Career Opportunities at African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) – Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, AHVP

Reference: ADB/20/100
Location: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Grade: EL3
Position N°: 50092138

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 priority of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

The Position

• Reporting directly to the President, the Vice President will provide leadership on strategy, policy-making, execution  and delivery of the overall work program and budget of the Vice Presidency Complex, driving significant impacts and value for money through effective management of staff and resources to deliver quality sovereign and non-sovereign operations.
• The Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development will lead a team of experts across different regions of Africa organized in five departments, including:
  • Agriculture and agribusiness;
  • Agricultural finance and rural development;
  • Gender, youth and women development;
  • Human capital and skills development; and
  • Water and sanitation.

Duties And Responsibilities
The Vice President, AHVP will:

•  Drive a strong culture of performance to deliver impactful results on the ground within and across African countries from the Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex of the Bank. This will include spearheading strategic orientation, setting clear targets for delivery, providing leadership for the Directors, Managers and Staff, recruiting top-notch sector experts for the Bank and providing leadership to execute on the strategy to achieve food security, reduce malnutrition and stunting, create wealth and transform rural economies.
• Develop effective collaboration with the Regional Development and Business Delivery Vice Presidency and other Vice Presidency complexes, to deploy sector-level staff to the five regional integration and business delivery offices in West, East, Central, North and Southern Africa, and drive the successful development of agriculture, human and social development portfolios.
• Support countries to achieve rapid agricultural productivity growth, revamp research, extension and innovation systems to boost domestic food production and reduce dependency on food imports.
• Support development of private sector agribusinesses to process and add value to agricultural products and commodities across agricultural value chains, that take social and environmental and climate change dimensions into consideration, while cultivating multi-stakeholder partnerships between the private sector, civil society and communities to accomplish complex objectives.
• Spearhead support to countries and the private sector to achieve agricultural industrialization, through development of agro-industrial zones with smart integrated infrastructure, upgrading agricultural value chains, while developing the requisite skills and human capabilities, building on existing social structures and organizations.
• Provide leadership to ensure that all programs and interventions of the Bank pay close attention to gender impacts and accelerate the delivery of finance to women through the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women (AFAWA) initiative.
• Develop and significantly grow the size and quality of the Bank’s portfolio in the agriculture, human and social development sectors by forging strong strategic partnerships with multilateral, bilateral and regional organizations, the private sector and philanthropic organizations.
• Lead the execution of the Bank’s Jobs for Africa’s Youth strategy to build skills and entrepreneurship; implement strategic, systemic and scalable innovative financing systems to support entrepreneurship of young people; and deliver quality job creation for the youth across regional member countries.
• Develop and implement action plans to reduce malnutrition and stunting across regional member countries, including building political support and strategic partnerships for the implementation of the African Leaders for Nutrition, to drive accountability for malnutrition.
• Develop and implement innovative programs to accelerate access to water and sanitation across regional member countries, including through public-private partnerships, and improvement of the overall governance of these sectors.
• Foster an environment that stimulates teamwork, innovation, creativity and accountability for results, and motivate staff to deliver significant developmental impacts on the ground in the countries.
• As a member of the Senior Management Team, must be able to exercise and model good professional conduct, be an effective team player, be loyal to the code of conduct of the Bank and be able to work effectively with and under the guidance and direction of the President

Selection Criteria

• Hold a Masters’ or Ph.D degree in Agricultural Economics, Agriculture, Economics, Finance, Business Administration or relevant field in human and social development. Must have at least 15 years of international experience, of which at least 10 years must be at a senior management level.
• Have extensive experience in leading major agricultural, social and human transformations.
• Extensive experience working in multilateral financial institutions will be a distinct advantage.
• Must have extensive ability to develop strategic partnerships and build coalitions for achieving impacts.
• A proven leader that is able to translate vision into impact; with superior ability to motivate, inspire, support and hold teams accountable for results.
• Must have extensive experience in running large operations to deliver programs at scale.
• Familiarity with the work of multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions and the private sector will be an advantage.
• Experience of working in large, multicultural organizations in the public or private sector with a diverse workforce and sensitivity to diversity concerns of staff and Boards of Directors.
• Excellent people management skills, experience working with Boards of Directors or Trustees of corporate institutions and ability to effectively build support and coalition around agendas.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and/or French, and good practical knowledge of the other language.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidats should:
Click here to apply online

Job Title: Principal Water Resources Management and Development Officer, AHWS2

Reference: ADB/20/099
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50051528

The Complex

• The Vice-Presidency for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery (RDVP) is responsible for operational relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Bank Group’s operational programs and activities. The RDVP ensures that the Bank operates successfully across its Regional Members Countries (RMCs) and oversees the full implementation of all aspects of the Bank’s Regional Directorates.
• The Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex (AHVP) leads in implementing two of the five priority areas “High 5’s”, namely “Feed Africa” and “Improve the Quality of Life for Africans”. The Complex comprises five departments: (i) Agriculture and Agro-Industry Development; (ii) Agriculture Finance and Rural Development; (iii) Gender, Women and Civil Society; (iv) Water Development and Sanitation; and, (v) Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development.

