Chief Fragility and Resilience Officer, RDTS Vacancy at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

Position Title: Chief Fragility and Resilience Officer, RDTS.

Job Station: Other Countries.

INTRODUCTION :-

Chief Fragility and Resilience Officer, RDTS job opportunity is available at African Development Bank Group (AfDB) for individuals who possess a Masters’ or equivalent degree in Economics, Political Science, Social Sciences, International Relations, Organizational Development, Business Administration or related discipline.

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: ‘Light up and Power Africa,’ ‘Feed Africa,’ ‘Industrialize Africa,’ ‘Integrate Africa,’ and ‘Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa’.

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 various Regional Directorates and Country Offices. Apart from RMCs, the Bank also works with a number of international partners including the African Union (AU), The United Nations System (UNS), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Lake Basin Organizations (LBOs) and other Specialized Agencies including other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).
• 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 emerging pressures which include, conflict and instability, population displacement and migration, continuing patterns of exclusion, marginalization of women, youth and local communities, pervasive poverty, unemployment, 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 especially countries facing fragile situation or transition States.
• More recently, the impact of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic which is already having an adverse effect of the world economy will have far reaching adverse consequences on transition States which are already vulnerable. They are likely to bear the brunt of the health, social, economic and even security impacts of COVID-19. This demonstrates that vulnerabilities facing transition States are not static but dynamic and neither are they restricted to national boundaries as most often times, they have regional spill-over effects or even global knock-on effects requiring holistic, coordinated approaches for their resolution.
• 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 societies. A major part of RDTS’ activities involves the identification of the main drivers of fragility, including economic, social, political, security 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. Central to RDTS engagement is the systematic application of a “Fragility Lens” to identify and mitigate drivers of fragility so as to support RMCs facing fragility situations to build long-term resilience in areas where the Bank can leverage the biggest impact through the application of the Country Resilience Fragility Assessment (CRFA) tool and corresponding Fragility Assessments.
• Given the cross-cutting nature of fragility, the Bank is now mainstreaming fragility in its programming for both its lending and non-lending operations including in the preparation of Bank policies, strategies and diagnostic tools such as the Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and the Regional Integration Strategy Papers (RISPs). The Bank is also seeking to produce Economic Sector Work (ESW) to enhance policy dialogue on fragility related issues to drive reforms and policy change aimed at creating enabling environments for accelerated development in transition States. This includes creating a business-enabling environment to attract investments in general, but also private sector engagement in transition States as a way of expanding opportunities for investments, economic activity and job creation.

The Position

• Under the supervision of the Director, RDTS, the main responsibility of the Chief Fragility and Resilience Officer entails the development, programming and implementation oversight of fragility interventions in RMCs based on the Bank’s Agenda for addressing fragility and building resilience in Africa, the Bank’s High 5 Agenda and relevant Bank policies, strategies and guidelines.
• Her/his responsibilities also include preparation of analytical work, fragility lens application, partnerships, resource mobilization and advocacy including providing leadership to technical teams within RDTS and across the Bank to deliver the Fragility Agenda within a consultative partnership approach underpinned by adaptability, innovation and responsiveness.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES :-

The Chief Fragility and Resilience Officer will work closely with RDTS team members on the operational implementation of the Bank’s fragility agenda. Her/his duties are:

