Chief Economist and Vice President, ECVP at the 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: Chief Economist and Vice President, ECVP

Reference: ADB/19/212
Location: Abidjan, Cote D'ivoire
Grade: EL3
Position N°: 50092324

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 ECVP 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 ECVP 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/Division:

• The ECVP Complex core mandate has been to position the Bank as a trusted broker of knowledge in the pursuit of Africa’s development and make it a world class center of excellence advocating for evidence-based policy making. ECVP is therefore responsible for the management of Bank Group knowledge produce.
• This includes knowledge generation through strategic and applied research, knowledge measurement embedded in statistical and data work, knowledge generated from operational and field experiences, and knowledge sharing through dissemination, networking and partnerships.
• Hence ECVP’s activities can broadly be categorized as: (i) providing the knowledge base to support the effectiveness of Bank Group Operations and policy dialogue in RMCs; (ii) Capacity development in RMCs and Sub-Regional Organizations (SROs) in statistics, project and economic management; and, (iii) Leadership in coordination of knowledge advocacy, financial and economic governance in Africa.

The Position

• Support the President to drive and deliver the Bank’s operations across Africa and ensure development effectiveness and sustainable human, social and economic change in the African societies.
• Lead the analytical work of the Bank and position the Institution as a first-rate financial institution that leverages Africa’s potential to emerge as the new millennium’s economic power
• Provide outstanding leadership for the Bank on policy dialogues in regional member countries and regions.
• Build up, lead and manage a first-rate group of economists and policy analysts to strengthen the capacity of the Bank on country and regional policy dialogues.
• Build the African Development Institute to deliver practical high-impact human and institutional capacity strengthening for countries in addressing emerging challenges and policy orientations for achieving faster economic growth, development and economic governance, including sustainable debt management, working in close partnerships with other bilateral and multilateral institutions.

Duties and Responsibilities
Specific accountabilities of the function:

• Provide effective and timely advice to the President and Senior Management of the Bank through identifying and proposing ways to address priority macroeconomic and social issues; including other strategic areas of focus of the Bank for Africa.
• Provide leadership and professional guidance to the Departments of the Complex in the successful delivery of their respective mandate, through overseeing the design and implementation of coherent work programs that aligns with the Bank’s strategic orientations for the continent, in cooperation with other development agencies.
• Lead all technical, conceptual and analytical processes related to research and program development activities across the Complex.
• Lead the development of clear performance metrics, timely execution and high-quality deliverables for all departments of the Complex.
• Enhance the scope and quality standards of the Bank’s country economic and sector work by reviewing economic and sector work; overseeing the training of economic staff; and strengthening networking and knowledge sharing among research, country, and sector economists.
• Oversee management of the Bank’s support to the strengthening of RMCs’ statistical systems.
• Take responsibility for professional contributions to Bank Economic Intelligence documents by providing economic intelligence (statement, briefs, policy reviews) to Senior Management on economic development issues (macroeconomics, international trade, regional integration, natural resources management, sectoral issues, fragile state and finance) for presentation or discussion in regional and international forums.
• Take responsibility for the production of the Banks standing publications.
• Provide guidance on the Bank’s strategic approach to mainstreaming capacity development, knowledge leveraging and dissemination; including building strategic partnerships for improved development management.
• Provide guidance on economic governance and public financial management for good budget support operations in the Bank’s Regional Member Countries
• Provide guidance on natural resources management, including through analysis and advocacy, strengthening negotiating capacity, and designing local content policies, for RMCs’ deriving the highest social and economic value from their endowment.

Detailed activities in relation with the accountabilities of the function:

• Represent the Bank at major international meetings and events dealing with African economic and social development issues.
• Participate in collaborative research and knowledge management activities carried out jointly with regional and international organizations including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Research and Capacity Building Institutions in Africa, development research centers in North-America and the Oxford Centre for the Study of African Economies, among others.
• Participate in Senior Management Coordination Committee meetings.
• Participate in inter-Complex meetings to foster a one Bank approach.
• Assist and provide support to Senior Vice President on monitoring the Bank’s overall performance, advising on emerging issues of significance to the Bank’s successful implementation of its High Fives goals.
• Manage performance contracts of all Department Heads of the Complex, to ensure successful delivery of ECVP’s mandate.
• Participate in OPSCOM’s review of Bank investment operations.
• Participate in high level resource mobilization fora, to increase the Bank’s strategic impact in the RMCs.
• Carry out duties as assigned by the Senior Vice President.

Selection Criteria

• At least a PhD degree in Economics;
• At least 10-15 years of pertinent experience of, with at least 5 years at a senior management level.
• The top-level experience required is related to addressing issues of economic and social development in Africa, preferably gained in an academic or research environment or in a bilateral, multi-lateral, or regional development agency;
• Experience in managing development research activities, including ensuring quality of high-level research papers and knowledge leverage, dissemination and outreach;
• Familiarity with the roles of other development finance institutions in assisting economic reform and addressing poverty reduction in developing countries;
• Ability to think strategically and to design long term plans and programs in line with strategic priorities.
• Strong written and oral communications skills;
• Strong analytical skills, especially on macroeconomic matters;
• Excellent negotiation skills;
• Flexibility in dealing with high level demand and excellent team builder;
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language;
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications.

Application Closing Date
6th December, 2019.

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

Important Information/Notice

• This position is classified international status and attracts international terms and conditions of employment.
• 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.
• 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 [email protected]