EOI - Senior Consultant - Youth, Skills and Job Creation, South African Region - AHHD 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: Expression of Interested for Senior Consultant - Youth, Skills and Job Creation, South African Region - AHHD

Location: Pretoria, South Africa
Job Family: Other
Consultant type: Agriculture, Human and Social Development

The Bank

• The African Development Bank (theBank) is the premier multi-lateral development finance institution fostering economic growth and social progress in Africa
• The Bank’s primary goal is to reduce poverty and improve living standards by mobilizing resources in and outside Africa and providing financial and technical assistance for development projects and programs in Africa.

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Agriculture, Human, and Social Development (AHVP) is a Sector Complex focusing on two of the Bank’s High 5s priorities of “Feed Africa” and “Improve the 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 in external stakeholders engagements on aspects of “Feed Africa” and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

The Hiring Department

• The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD), within the Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex (AHVP) spearheads the achievement of the High 5-5 priority on “Improving the Quality of Life of People in Africa” while contributing to the other High 5s1.
•  The Department supports scaling up the Bank’s support to strengthen the Jobs for Youth Flagship coordination and education, skills, employment, health systems and nutrition programming for economic transformation.
• The Bank’s direct support to human capital development consists of interventions in the areas of education and skills development, jobs for youth as well as health, nutrition, and social protection.  
• Along this line, the Bank, in 2016, launched the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) Strategy with the aim to create 25 million jobs for young Africans and equip 50 million youths with relevant skills by 2025. 
•  In 2022, the Bank approved the Skills for Employability and Productivity Action Plan (SEPA) 2022-2025 to provide the strategic framework for Bank support’s to Regional Member Countries in the area of education and skills development. 
• The Action Plan, which is anchored on the JfYA Strategy seeks to bridge Africa’s skills gap, address skills mismatches and relevance on the back of Africa’s dynamic labour market.SEPA seeks to achieve its objectives through scaling up of investments in entrepreneurship  &  Small  and Medium Enterprise  (SME) development, enhancing technical skills for employability  while spurring innovation among the youth with special emphasis to gender and countries of fragility. 
• Thus, the assignment will be guided by the  JfYA  Strategy and the  SEPA, their implementation plans and the Results Measurement Frameworks.

The Objective of the Assignment

• The Bank has embarked on scaling up interventions aimed at addressing education and skills development as well as labor market challenges facing regional member countries in the Southern African region (RDGS), which covers 12 countries5.  
• The goal is to strengthen and expand the Bank’s its portfolio in the region through evidence-based policy dialogue with the Regional Member Countries (RMCs) and Business Development in the areas of education and skills development and job creation for youth.
• To achieve this, the Bank will also partner with Regional Economic Blocks academia, the private sector and Civil Society A dynamic team within the AHHD department is now based in the Southern Africa region (RDGS) to drive this agenda.

Scope of the Assignment:

• At this point, the African Development  Bank Human Capital, Youth, and Skills Development Department (AHHD) is seeking to recruit a Senior Consultant to support the Bank’s planned interventions in the areas of education and skills development, and job creation. 
• The person will be dynamic with excellent knowledge about the socioeconomic issues and political dynamics of the region. 
• He/she will work under the general guidance of the Regional Manager for Southern Africa. 
• He/she will be pleased to work with a dynamic team within AHHD and staff from other departments. 
• The Senior Consultant will also be a person who can nurture and provide guidance on how to navigate internal and external challenges. 
• Most important, the position is calling for a thought leader, with experience in development at the African level. 

The responsibilities for the consultant will include, but not limited to: 
Economic Sector Work and Policy Dialogue (30%):

• Conduct in-depth analyses and summarize gaps, challenges and opportunities to shape and define compelling high-level quality policy briefs, actions and recommendations for dialogue and strategic engagement with RMCs on youth development (skills and job creation through entrepreneurship, MSMEs)
• Analyze the sectoral trends, compare and contrast with global commitments such as the AU development Goals, SDGs as well as local RMC commitments
• Keep track of the emerging sectoral issues vis a vis RMCs plans, and advice the Bank’s role and responses
• Review the institutional set-up and sectoral reforms, providing the country’s overall institutional setup and sector governance architecture including regulation framework including urgent reforms that can be fast-tracked through Budget support and Technical Assistance.
• Draft quality and in-depth diagnostics to inform the Regional Integration Strategic Paper (RISP), Country Strategic Papers (CSPs) and project identification and preparation(vi)Participating in technical meetings and dialogue with the representatives of governments within the Southern African region on human development, skills and job creation

Business and Pipeline Development (70%):

