THE BANK:

Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social development across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries).  The Bank’s development agenda is designed to provide financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus on the objectives of the Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and achieve greater developmental impact, five major areas (High 5s), all of which will accelerate our delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa. The Bank is seeking to build a management team that will lead the successful implementation of this vision.

THE COMPLEX:

The Senior Vice-Presidency (SVP) is responsible for supporting the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group in order to achieve its strategic objective and drive performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results. The Senior Vice-Presidency provide effective leadership and exceptional coordination to ensure implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions as well as the identification of necessary corrective measures and actions. The Senior Vice-Presidency leads senior management discussions, decision-making processes and the implementation of key Board and Management decisions.

THE HIRING DEPARTMENT:

Located within the SVP Complex, the Operations Committee Secretariat and Quality Assurance Department works to continuously enhance the quality and timely delivery of Bank operations. The Department coordinates and supports the Bank’s global efforts towards sharpening the country focus, strategic selectivity and quality of the Bank’s operations.

Within the Department, the Quality Assurance (QA) Division is an operational support unit of the African Development Bank (AfDB) that focuses on enhancing and mainstreaming the quality and results of the Bank’s strategies and operations. To this end, it is responsible for: (i) setting certain quality standards for the Bank’s interventions; (ii) strengthening tools and processes throughout operational cycles notably those relating to monitoring and results; and (iii) building staff capacities and facilitating operational knowledge dissemination.

THE POSITION :

Within the Quality Assurance Division, the Principal Quality and Development Effectiveness Officer will be responsible for developing and integrating quality assurance and results tools into the project cycle of operations; strengthening the Bank’s overall reporting capacity and to report on its operational performance and development results; and enhancing the knowledge of operations staff through training. The Officer will work closely with sovereign and non-sovereign operations teams to ensure the division provides tailored support. In addition, the post holder will play a leading role in delivering training to support operations quality, including through delivery of the online learning program “Operations Academy”.

KEY FUNCTIONS :

Under the supervision of the Manager, the Principal Quality and Development Effectiveness Officer will have the following duties:

1. Quality and monitoring throughout the project cycle. Take a leading role in setting quality at entry standards and guidance for sovereign operations; support application, compliance, quality assurance and continuous improvement of tools used to monitor and self-evaluate sovereign operations. Work to increase alignment and shared learning between sovereign and non-sovereign operations. Specifically, the role will include a particular focus on the readiness review approach, results frameworks in operations and strategies, and linked tools such as theory of change and standard indicators.
2. Quality and monitoring compliance. Leading compliance data management and communication, and contributing to compliance and learning reviews.
3. Operations Academy. Support delivery of a range of online leaning courses, and continuous improvement of existing courses, in the context of the Bank’s “Operations Academy” program. The program covers both sovereign and non-sovereign operations. Support communication, promotion and continuous improvement of the Operations Academy program.
4. Analytical/knowledge work and communications. Contribute to the preparation of the analytical work and reports relating to both compliance and lesson-learning of quality assurance and monitoring tools, as well as broader communication on quality and results measurement.
5. Staff learning, coaching and quality clinics. Facilitate workshops and learning events organized for operations staff, including staff members in country and regional offices; provide training and mentoring of task managers especially for the mainstreaming of new tools, and strengthening capacity for results planning, monitoring and lesson-learning.
6. Relationship management. Build and maintain effective working relationships with staff of regional and sector departments, as well as other departments supporting operations, to ensure Bank-wide ownership/internalization of tools, and two-way learning.
7. Miscellaneous. Undertake other duties as assigned by the Division Manager.

COMPETENCIES (skills, experience and knowledge) :

1. Hold at least a Master’s degree or equivalent in business administration, economics, statistics, development or related disciplines.
2. Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant professional experience on quality assurance and results and/or working directly in operations.
3. Knowledge of quality assurance policies and operational processes, and of monitoring and results tools of the African Development Bank, other multilateral development banks or similar institution.
4. Strong knowledge of results planning and monitoring techniques in an international development context, including results frameworks, theory of change and project risk analysis, and use of standard indicators.
5. Solid experience in developing training materials for both online and in-person delivery, conducting training workshops, development of online courses.
6. Strong communication and change management skills and experience.
7. Experience in data management and analytics would be an asset.
8. Demonstrated innovation and creativity.
9. Able to work independently with a minimum of supervision. Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and coordinate interdepartmental team efforts.
10. Proven leadership and excellent communication skills.
11. Ability to communicate effectively (written and spoken) in English or French, preferably with a good working knowledge of the other language.
12. Good command of standard applications of the Bank (MSTeams, Sharepoint, Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint) Experience with SAP, statistical tools and e-learning software such as Articulate would be an advantage.

THIS POSITION IS CLASSIFIED INTERNATIONAL STATUS AND ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT.