Division Manager Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting, ECMR.1 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: Division Manager Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting, ECMR.1

Position Number: 50092399
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Position Grade: PL2

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 (i) 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; (ii) 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 Divison / Department

• The Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division of the Development Research 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:
  • 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;
  • 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;
  • Conduct macroeconomic forecasting and economic outlook for the RMCs;
  • Provide cutting edge analytical support to Senior Management through timely economic intelligence work;
  • 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 transformational agenda of the High 5s across Africa;
  • 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
  • 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

• Provide effective and strategic managerial leadership to staff in the Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division in order to enhance productivity and effective delivery of the work program;

Key Functions

• 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;
• Proactively identify the key priority areas of policy research and ensure that these are in line with the High 5 transformational agenda and other operational priorities of the Bank;
• Provide mentorship and identify and design package of incentives to stimulate intellectual curiosity and potential of staff;
• Assist economists (macro and sector) throughout the Bank to employ standardized economic methodologies and tools, and 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;
• Strengthen the link between the research activities of the Bank and its economic and sector work and country level policy dialogue and ensure that research economists are directly mapped to country teams and contribute rigorous macroeconomic analytical thinking in the preparation and peer review of Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and Economic Sector Works (ESWs);
• Lead the dissemination of development research output and flagship publications internally and externally through various fora, including the Departmental Web Site and the dedicated Divisional microsite; conferences, High Level Policy Dialogue and other seminars;
• Play a leadership role in the provision of advice to other policy work of the Bank to ensure that it is in line with current 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, peer review mechanisms;
• Lead the design and delivery of professional development and intensified training of all economists of the Bank in order to upgrade skills and share best practices on macroeconomic issues;
• Develop robust technical and financial cooperation arrangements with other agencies and institutions undertaking research related to the Bank's development research priorities;
• Review and clear major statements and briefs prepared for the President and Senior Management by the Division on all macroeconomic issues;
• To assist the Chief Economist’s office in advising the President and Senior Management of the Bank on macroeconomic, debt sustainability and broader development issues in Africa
• 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:

• Determining the objectives of the Division and establishing the annual and medium-term work program;
• Making assessments in the recruitment of highly qualified staff for the Division;
• Assessing work performance, appraising staff potential and determining work related training needs;
• Take responsibility for staff appraisals and provide advice where necessary to ensure improved performance;
• Designing appropriate incentive structure for deserving staff and sanctioning noncompliance;
• Monitoring implementation of the Division’s work program and introducing changes where necessary to ensure that work objectives are met;
• 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:

• 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.
• Develop a comprehensive knowledge dissemination framework for the Division’s flagship reports and other knowledge products:
• Spearhead strategies aimed at ensuring effective knowledge sharing and die improvement of the quality of work generated from the Division’s activities.
• Determine ways of ensuring that knowledge generated for the Division’s activities is applied in Bank Operations.
• Provide analysis of RMCs economies using appropriate techniques and assessing regional and continental macroeconomic development strategies;
• 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.

Competencies (Skills, Experience and Knowledge)

• A minimum of a Master’s Degree in Economics; Public Policy; Applied Macroeconomics or other relevant discipline;
• A minimum of eight (8) years highly relevant experience, in a multilateral development institution, government agency or reputable organization involved in applied research.
• Extensive and in-depth experience in the use of statistical and econometric packages (EViews, Stata, MATLAB, etc.) and methods in data processing and analysis;
• Proven ability to build and lead a team of motivated staff, and utilize the talents and expertise of team members in a productive way.
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of leading econometrics software packages (MATLAB, EViews, R, Stata, GAMS, etc.) and in Microsoft software (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access); SAP.

Application Closing Date
10th May, 2022.