Chief Climate Risk Finance Officer and Coordinator, ADRiFi Programme 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 Climate Risk Finance Officer and Coordinator, Africa Diaster Risks Financing (ADRiFi) Programme

Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Employment Type: Full-time
Position Grade: PL3

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s High 5s priorities of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.
• The Complex objectives are (i) to develop policy and strategy; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

The Hiring Department

• The Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Department works closely with the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department and the Regional Directorates to provide support for the delivery of Feed Africa: Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa, 2016-2025. Feed Africa has “7 Enablers”, i.e.: (i) increase productivity by catalyzing the development of effective input distribution systems and reduction in post-harvest waste and loss; (ii) realize the value of increased production by facilitating increased investment into output markets and supporting market incentives for value addition; (iii) increase investment into enabling infrastructure, both hard and soft infrastructure; (iv) create an enabling agribusiness environment with appropriate policies and regulation; (v) catalyze capital flows (especially commercial lending and private investment) to scale agribusinesses; (vi) ensure inclusivity, sustainability and effective nutrition beyond what the market may deliver otherwise; and (vii) coordinate activities to kick start transformation, align activities and investments of different actors, and guide initial activities to the point where private sector actors can be crowded in.

The Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Department focuses on delivery of the following:

• Design, finance and promote Public-Private Partnerships and private sector-led Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ).
• Finance, scale and catalyze capital flows of commercial lending and private investment into agribusinesses.
• Accelerate agriculture transformation through private sector actors.
• Design and support disaster risk financing structures to mitigate the financial impact of natural disasters and climate-related events on vulnerable populations in Africa through private sector led and enabled insurance and hedging mechanisms.
• Support Agri-small medium enterprise (SME) financing through catalytic mechanisms including but not limited to concessional and blend financing.
• Catalyze and support capital flows to scale SMEs by establishing risk sharing facilities and other products.

The Department has a front office and is structured into two Divisions: (i) Agriculture and Rural Finance Division; and (ii) Rural Infrastructure Development Division.

The Africa Diaster Risks Financing (ADRIFI) Programme

• The Africa Disaster Risks Financing (ADRiFi) Programme is coordinated from the front office of the Director of the Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Department as a Special Initiative, to support Regional Member Countries (RMCs) to enhance their resilience and response to climate shocks by improving the management of climate disaster risks.
• The ADRiFi Programme’s specific objectives are: (i) to strengthen the capacity of RMCs to evaluate climate-related risks and costs and elaborate subsequent adaptation measures; and (ii) to promote the development and provision of efficient disaster risk financing and climate insurance solutions and support their financing for enhanced preparedness to climate shocks.
• The ADRiFi Programme outcomes include: (i) efficient and timely first-response delivery to targeted beneficiaries affected by disasters, and (ii) strengthened resilience to climate-related disasters in RMCs. These outcomes are being achieved through a comprehensive capacity building programme, designed to assist RMCs to quantify and manage their climate risk, and to make informed decisions regarding transferring risk to the market through insurance, as part of a holistic national risk management strategy.
• Working collaboratively with RMCs and other stakeholders, The ADRiFi Programme’s principal implementing partner is the African Risk Capacity Group (ARC) which consists of ARC Agency, a specialized agency of the African Union established in 2012 and its affiliate ARC Ltd, a regulated commercial insurance company incorporated in 2014. Since its inception ARC has provided USD 720 million of insurance coverage offering protection to 72 million and paid out USD 65 million in claims providing disaster relief to over 3.8 million vulnerable populations in participating countries. The ADRiFi Programme has worked to help ARC increase its coverage, build RMC capability and awareness of the value of climate insurance, and enhance the quality of protection.
• The ADRiFi Programme implementation is contributing significantly to the growth and diversity of the pan-African risk pool promoted by the African Risk Capacity. Fifteen countries have joined the ADRiFi programme namely: Burkina Faso, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Togo and Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Total investment with respect to ongoing programme is currently at USD 100 million. Whilst the initial country projects were developed as stand-alone projects, newer projects are being embedded in country programs to facilitate the integration of disaster risk management into country programs and to reduce Bank transaction costs in preparing and implementing these projects.
• This is also in line with the strategy of the Bank to assist countries along the risk continuum, reducing exposure to climate hazard, whilst promoting climate risk transfer mechanisms for residual risks.
• To address some of the financing challenges, in 2021, the Bank created a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for the ADRiFi Programme, with contributions from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The MDTF has received pledged contributions up to USD 65 million from donors such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the USA, Canada and Norway. The MDTF aims to support the countries to manage the risks of climate-related disasters (e.g., extreme droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones) and be better prepared to intervene when such risks occur. The MDTF has been fully operational and is disbursing about USD 10 million on average every year.

The Position

• The Chief Climate Risk Finance Officer and Coordinator of the Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi) Programme (the “Coordinator”) reports to the Lead, AgriSME Development and Innovative Financing under the overall guidance of the Director, Agricultural Finance & Rural Development.
• The coordinator is responsible for providing leadership and technical oversight to the ADRiFi Coordination Unit (CU).
• This includes providing the technical direction of the ADRiFi Programme, overseeing resource mobilization from traditional (ADRiFi MDTF, RMCs performance-based allocation) and non-traditional sources, and proactively engaging in pipeline development of projects.
• Additionally, the Coordinator monitors resource utilization, supports portfolio performance through analysis and engagement with operations complexes, reports on results, and enhances visibility of the Bank’s work on climate and disaster risk finance by highlighting the work on the ADRiFi Programme.