• Coordinate with appropriate Bank Group’s units and establish a three-year rolling Work agenda for the Fragility Lens application aligned with the schedule of Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and Regional Integration Strategy Papers (RISPs) due for preparation in 2020-2022, as well as the 2020-2022 ADF rolling Indicative Operational Programme (IOP).
• Provide technical support to RDTS fragility and resilience experts on analytical work for the preparation of Fully-Fledged Fragility Assessments (3FAs). Review draft documents; provide input; and give appropriate guidance to ensure that fragility assessments are of high quality and properly address political economy considerations, as well as capacities and pressures related to externalities, regional spill-over effects, gender, youth empowerment, environmental as well as economic and social impacts.
• Alongside RDTS fragility and resilience experts, provide strategic direction in the preparation of Country Diagnostic Notes (CDNs), Regional Diagnostic Notes (RDNs) as well as relevant Bank analytical reports. Review draft documents; provide input; and ensure that the findings of fragility assessments are mainstreamed and effectively translated into strategic pillars and operational priorities.
• In the context of ADF-funded operations, provide technical leadership and quality assurance in the review phases of Project Concept Notes (PCNs) and Project Appraisal Reports (PARs) to ensure that fragility is adequately mainstreamed.
• In the context of national or regional projects (partly or fully) funded through the Transition Support Facility (TSF), ensure that the PCNs and the PARs are explicitly identifying drivers of fragility and entry points for interventions under the scope of the project. Appropriate reviews (and direct inputs when necessary) are required to clearly articulate in the PCN and in the PAR how the identified entry points would directly contribute to building resilience.
• Represent RDTS and be part of the Regional Operations (ROs) prioritisation and selection exercise. In line with the Revised RO prioritisation framework, verify to what extent proposed Regional Projects and Regional Public Goods (RPGs) are fragility-sensitive both at the level of participating countries and at project design.
• In the context of ADF-funded operations, represent RDTS and be part of the Readiness Review process. In line with the 2020 Enhanced Readiness Review Framework, assure the strategic, results, and implementation readiness of the operation as articulated in the PCN/PAR. In the readiness review checklist, verify to what extent drivers of fragility are explicitly contextualized, entry points for building resilience are properly identified, and these are effectively translated into operational interventions.
• 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.)
• Contribute to RDTS’ efforts for institutionalizing the Fragility Lens application Bank-wide through experiences-sharing, lessons learned, and recommendation of best practices. Along these lines, provide reviews, comments, relevant materials, and appropriate inputs feeding into the preparation of the Fragility Lens Operational Guidelines.
• Provide technical leadership in the peer-reviewing of RDTS analytical products, including regional and national full-fledged fragility assessments, the annual Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA) Report, Economic and Sector Work (ESW) studies, as well as briefing notes
• Contribute to preparing relevant issues in key documents for resources mobilization, especially of the Transition Support Facility (TSF) during the replenishment and mid-erm review discussions of the African Development Fund (ADF) in close coordination with relevant Bank’s units.
• Under the “One Bank Approach”, provide technical leadership in RDTS’ participation in the Bank Group’s departmental and inter-departmental working groups and provide technical inputs that help the understanding of fragility issues across Bank projects, programs and policy documents; and provide technical inputs for Bank’s management and decision-makers of RMCs regarding project implementation.
• Ensure effective coordination with Bank Regional Delivery Hubs (RDGC, RDGE, RDGN, RDGS, RDGW as well as RDNG) as well as Country Offices (COs) as well as Bank Sectoral and Operational Departments to ensure alignment and optimization of Bank capacities and leverage to deliver on the Bank’s Fragility Agenda.
• Work with Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and international development partners, as well as peace-building and humanitarian actors for the development of joint programmes and interventions in transition States.
• Undertake any other assignments and tasks as requested 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.

DESIRED EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATION :-

The Selection Criteria including desirable skills, knowledge and experience is as follows:

• Hold at least a Masters’ or equivalent degree in Economics, Political Science, Social Sciences, International Relations, Organizational Development, Business Administration or related discipline.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in the areas of peace and state building, international relations, in preparing, appraising, managing or supervising sustainable development and management of projects and programs, in operations monitoring and evaluation, and/or in preparing and implementing operational policies and guidelines within fragility situations.
• Strategic and objective thinking and reasoning including ability to make difficult decisions and being result-oriented including ability to apply business knowledge to the resolution of problems and identifying solutions to the benefit of clients (internal and external) and the Bank.
• Ability to assess, design, develop and deliver complex multi-sector projects and programs within dynamic and rapidly changing environments in a timely and effective manner while adhering to tight deadlines and responding to multiple demands.
• Strong analytical and modelling abilities and ability to lead operations from inception to completion would be an advantage including good planning and organization skills as well as ability to identify, assemble and lead multi-disciplinary and multicultural technical teams to deliver quality outputs.
• Strong familiarity and knowledge of economic, social policy, political dimensions development in general and of fragility in particular and its development dynamics in RMCs at national, regional and continental levels.
• Knowledge of the operational policies, procedures and practices of major Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), bilateral and multilateral development agencies including design and implementation of operations in fragile situations.
• Demonstrable ability to multi-task and manage their and to work under pressure within a competitive international working environment including facilitation and negotiation skills at the regional, continental and international level.
• Excellent communication and Interpersonal Skills and ability to maintain effective partnerships and working relations in a multi-cultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
• Commitment to the highest professional and ethical standards coupled with excellent interpersonal skills including an innovative and pragmatic approach to find appropriate solutions to key issues.
• 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 and relevant project processing tools.

Apply Before :-

17th July, 2020.

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Note: This position is classified international status and attracts international terms and conditions of employment.

WHO IS 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.