The Hiring Departments/Division(S):

• Within RDVP, the Bank has five (5) Directorates, one in each region of Africa: North, South, East, West, and Central. Each Regional Directorate is headed by a Director General 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”. The position is under the Eastern Regional Directorate (RDGE) and located in Nairobi, Kenya.
• The mission of the Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex is to contribute to the Bank’s efforts to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development in RMCs. It does so by: (1) contributing to development of country and regional strategies and building sector knowledge; and (2) focusing on project/programme origination and delivery for approval of operations defined under the High 5 priorities. The Water Development and Sanitation Department (AHWS) is responsible for the coordination of the Bank’s water development and sanitation-related activities to enhance synergies and contribute to achievement of all High 5s.
• The AHWS.2 (Water Security and Sanitation Division) works in tandem with AHWS.1 (Water Partnerships and Coordination Division) and the African Water Facility (AWF) to provide the Bank thought leadership for water development and sanitation in Africa.
• The Department and the AHWS.2 play a lead role in supporting Africa to attain water security through the provision of technical expertise, generation and dissemination of pertinent sector knowledge and fostering strategic partnerships.
• Specifically, in line with the mandate of the Department, AHWS.2 provides guidance in the following thematic areas, among others:
  • Integrated & Transboundary Water Resources Development and Management for Water Security;
  • Water Supply for All;
  • Sanitation for All; and,
  • Water Sector Governance; as well as the cross-cutting areas including gender, climate change, private sector engagement and fragility.

The Position
The position of Principal Water Resource Management and Development Officer has the following objectives:

• Contribute to the Bank’s integrated water resources management and development programs (including transboundary programs), considering the increasing demand for water supply, rising conflict among competing water uses, climate change, fragility, urban development, and other key global trends;
• Facilitate cohesive approaches to guide the Bank on integrated water resources development to foster enhanced water security in Africa. Areas of responsibility will include project/program development, resource coordination, technical advice, identification of resource issues, policy development, and advocacy for sustainable transboundary water agreements and water conflict resolution into the East Regional Hub;
• Liaise with stakeholders in the RMCs, work closely with regional platforms and other complexes dealing with water resource issues, while contributing to the appropriate management of technical knowledge and guidance on integrated water resource management towards building water security into the region;
• Develop and manage the portfolio in the sub-region in accordance with the Bank’s policy by identifying projects and consulting with governments, the various stakeholders in RMCs and other Technical and Financial Partners (TFPs).

Duties And Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the Sector Manager, the incumbent will be responsible for the following:

• Provide technical advice/assistance to RMCs to develop their Water Resource Management mechanisms and tool towards ensuring a water secure environment in the East Region;
• Contribute to the development of the Bank Group Water Sector policy and provide technical advice/guidance to introduce and monitor the implementation of the policy.
• Identify, prepare and evaluate water resource management and development, water supply and sanitation as well as multisector projects and programmes in RMCs;
• Identify and coordinate the co-financing needs of the Division’s projects/programmes and make funding proposals;
• Enhance Water Resource Knowledge development and management into the region
• Supervise project portfolio in accordance with Bank rules and procedures;
• Perform project completion missions with a view to preparing project completion reports;
• Conduct project preparation and appraisal missions for water resource management and development, water supply and sanitation projects and programmes;
• Provide support to the Division to supervise staff, monitor the portfolio, the lending programme and the Division’s indicators;
• Support the Division Manager in monitoring and achieving the target indicators, and in monitoring projects managed by other colleagues;
• Represent the Division and the Department in meetings and events related to the water sector within the Bank, and externally;

Selection Criteria

• At least a Master’s in Water Resources Engineering, Hydrological Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Civil Engineering, or related field with a focus on water resources management and climate change;
• A minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience in national and transboundary water resources management and development or related operations, project management, and policy formulation.
• Good professional experience in international development institutions. Strong working experience in Africa in general and in the Eastern Africa Region is desirable;
• Strong knowledge of integrated water resources management (WRM), water supply and sanitation sector reforms, public-private partnerships, sector coordination, innovative financing mechanisms and pro-poor strategies;
• Good knowledge and experience in undertaking project cycle activities particularly: investment planning, identification, preparation, appraisal and administration of hydraulic infrastructure (including water supply, sanitation, multipurpose storage and drought risk management, etc.),
• Proven strong writing and analytical skills in designing water sector climate adaptation operations.;
• Strong analytical skills, particularly applied to climate change and climate risk assessments
• Demonstrated strong ability to think strategically, conceptualize and synthesize complex water sector issues (translated into effective oral and written briefs);
• Proven ability to identify and articulate policy issues, support analytical work (sector trade-offs and priorities, structuring of sanitation value chains), provide advisory services and deliver high quality innovative operational products
• Ability to initiate innovative approaches and originality at work;
• Demonstrated good ability to function effectively in a multi-cultural environment, sustaining partnerships, and to build effective working relations with clients and colleagues;
• 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 Bank standard software (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint). Knowledge of SAP is desirable.

Deadline: 13th August, 2020.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidats should:
Click here to apply online

Important Information / Notice

• This position is classified international status and attracts international terms and conditions of employment.
• Should you encounter technical difficulties in submitting your application, please send an email with a precise description of the issue and/or a screenshot showing the problem to HR Direct HRDirect@AFDB.ORG(link sends e-mail)
• To apply for this position, you need to be national of one of AfDB member countries.
• Applicants who fully meet the Bank’s requirements and are considered for interview will be contacted. Only online applications submitted with a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae (CV) and copies of the required degrees will be considered. The President, AfDB, reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level. The African Development Bank is an equal opportunities employer. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) does not ask for payments of any kind from applicants throughout the recruitment process (job application, CV review, interview meeting, and final processing of applications). In addition, the Bank does not request information on applicants’ bank accounts. The African Development Bank Group declines all responsibility for the fraudulent publications of job offers in its name or, in general, for the fraudulent use of its name in any way whatsoever.