Location: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Position Grade: PL2
Position Number: 50092399
Posting Date: 16-Jan-2025
Closing Date: 15-Feb-2025
THE BANK
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 81 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. In order to sharply focus on the objectives of the Ten-Year Strategy (2024 – 2033) and ensure 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 COMPLEX
The core mandate of the Vice Presidency (ECVP is to lead the Bank Group on prioritizing the generation, analysis, dissemination, brokering and implementation of relevant knowledge solutions in all High 5s operational priorities and the cross-cutting themes of its Ten-Year Strategy. Such solutions must be a clear response to priority development challenges facing regional member countries (RMCs), individually or collectively and need to involve RMCs in both the planning and implementation of the solutions. The solutions include: (i) research on major development issues facing Africa and their relation to global economic governance and other major global public goods; (ii) country diagnostics and future perspectives; (iii) policy dialogue and advisory services; (iv) economic, sector, and thematic knowledge work; (v) improving national and sub-regional statistical systems; (vi) preparation, design and support to implementation of public financial management and Governance operations; (vii) capacity development for policy formulation and implementation; (viii) technical assistance and advice related to RMCs’ management of natural resources; and (vii) knowledge dissemination and development of national, regional, and inter regional knowledge networks.
DEPARTMENT/DIVISION
The Macroeconomics Policy, Forecasting and Research Department (ECMR) is dedicated to conducting research on major development issues facing Africa and their relation to global economic governance and other major global public goods. It provides economic research intelligence to support the Bank’s operational effectiveness of the Bank in achieving the High 5s in the regional member countries through rigorous micro-and macro-economic policy analyses, provision of policy dialogue, advisory services and technical assistance implemented in collaboration with other Departments in the Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Vice Presidency (ECVP) Complex, and other Sector Complexes of the Bank Group. The activities of the Department are structured around two Divisions, namely, the Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting (ECMR.1) and the Microeconomics, Institutional and Development Impact (ECMR.2).
The Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division of the ECMR Department is responsible for undertaking research on macroeconomic policy issues; conducing debt sustainability analysis and forecasting for policy analysis, within the broader framework of the Bank’s work on effective macroeconomic surveillance and economic governance in the RMCs. Specifically, activities of the Division focus on the following, inter alia: (i) Conducting policy research on the Bank’s High 5s and macroeconomic conditions in order to strengthen the Bank’s operations and interventions and improve the quality of policy dialogue and advocacy in the RMCs; (ii) Conduct debt sustainability analysis using cutting edge methodological tools and approaches in order to improve the Bank’s understanding of sovereign debt risk profile and the policy tools RMCs can deploy to contain debt distress; (iii) Conduct macroeconomic modelling and forecasting to provide short-, medium and long-term economic outlook for the RMCs; (iv) Provide cutting edge analytical support to Senior Management through timely economic intelligence work; (v) Conduct impact assessment of different external and policy shocks on economic growth and poverty, resource mobilisation, investment and other macroeconomic aggregates and how these in turn affect the achievement of the Bank’s High 5s transformational agenda across Africa; (vi) Collaborate with partner institutions, research think tanks and universities, both within and outside Africa, in order to deepen analytical capacity and broaden the scope and outreach of the Bank’s research work and (vii) Lead the production and dissemination of all the Bank’s flagship publications and other knowledge products on Africa’s emerging macroeconomic and development issues and on High 5s thematic areas.
THE POSITION
The role of the Division Manager, ECMR.1, is to provide effective and strategic technical and managerial leadership to staff in the Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division to enhance productivity and management of resources for effective delivery of the work program.
KEY FUNCTIONS
1. Provide professional and intellectual leadership in the conceptualization of analytical and research work on key development issues and challenges facing the African continent in order to expand the research program of the Bank.
2. Proactively identify the key priority areas of policy research and ensure that these are in line with the High 5s transformational agenda and other operational priorities of the Bank.
3. Provide mentorship and identify and design package of incentives to stimulate intellectual curiosity and potential of staff.