• Develop a feasible pipeline of public and private sector projects, (at least 10).
• Provide evidence-based strategic technical guidance on market-driven workforce development methodologies, Skills and entrepreneurship, Development, private sector partnerships, access to credit for the Bank’s engagement with RMCs.
• Support the Regional team’s interventions in developing strong pipelines, including support during upstream preparation, structuring, negotiation, and closing of project transactions. Contribute to the operational documents and provide support for internal  processing,  review  transaction  agreements,  and  coordinate  across  project components with other team members
• Support the expansion of the upstream project pipeline that is targeted to mobilize private sector financing into the Hunan Capital Youth and Skills space.
• This includes the identification of opportunities and relationship building and management with both internal clients (Regional and Country teams) and external clients 
• Identify, cultivate and manage potential client opportunities to develop a strong pipeline of relevant both public and private sector transactions. 
• This includes participation in planning, preparation, fact-finding and project identification missions.
• Identify opportunities for strategic collaboration with multilateral and bilateral donors in support of education and skills development and job creation to increase Bank’s operation

Other Tasks:

• Support the Coordination of all divisional activities, including all related logistics that ensure comprehensive consultations with all stakeholders
• Preparation of high-level Quality Briefs on Youth, Skills and Entrepreneurship Development and Job creation for Bank’s senior management dialogue with RMCs within the Southern Africa region.
• Prepare briefing notes, design powerpoint presentations, and help draft concept notes and knowledge products to socialize and present proposed pipeline projects.
• Any other duties assigned by the Bank’s Management.

Selection Criteria
Minimum Qualifications and Experience

• A Postgraduate Degree in Development Finance, Development Economics, Public Policy, Labor, Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Economics or relevant field
• At least 15 years’ experience in quantitative and qualitative economic research, development policy and strategy development and benchmarking practice, monitoring and evaluation and other relevant fields.
• The Bank is looking for a seasoned senior consultant, who is highly respected and connected within the South African Regional Member Countries with the following attributes: 
• Proven track record of developing a feasible pipeline of projects (at least 10 projects) in the region.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex and multisectoral reviews/evaluations
• Demonstratable and extensive practical experience in economic research, strategy and policy development, monitoring and evaluation and multi-disciplines particularly in areas of employment, labour and development economics, statistics, entrepreneurship and private sector development, Strategic partnerships and financing, skills and innovation.
• Deep knowledge of international development with experience in workforce development and labour market and youth employment entrepreneurship issues especially within the contexts of Africa and Development Finance institutions.
• Highly developed institution capacity to deal with multisectoral and complex issues/analysis in a clear and practical manner. 
• Proven experience in multilateral development bank operations in project formulation, evaluation and processing would be added advantage.
• Strong experience in stakeholder engagement, networking and broad consultations.
• Strong experience and skills in surveys design, data collection and data analysis both quantitative and qualitative.

Skills Required:
Skills The Consultant will also be required to have:

• Excellent language capability (read, write, speak) in either English or French, with good working capacity in the other language.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills (both writing and verbal).
• Excellent report writing skills (Demonstratable).
• Ability to work on multiple assignments within tight timelines and to deliver in a timely manner without compromising quality
• Competence in the use of standard MS Office and virtual work applications
• Administration / Reporting:
• The consulting firm will work closely with the Southern African regional team under close supervision of the Regional Manager for Public Health, Nutrition and social protection under the Department of Human Capital Youth and Skills Development Department. 

Duration of the Assignment

• The duration of the assignment will be six (6) calendar months starting in 1 June 2023. The consultant will be based in the Bank’s South African Regional Office.

Remuneration
To be negotiated in line with the African Development Bank procurement rules and procedures.

Application Closing Date
15th May, 2023.

How to Apply
Interested candidates are invited to send a one-page motivational letter and their updated Curriculum Vitae (based on the template in Annex I) and letter of interest in a single PDF file (in English or in French) to: [email protected] ; [email protected] and copy to: [email protected] using “AHHD-RDGS Senior Consultant Youth, Skills and Job Creation, South African Region” as the subject of the mail.

Click here for more information

Click here for the Job Description (PDF)

Establishment of the Shortlist

• A shortlist of three individual consultants will be established at the end the of request of expressions of interest.

The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume:

• General Qualifications based on the Terms of Reference -30%
• Experience in the specific assignment –50% 
• Experience with international institutions -10%
• Language Capacity –05%
• Working knowledge of the Africa Region – 05%

Note

• File name: “[last name], [first name]” (e.g. Peterson, Anna)
• Subject line: “AHHD-RDGS Senior Consultant Public Health, Nutrition and Social Protection, South African Region” 
• Candidates are encouraged to include references to projects and analytical products developed under their previous working experience.
• We will contact you only if you are shortlisted for further consideration, and that, given the large volume of applications we receive, some time may elapse before the selection process is complete.