skills training for Human capital development in the productive sectors;
• Provide documented strategic advice to management in ICT & digital in education and skills training across the AHVP and various complexes aligned with the High 5 within the bank;
• Contribute to the preparation of policies and strategies pertinent to ICT & digital in education and skills training for development;
• Support the design, monitoring and supervision of Non-sovereign and complex operations- multinational projects- that address gender, education and skills development for productive sectors.
• Support the regional hubs in the preparation of country and regional strategies to facilitate integration of skills development dimensions.
• Provide technical expertise to the regional hubs in the design of sovereign operations to facilitate integration of skills development dimensions.
• Support Regional Delivery units  in developing strong pipelines of good quality ICT/Digital education and skills development projects.
• Develop new initiatives, promote technical assistance and support resource mobilization for  existing ICT related education projects  and other sectors as is appropriate.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Division Manager Education, Human Capital and Employment and working closely with internal and external stakeholders, the Senior  ICT and Digital  Education  Officer  will perform the following:

Supporting analytical work in Education and Skills Division and in the Bank:

• Providing technical and analytical support to teams, Regional Member Countries (RMCs) and clients on education and skills development.
• Support delivering briefs and reports using both quantitative and qualitative information;
• Preparing ICT & digital in education requests to be submitted for bilateral funds, and necessary management and follow up actions for the funds;
• Contributing to strategic missions on ICT & digital in education and skills development through policy recommendation publications commentaries etc.
• Supporting country teams in preparing Economic Sector Work (ESW) to inform the development of lending operations.
• Serving as a reference to colleagues in areas of competence, particularly ICT/digital in education in both economic and financial analyses.
• Providing other departments/divisions of the Bank with expert advice on education and skills development and human capital development issues, ICT/digital skills; particularly on links with the productive sector.
• Supporting the development of a data base on results achieved in supporting ICT in education and skills development in the RMCs and in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Portfolio development and monitoring:

• Participating actively in Regional Team meetings, Country Strategic Paper and Portfolio Assessment missions;
• Participating in various stages of initiation and design of sovereign national and regional operations initiated by the regional hubs
• Supporting initiation and design of non-sovereign (private) operations, including Public Private Partnerships in the sector, the management and monitoring of such operations after approval;
• Supporting initiation and design of complex (multinational operations) in the sector and the management and monitoring of such operations after approval.
• Design specific Innovative ICT/Digital in education projects and initiatives
• Lead business development activities with member countries and partners, in order to develop potential projects themed around ICT/digital Education.

Supporting policy dialogue and partnerships in ICT/digital education and skills development by:

• Enhancing the collaboration between the Bank and the key bilateral/multilateral partners on ICT in education and skills development,
• Contributing to policy dialogue on ICT/digital in education and skills issues at RMCs at both policy and technical level as well as institutional regulatory and policy assessment
•  Supporting the resources mobilization from multilateral/bilateral development institutions, donors and private sector institutions to complement the Bank Group’s operations around the leveraging of digital technology core areas of TVET, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), STI, Financing in Education;
• Participating in dialogue with the representatives of governments on basic orientations in ICT/Digital skills development in TVET and higher education sub-sectors;
• Representing the Bank at technical meetings on ICT/digital in education and skills development;
• Following-up on execution of decisions and recommendations made at the international level on ICT/digital education and skills initiative to keep the Bank up to date.

Knowledge management:

• Contributing to the preparation of policy and analytical work-related Information technology and innovation in education and skills, and human capital development;
• Supporting studies and capacity building interventions in ICT and Digital in education and skills development including e-learning platforms to promote human capital development;
• Playing an active role in knowledge generation and sharing, and thought leadership in the field of ICT/digital in education and skills for employability with the Bank’s clients, staff and development partners;
• Organizing internal events on innovation in ICT/digital education and skills development to ensure a good Bank wide understanding;
• Support delivering briefs and reports using both quantitative and qualitative information;
• Supporting the promotion of the division’s (AHHD1) work.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master's Degree in Education, Information Technology, Social Sciences or related fields with practical knowledge, skills and abilities and a  good knowledge of policy and issues determining ICT skills development for economic transformation;
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience and current industry trends in the areas of ICT in education and skills development;
• Experience with and strong skills in project cycle management and technical assistance to Regional member countries, including supporting the design, implementation and monitoring of ICT in education projects;
• Demonstrated experience with applying information and communication technologies to address a broad mix of development problems and increase the impact of project and programs.
• Ability to innovate and integrate ICT/digital education and skills training through other sectors and to support portfolio teams in processing and supervising programs including NSO;
• Good knowledge of the education and/or ICT/digital skills systems, preferably post-secondary systems including gender, and development issues in Africa;
• Strong research, analytical and writing skills, delivering briefs and reports using both quantitative and qualitative information;
• Excellent problem-solving capabilities, applies business knowledge to the resolution of problems and identifies solutions to the benefit of the client (internal and external) and the organization
• Strong understanding and grasp of multi-sector approaches of education and training, gender and skills development, partnerships in Africa,
• Professional ability to build partnerships and deliver services that meet both immediate needs and long-term interests of clients within and outside the institution;
• Ability to deliver high quality work within very tight deadlines;
• Having strong background /experience for development especially in the education/ ICT sector in Africa;
• Ability to communicate and write effectively in English and/or French, with a good working knowledge of the other language;
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint), knowledge of SAP is desirable.