Job Openings at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

Reference: ADB/20/164/2
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50083168

The Complex

• The Board of Directors provides oversight and strategic direction to the African Development Bank Group. It is composed of Executive Directors who are representatives of the African Development Bank member countries.
• Specifically the Board is responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the Bank, and carries out the following functions: (1) determine the general structure of the Bank’s services; (2) approve the financing policy and take decisions concerning loans, guarantees, equity investments and fund loans by the Bank; (3) determine the interest rates of loans and guarantee commissions; (4) approve the Bank’s operations program and administrative budget; (5) prepare the work of the Board of Governors; and (6) submit accounts and annual reports, as well as the administrative budgets for the approval of the Board of Governors.
• The Board does its work through a series of permanent Committees that review and discuss policy and program documents and make appropriate recommendations to the whole Board. The Independent Development Evaluation Department (BDEV); Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (BCRM); Secretariat to the Sanctions Appeals Board (BSAB); and the Administrative Tribunal (BATR) report to the Board.

The Hiring Department:

• The overarching mission of the African Development Bank’s Independent Development Evaluation is to enhance the development effectiveness of the Bank and foster sustainable growth and poverty reduction in its regional member countries through independent and influential evaluations, oversight over self-evaluation processes and products, and proactive engagement in evaluation partnerships and knowledge-sharing activities. To support the Bank Group in achieving greater development effectiveness, the independent evaluation function has adopted three core objectives:
  • Contribute to enhanced learning in the Bank and regional member countries to improve current and future policies, strategies, programs, projects, and processes.
  • Provide a basis for accountability to the public and to member countries by documenting the use and results of the Bank Group’s assistance.
  • Promote an evaluation culture in the Bank and regional member countries to encourage a focus on development results, learning, and continuous quality improvement.
• The core mandate of the Independent Development Evaluation Department is to conduct independent evaluation studies, provide relevant lessons, develop and harmonize standards and practices, support evaluation capacity development together with partner agencies and attest to the validity of both processes and the results of African Development Bank’s self-evaluation activities. The Independent Development Evaluation Department also collaborates and exchanges information with bilateral and multilateral development agencies’ evaluation departments, and undertakes joint evaluation of co-financed projects and programs.
• The Independent Development Evaluation Department has three divisions: The Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth; Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization; and Integration Evaluations Division (BDEV.1); the Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Country and Corporate Evaluations Division (BDEV.2); and the Knowledge Management Outreach and Capacity Development Division (BDEV.3). The Divisions 1 and 2 focus on undertaking evaluations whilst the Division 3 on Knowledge Management Outreach and Capacity Development.
• The BDEV1 division is mainly responsible for evaluations relating to the private sector, infrastructure (including transport, ICT, urban development, water and sanitation), industrialization, power systems, energy, climate change, and green growth.

The Position

• The Principal Evaluation Officer contributes to the delivery of the division work program by leading moderately complex evaluations, supervising evaluation teams, and mentoring and coaching junior colleagues, and supporting work programme management and the Independent Development Evaluation Department’s quality assurance activities of the Bank’s interventions (including policies, strategies and operations) in the areas covered by the Division, in particular activities related to the private sector, infrastructure (including transport, ICT, urban development, water and sanitation), industrialization, power systems, energy, climate change, and green growth.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager Division.1, the Principal Evaluation Officer will:

• Undertake Evaluation Activities: Design, conduct and report on evaluations in accordance with the Bank’s Evaluation Policy and Manual and international evaluation standards (e.g., OECD DAC evaluation standards and the Evaluation Cooperation Group Good Practice Standards).
• Undertake Meta-Evaluations and Meta-Analyses; Lead, and guide meta-evaluations and meta-analyses including designs, and methods (for literature search, and data collection, analysis and reporting).
• Undertake Evaluation Quality Management: Contribute to updating the Independent Development Evaluation Department evaluation quality standards, and quality assurance processes, tools and capacity.
• Contribute to the capture of learning from evaluation design to evaluation dissemination for use in updating the Independent Development Evaluation Department evaluation manual, and for staff learning events.
• Manage human and financial resources of a multi-disciplinary evaluation team to ensure the delivery of complex and concurrent evaluations that are conducted in an independent, cost-effective, rigorous and timely manner.
• Promote the mandate of the evaluation function and contribute to the creation of an evaluation culture in the Bank and in Regional Member Countries (RMC).
• Contribute to positioning the Independent Development Evaluation Department as an innovator on the leading-edge among other multilateral institutions and to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Bank’s Evaluation Function.
• Contribute to building strategic alliances and partnerships with key stakeholders within and outside the Bank to further the Evaluation Function’s mandate and engage in evaluation communities of practice within and outside the Bank. Provide substantive input to these communities and share lessons of experience.
• Contribute to the preparation of Independent Development Evaluation Department’s three-year rolling work programme and annual report.
• Perform any other assigned tasks.