Key Functions
Under the oversight of the Director, Agricultural Finance & Rural Development, and reporting to the Lead, Agri-SME Development and Innovative Financing, the Chief Climate Risk Finance Officer and Coordinator of the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme is responsible for the following:

• Lead the development and implementation of the ADRiFi Programme as the Bank’s flagship initiative on climate and disaster risk financing.
• Assist with policy dialogue, establish priorities, define scope of work for the ADRiFi program and set the goals and objectives for programme implementation.
• Facilitate engagement with the Bank’s internal and external stakeholders to promote climate and disaster risk financing and embed ADRiFi Programme activities into Bank operations.
• Manage the daily operations of the ADRiFi MultiDonor Trust Fund, prepare financial reports on the execution of planned activities and use of approved budget.
• Implement the established framework embedded in the Bank’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Risk Capacity (ARC) for collaboration in matters of common interest and specified modalities of collaboration with regard to the respective objectives, functions, policies and procedures of each party.
• Develop and execute an action plan for climate and disaster risk financing, including innovative new products to support agricultural insurance in Feed Africa value chains.
• Provide technical oversight to scale up climate and disaster risk financing, such as risk-sharing facilities that comprise loans, guarantees and technical assistance with the objective of catalyzing investments and bank lending in the sector.
• Execute ADRiFi Programme investments including, agriculture value chain projects at the Bank.
• Build and maintain a strong pipeline of potential investments, follow up on new business opportunities, and foster relationships with potential clients and players on the African continent and beyond.
• Oversee existing ADRiFi Programme investments including strategic and value-add activities with portfolio management and co-investments.
• Resolve challenges during negotiations and transaction structuring with potential participating countries and players, as well as during due diligence.
• Participate on the Bank’s advocacy on climate and disaster risk Financing through high-level dialogue using the Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management (RCC) as a primary platform.
• Provide technical oversight to mainstream climate and disaster risk financing with the goal of promoting agricultural insurance markets, providing technical assistance, and convening partners and governments (agricultural insurance/innovative financing);
• Provide technical oversight to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Multi-Donor Trust Fund (ADRiFi MDTF) and manage the relationships with ADRiFi MDTF donors and governance structures.
• Provide oversight to the Unit's support to Bank operational teams in preparing ADRiFi co-financing projects and guide teams to conduct, analyze and develop the necessary documentation to access ADRiFi MDTF funding as co-financing to Bank projects.
• Establish strategic alliances and partnerships with relevant stakeholders, with a particular focus on the insurance sector at the country and continent level. Engage players in alignment for sustainable insurance.
• Agree upon portfolio management arrangements for investments and technical assistance for implementation, following consultation with concerned regional/hubs and country offices.
• Supervise budget preparation, monitor its execution, and advise senior management on the budgetary and financial impacts of the unit's operations.
• Assist with the consultation process with government counterparts (regional, national, and sub-national level) and the insurance industry in each country to build ownership and define the rollout mechanism for national Climate and Disaster Risk Financing Strategies; and
• Participate and highlight the work of the Bank in relevant knowledge sharing and promotion platforms including international conferences and forums on climate and disaster risk financing, including climate risk insurance.
• Assess the training needs of staff in the Coordination Unit, monitor and evaluate their performance, and recommend personnel development actions to the Manager.
• Monitor best practice in the Coordination Unit and, as appropriate, liaise with counterparts in other organization; and
• Performs other duties assigned by the Lead, AgriSME Development and Innovative Financing.

Competencies (Skills, Experience and Knowledge)

• Hold at least a Master's Degree in Finance, Business Administration, Economics, Actuarial, Agricultural Sciences, Development Studies or closely related disciplines.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years relevant professional experience in the area of climate and disaster risk financing, insurance brokerage or consulting, five (5) of which should be in multilateral development institutions; have three (3) years working on the topic in a managerial capacity in an international bilateral/multilateral institution.
• Demonstrated depth of understanding of climate risk management including climate risk financing instruments such as risk transfer, contingent lines of credit as well other relevant risk financing and adaptation measures.
• Excellent technical and financial analytical skills coupled with an established track record in working on public financial management, ex-ante risk financing, with demonstrated understanding climate risk instruments as well as climate risk pools and their challenges and strategic issues.
• Proven leadership in matters relating to negotiating and structuring financial transactions, technical review of reports and consultation with other financiers, among others, particularly in the insurance sector.
• Knowledge of Africa, and the rural development needs, opportunities, development challenges and possible solutions.
• Comprehensively understands projects structures, including project planning, risk management strategy, communication management strategy, lessons learned and handover, and other critical success factors, strategies, policies, procedures and practices of other similar institutions.
• Acute knowledge and understanding of the elements essential for the effective delivery and measurement of development impacts through projects and programs in Africa.
• Ability to identify and create meaningful linkages across sectors to drive development impact at a country and regional level.
• Networking ability required to build successful relationships and partnerships with a broad range of clients, internal and external, for effective delivery of results.  Prudence and skill in identification of such relationships and partners based on meeting the needs and long-term interests of clients within and outside the institution.
• 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 applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint); knowledge of SAP is desirable.

Application Closing Date
2nd May, 2024.

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