Job Opportunities at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

Reference: ADB/19/111/2
Location: Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire
Position N°: 50069170
Grade: PL2

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management (ECVP) is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the VP for the ‘Economics Governance and Knowledge Management Complex’.
• The CE/VP is responsible for (i) 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; (ii) systematically emphasize the critical role of knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and their tangible impact on sustainable, inclusive transformation of African economies.
• The CE/VP will inspire, generate and provide direct support to the President and Senior Management of the Bank on a broad range of technical and management issues within the broad remit of economic, finance, public financial governance, management and social economics.

The Hiring Department

• The Macroeconomics Policy, Forecasting And Research Department is dedicated to the generation of high quality knowledge in the area of development in Africa.
• It provides technical support to operations and regional member countries through rigorous analytical work; engages in impactful policy dialogue with decision-making bodies within and outside of the Bank; and most importantly enhance the operational effectiveness of the Bank in achieving the High 5s.
• The activities of the department focus on macroeconomic surveillance, analysis of structural factors impeding Africa’s progress in reducing poverty and creating jobs, as well as microeconomic issues related to finance, infrastructure development, private sector development, industrial organizations, governance & institutions, agriculture, competitiveness & investment climate, and regional integration.
• The department is seeking to strengthen its team of economists by recruiting a Lead Research Economist with expertise in the High 5s areas including the following: infrastructure including energy, agriculture, private sector development, and social sectors.

The Position
By filling this position, the Research Department intends to consolidate its contribution to the implementation of Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy and foster the relevance of the Research Department to operations and member countries, through:

• Providing strong support to management in the department’s day-to-day activities.
• Strengthening knowledge generation in macroeconomic and microeconomic issues related to the broader priority areas of the Bank.
• Enhancing the operational effectiveness of the Bank, by improving establishing the feedback loop to learn from completed Bank operations through various evaluation exercises.
• Strengthening the Bank Results Framework.
• Consolidating the implementation of the Research Department agenda in accordance to the High 5s (Bank’s 5 Priority areas), through the production of the Bank’s flagship publications, working papers, market studies and impact evaluation exercises.
• Provide support to Top management through providing real time economic intelligence (through drafting of statements, speeches, and policy briefs) for the Bank’s President and Senior Management on economic development issues.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the general supervision of the Director the incumbent’s Duties and Responsibilities will be as follows:
Provide critical and intellectual oversight on strategic work program of the department including :

• Quality assurance: by working closely with Division Managers, review key knowledge products of the department and provide technical support to achieve rigor, clarity and credibility.
• Oversee the quality of working papers series, journal publications (African Development Review) and flagships by leading peer review and editorial committees.
• Assess technical capacity of the research team in the department and ensure they are strengthened as needed:
  • Conduct research in the areas supporting the Bank’s High 5s (High priority areas: Light Up and Power Africa (Energy), Feed Africa (Agriculture and Nutrition), Industrialize Africa (Industrialization), Integrate Africa (Regional Integration) and Improve quality of live for Africans (Sustainable socio-economic development)).

Provide technical and analytical inputs into the work of Operations Complexes:

• Provide input into Country Strategy Papers (CSPs).
• Participate in Economic Sector Works (ESW).
• Peer review project, program, policy documents, including documents submitted to the Operations Committee.

Coordinate the production of Bank Economic Intelligence documents:

• Provide economic intelligence (statement, policy briefs) to Senior Management on economic development issues.

Contribute knowledge in the Bank’s “Working Papers Series " and the Bank’s "African Development Review":

• Publish research papers and review submitted articles to the African Development Review and Working Paper Series:
  • Participate in collaborative research and knowledge management activities carried out jointly with regional and international organizations, research and capacity building institutions in Africa, development research centers and universities.
  • Review operation documents and participate in review meetings.
  • Perform other duties as may be assigned by the Director.

Selection Criteria

• A Master's Degree in Economics or related discipline. PhD is a strong advantage.
• A minimum of eight (8) years’ experience in development research, or related area.
• Proven ability to build and lead a team in interdisciplinary and multicultural environment, a very good team spirit valuing mutual respect as well as regular and open communication;
• Strong publication record in international peer reviewed journals.
• Track record of policy dialogue, advocacy, and capacity building.
• Relevant professional experience in development policy research and analysis of economic conditions that are of relevance for the High 5s (Bank priority areas).
• Proven skills in drafting and preparation of policy memoranda and notes to inform project design.
• Strong knowledge and experience in the use of statistical and econometric methods and packages in development economics research; theoretical knowledge to develop and implement research programs; ability to design and manage research projects from conceptualization to publication.
• Demonstrable experience and ability to initiate exciting and innovative research projects with no supervision
• Strong written and oral communication skills as well as mature interpersonal and professional relationships.
• Established reputation in well-known research networks and ability to broker knowledge through partnerships, collaborations and networks.
• Ability to communicate and represent management in different committees both internal and external
• Proficient in English and/or French, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Proven skills in drafting and preparation of policy memoranda.
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint).
• For this position team work skills are critical: ability to work in interdisciplinary and multicultural environment, contribute constructive comments and receive positively the views of team members on own work.
• Ability to work with colleagues in other Complexes, especially in Operations.

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Reference: ADB/19/226
Location: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50000472
 
The Complex

• The Vice-Presidency, Human Resources and Corporate Services (CHVP) ensures the delivery of efficient, people-centered, client-oriented, corporate services to ensure overall institutional effectiveness in all aspects of the Bank’s corporate services. The complex leads efforts to ensure the competitiveness of the Bank as the employer of choice and is responsible for providing leadership in the formulation and implementation of Bank’s strategies on people, IT, general services and institutional procurements, language services, business continuity and, health and safety strategies.