Selection Criteria

• Holds at least a Master's degree or its equivalent in Economics, Development Evaluation, Finance, Business Administration, Sociology, Development, Statistics, Policy analysis, Public Administration, or other international development related field. A certificate/diploma in development evaluation, development oriented research and/or program/project planning, management and evaluation is an advantage.
• A minimum of six (6) years’ experience in as a development evaluator/researcher; designing, conducting, managing, and reporting development evaluation/research studies.
• Significant knowledge in quantitative and/or qualitative evaluation methods.
• Broad knowledge of evaluation theories and practice including evaluation needs assessment, design and implementation.
• Proven operational and field experience working in complex development programs.
• Knowledge of operational/policy areas, procedures and practice of the African Development Bank or other multilateral development Banks and/or other international development agencies.
• Operational experience relating, in particular, to areas covered by the Division, such as private sector, infrastructure (including transport, ICT, urban development, water and sanitation), industrialization, power systems, energy, climate change, and green growth.
• Substantial experience in development planning, management and evaluation in Multilateral Development Banks or other international development agencies
• Strong theoretical and operational knowledge of international development issues and theories relating, in particular, to Africa
• Experience in providing strategic advice to senior management.
• Experience in coaching and mentoring staff.
• Substantial experience in evaluation in Multilateral Development Banks or other international development agencies desirable.
• Substantial experience in managing human and financial resources.
• Experience to lead multidisciplinary teams, and work in diverse and multi-cultural settings
• Ability to communicate effectively (in writing and orally) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications (Word, Excel, Access and Power Point); knowledge of integrated document management system and/or quantitative and qualitative data analysis packages is an added advantage.

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Reference: ADB / 20 / 175
Location: Tunis, Tunisia
Grade: LP5
Position N°: 50072438

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the Vice-President for the ‘Economics Governance and Knowledge Management Complex’.
• The Complex is responsible for:
  • Providing leadership and visibility for the Bank on economic, finance, financial governance and socio-economic development issues; and coordinate the generation of analytical works to inform operational policy;
  • Systematically emphasize the critical role of knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and their tangible impact on sustainable, inclusive transformation of African economies.

The Hiring Department:

• The Country Economics Department is located in the Chief Economist/Vice-Presidency for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management (ECVP) Complex. The Country Economics Department manages, coordinates, harmonizes and ensures the high quality of the work of Lead and Country Economists across the Bank.
• The Department plays a critical role of strengthening the links between economic knowledge and the Bank’s operations. It leads the development of high quality and analytic country strategy papers, the monitoring of economic and social conditions and policies in regional member countries and, the generation of country-relevant, timely and analytically sound advice to support policy reforms in regional member countries.
• The Country Economics Department is currently engaged in major initiatives aimed at improving the economic analysis content of country strategy papers, improving the harmonization of the approaches and tools, and the management, of the Bank’s Lead and Economists through the establishment of the economics Sector Board, and strengthening the country economic analysis underpinning the Bank’s support to economic reforms in regional member countries with a view towards improving the development impact of this support.

The Position
The main responsibilities of the position holder are:

• Providing real-time economic intelligence (through statements, notes and policy briefs) on current economic development issues in the North African region;
• Supporting the policy dialogue and advisory function of the AfDB on key development issues in the North African region and helping with the organization of workshops, seminars and events in the region;
• Consolidating the implementation of the AfDB’s High Fives and development agenda in the areas of macroeconomic policies, private sector and financial sector developments, regional integration and competitiveness, through the contribution to Bank’s strategic documents, operations and advisory services;
• Enhancing effective collaboration with multilateral and bilateral development partners with a view to harmonizing operational policies and guidelines and coordinating interventions in RMCs.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the general supervision of the Director ECCE and the Lead Economist for the North region, the Senior Policy Economist’s Duties and Responsibilities will be as follows:

• Provide advisory services and briefing notes based on economic policy analysis in areas of relevance for the North African economies, including macroeconomic policies, private sector development, competitiveness, financial markets, inclusive growth, job creation, social safety nets, etc.;
• Generate business intelligence and economic monitoring depending on country-specific and global contexts and real-time challenges;
• Contribute to the training and capacity development activities and propose short, medium and long-term policy options to policy-makers and AfDB’s Management on selected economic issues;
• Organize workshops with key stakeholders to discuss the AfDB’s vision and policy options on specific economic issues for increased development outcomes in the countries;
• Provide technical and analytical inputs into the Bank’s Operations, Country Strategy Papers (CSPs), Technical Assistance, Economic Sector Work (ESW) and other Bank’s documents;
• Peer review project, program, policy and briefing documents related to the six North African countries;
• Participate in collaborative knowledge and economic analysis activities carried out jointly with regional and international organizations, research and capacity building institutions, and universities in the North African region;
• Perform other duties as may be assigned by Management.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master’s degree in Economics, Finance, or related social sciences. A Ph.D. in one of these fields would be desirable;
• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience with a proven track record of producing economic analysis and policy formulation.
• Demonstrate understanding of the main regional economic and social challenges in North Africa.
• Demonstrate strong communication and organization skills, dealing with various stakeholders with different backgrounds.
• A strong evidence of practical experience in political economy or economic analysis.
• Publication record of studies, reports and articles in peer-reviewed journals is an advantage.
• Knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in North African countries is an added advantage.
• 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, SAP and/or other integrated document management system).