4. Assist economists (macro and sector) throughout the Bank to employ standardized economic methodologies and tools, to utilize appropriate economic indicators in their operational work and to identify, access and interpret the results of relevant economic research undertaken within the Bank or by collaborating with external research institutions and government agencies.
5. Strengthen the link between the research activities (and other economic, sector and thematic knowledge products of the Bank) and country level policy dialogue and advisory services and ensure that research economists are directly mapped to country teams and contribute rigorous macroeconomic analytical thought leadership in the preparation and peer review of Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and knowledge products.
6. Lead the dissemination of development research output and flagship publications internally and externally through various fora, including the dedicated departmental and divisional microsites; conferences within and outside Africa, High Level Policy Dialogue and other seminars.
7. Play a leadership role in the provision of advice on other policy work of the Bank to ensure alignment with current economic development thinking; provide leadership in helping the Bank meet the macroeconomic challenges facing the RMCs; lead the network of the Bank’s economists engaged in research-related work and promote high standards of work and peer review mechanisms.
8. Lead the design and delivery of professional development and intensified training of all economists of the Bank to upgrade their technical skills and share best practices on macroeconomic and development issues.
9. Develop robust technical and financial cooperation arrangements with other agencies and institutions undertaking research related to the Bank's development research priorities.
10. Review and clear major statements and briefs prepared for the President and Senior Management by the Division on all macroeconomic and broader socio-economic development issues.
11. To assist the Chief Economist’s office in advising the President and Senior Management of the Bank on macroeconomic, debt sustainability and broader economic development issues on Africa.
12. Manage the Division’s annual administrative and non-administrative budget to ensure effective utilization of financial and human resources.
Plans, organizes, manages and controls the activities of the Division by:
1. Determining the strategic objectives of the Division and establishing the annual and medium-term work program.
2. Making assessments in the recruitment of highly qualified staff for the Division.
3. Assessing work performance, appraising staff potential and determining work related training and personal development needs.
4. Take responsibility for staff appraisals and provide advice where necessary to ensure improved
5. Ensuring accountability and designing appropriate incentive structure for deserving staff, whilst sanctioning noncompliance to agreed performance objectives and key performance indicators.
6. Monitoring implementation of the Division’s work program and introducing changes where necessary to ensure that work objectives are met.
7. Monitoring the implementation of the budget in line with the work program.
Plans, manages and organizes activities relating to the conduct of economic research on African development issues. This involves:
1. Provide the Bank and RMCs with comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and macroeconomic projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economies and Bank Group operations.
2. Develop a comprehensive knowledge dissemination framework for the Division’s flagship reports and other knowledge products.
3. Spearhead strategies aimed at ensuring effective knowledge sharing and improvement of the quality of work generated from the Division’s activities.
4. Determine ways of ensuring that knowledge generated for the Division’s activities is applied in Bank’s Operations.
5. Provide analysis of RMCs economies using appropriate techniques and assessing regional and continental economic development strategies.
6. Promote and maintaining relations with institutions dealing with economic research and development policies, especially as they relate to Africa.
Represent the Bank in international and regional conferences, seminars and workshops where such papers will be presented.
Perform other tasks as requested by the Director and Senior Management
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COMPETENCIES (skills, experience, and knowledge):
1. A minimum of a Master’s Degree in Economics; Applied Macroeconomics; Public Policy or other relevant discipline.
2. A minimum of eight (8) years highly relevant experience, in a multilateral development institution, government agency or reputable organization involved in applied research including at least three (3) years of experience at leadership, managerial or highly supervisory level.
3. Proven ability to build and lead a multicultural team of motivated staff and utilize the talents and expertise of team members in a productive way to ensure effective delivery of the work program.
4. Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other
5. Extensive and in-depth experience in the use of statistical and econometric packages (EViews, Stata, MATLAB, R, Stata, GAMS, etc.) and methods in data processing and analysis, in Microsoft software packages (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access) and SAP.
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)
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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 further assessment will be contacted. Applicants should submit a concise Curriculum Vitae (CV) and any additional documents that may be stated as required. The President of the African Development Bank 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. http://www.afdb.org
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