The Hiring Department/Division

• The role of the Human Resources Management Department is to develop and execute a People Strategy, Policies, Processes and Practices that will enable the Bank to achieve its strategic Agenda. Core to the HR Strategy will be the attraction, development, engagement, motivation and retention of a best-in-class workforce.
• In order to create a truly transformed HR work-way, CHHR department is structured around a triangular Model: Business Partnerships for strategy, client contracting and HR delivery, Centers of Expertise/Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for internal consulting, thought leadership, design, talent and staff development and training and best practice benchmarking, HR Shared Services for transactional excellence and employees outreach. This HR Model provides a basis for facilitating the delivery of a world-class employee life-cycle experience.
• Within the Human Resources Department (CHHR), HR Shared Services Division (CHHR.2) is responsible for the administration of the employee lifecycle, management of staff benefits, HR transactional processing, and management of the employee personnel data. Additionally, this Division is tasked for ensuring that HR leverages on the capability of technology to not only automate processes but to ensure full benefits by digitizing processes for efficiency.

The Position
The Chief HR Information Systems Officer will be responsible for:

• Supporting the leadership of HR in the transformation from a desktop service based delivery department to one that takes full advantage of the technologies that support a smart bank environment that embraces and harnesses developments aligned to 4IR, Artificial Intelligence, electronic processing for query resolution, Digital Banking, and Internet of Things.
• Ensuring that all HR processes and workflows  are reviewed, and aligned to current Policies, Processes, Procedures, Staff Regulations and Rules, documented to ensure and allow for automation and digitisation.
• Reviewing current systems and developing a workplan that will lay the basis for systems clean-up and developments, encompassing functionality that is in-line with current Bank Strategy.
• Working closely with HR and IT within the Bank, to ensure that the partnership yields on-time delivery of developments and support of HR systems.
• Providing documentation for all systems developments and functionality for easier reference (using the latest approaches and technology).
• Prioritising availability of all HR systems, and providing consistent, efficient client support to the Bank's employees, managers, and HR personnel on the basis of targeted SLA’s to be agreed with clients.
• Project delivery (in different project roles) for all HR IT Projects.
• Ensure that personnel data is managed applying best-of-class approaches and ensure house-keeping and archiving of data is to the required standard.
• Ensure that master data structures are in line with Bank structures, and integrity, accuracy and changes are reported on a regular basis to CHHR management.
• Monitoring of contracts for IT resources placed within HR.
• Support all units within CHHR2, and HR with requirements analysis of all requests related to improvements for processing efficiency.
• Lead the change management initiatives to ensure best user-buy-in when systems are implemented.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the immediate supervision of the Division Manager CHHR2, the incumbent will undertake the following Key Responsibilities:
• Support the manager in delivering the HRSS Mandate, through active, timely and responsive participation in all initiatives that cut-across the Division.
• Supervise the maintenance of the HR Information system updated in line with regulatory and HR policy changes and with evolving needs of the SAP HR users and auditors. Further supervise the administration and update of the other applications of CHHR in line with policy and business changes.
• Develop and update HR Personal Administration processes, procedures and forms in view of permanently optimising the efficiency and reliability of the unit and recommend such improvements in processes and documents in other areas impacting the efficiency and reliability of the HR administration.
• Leads and/or participate in projects reinforcing the deliverables and effectiveness of the HR Administration.
• Plan, organize, supervise and control HR-related IT development projects.
• Develop feasibility studies and requirements analysis to justify and support the development of new and enhanced information systems. Keep available new releases, enhancements/new functionality and perform application research.
• Analyse user requirements, develop designs, and perform process modelling. Develop and recommend make/buy solutions to respond to business needs
• Supervise and perform configuration changes to accommodate change. Perform initial testing of problem fixes, change requests, enhancement assessments and make recommendations to CHHR and CHIS management.
• Ensure the identification and addressing of functional and technical issues with IT solutions and further work with CHIS for problem resolution and user support.
• Guide the development of training materials relating to IT applications and train users.
• Ensure that user requirements identification and mapping, developments, testing and documentation are in accordance with Bank standards
• Provide functional input needed by CHIS to evaluate continuing needs for hardware, software, databases, and operating systems, and further carry out detailed evaluations of operating systems, commercial software and programming utilities.
• Together with the manager, play a key role in team-building, live by the values of the Bank, and ensure that the service excellence principles of the Bank guide the delivery of the team.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in Human Resources Management, Information
• Technology, Accounting, IT Project Management or other related disciplines.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant practical working experience in a large volume and busy computerized HR Unit
• Deep knowledge of HR processes, HR Master Data, project Management, and HR Organizational Management principles.
• Demonstrable understanding of development methodology / life cycle.
• Ability to meet strict deadlines and work under pressure, and to schedule and prioritise the work for the team.
• Ability to work independently and coordinate with peers and other HR experts in a multidisciplinary team.
• Capacity to initiate and manage innovations and changes;
• Excellent skills in report writing and generation, communication, negotiation and project management;
• Requisite knowledge of SAP or other integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system preferably in Human Resource (HR) modules.
• Personal competencies that demonstrate an ability to function in a manner that contributes to seamless operational effectiveness across HR.
• Demonstrable commitment to achieving the mandate of CHHR2, supporting the manager and the team to ensure on-time delivery of the mandate.
• Proven skills in problem solving and solution and root cause analysis.
• Client orientation, team work and stakeholder management and relation building.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other.
• Excellent knowledge of the use of standard desktop software (Visio, Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint).