EOI - Quality Assurance and Operations Support - AHVP 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: EOI - Quality Assurance and Operations Support - AHVP

Location: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Duration of the assignment: 1 August 2023 - 31 July 2024
Tentative Date of commencement: 1 August 2023
Consultant Type: Individual Consultant
Job Family: Agriculture, Human and Social Development;
Department issuing the request: Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex (AHVP)

Background
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 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.
• In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas, 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 Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ (AHVP) is a Sector Complex charged with the implementation of two of the Bank’s High 5 priorities of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.
• The complex objectives are fourfold: to develop policy and strategy; to provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions and to develop new financing instruments.
• The Vice President acts as the spokesperson to represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.
• The complex has departments which implement its operational and strategic programs.
• They include Agriculture and Agro-Industry; Agricultural Finance and Rural Development; Gender, Women and Civil Society; Water Development and Sanitation; and Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development.
• Each department is led by a Director who supervises a number of Division Managers and Program Coordinators.
• The Complex will drive the Bank’s bold vision and focus on “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life in Africa”.

Approach to Program Implementation:

• The Bank is currently operating under a Development and Business Delivery Model (DBDM) through which it has created 5 regional Business Development Hubs each led by a Director General – Tunis for North Africa, Nairobi for Eastern Africa, Pretoria for Southern Africa, Yaoundé for Central Africa, and Abidjan for West Africa. The Bank also has a presence in 41 countries each led by a Country Manager or a Bank representative.
• Both the Director General and Country Managers are responsible for leading country-level dialogue and work closely with the AHVP complex to determine the operational lending program.
• The AHVP lending programs under Feed Africa and Improve the Quality of Life of the People of Africa are therefore implemented at two levels: at the AHVP complex and in the regional member countries.
• The complex also has a number of initiatives that cut across the entire institution.
• Examples include Gender mainstreaming and jobs for African youth. AHVP provides technical and operational support to mainstream these initiatives in all Bank operations.
• Each department in the complex has specific roles and responsibilities.
• Agriculture and Agro-Industry are responsible for the public sector agricultural lending program while the Agricultural Finance and Rural Development are responsible for agricultural private sector lending program.
• The Gender, Women and Civil Society provide cross-cutting support to all Bank operations in mainstreaming gender and support to civil society. The Water Development and Sanitation support investments in the water sector and Human Capital, Youth, and Skills Development support programs in health, education, and skills development.
• The implementation of lending programs is led by either the AHVP complex or the Regional Units and/or the Country Offices.
• This includes business origination, project preparation, negotiation, implementation, and portfolio management.

Brief Description of the Assignment

• Support the office in the assurance of the quality of the Bank’s operational and strategic programs. The incumbent will also draft, review, and revise strategic and operational documents that support the delivery of the complex’s lending and non-lending program.

Scope of Work

• AHVP complex is seeking the services of an experienced consultant to support the assuranceof quality of its operations and strategic programs.

The specific responsibilities of the consultant will be as follows:

• Contribute to and, where necessary, lead the preparation of identified operational and strategic documents in consultation with the sector teams.
• Review and assist in aligning strategic and operational documents with the corporate commitments in the 15th African Development Fund (ADF 15) replenishment and the 7th General Capital Increase (GCI VII).
• Review and support the alignment of the results measurement frameworks and theory of change in operations and programs with the Complex’s Key Performance Indicators, corporate Results Measurement Framework and Quality Assurance Agenda, the ADF 15 and GCI VII operational and policy commitments.
• With respect to results measurement frameworks and theory of change in sector operations, the consultant will be responsible for the following:
  • Providing technical advice for the revision of performance indicators.
  • Ensuring realistic intermediate and end-of-program targets are defined.
  • Identifying sources of data, collection methods, who collects data, how often, cost of collection, and who analyzes it.
  • Ensuring all critical risks are identified.
  • Ensuring the alignment of the results measurement systems with the Bank’s corporate standards.
• Identify the requirements for the collection of supplementary baseline data, assist project teams in drafting terms-of-reference for baseline data collection, and assuring appropriate budget allocation where required.
• Contribute to the development of the Annual Work Plan, ensuring alignment with Programme strategy, agreement on annual targets and inclusion of M&E activities in the work plan of the complex and of each department.
• Assist in the preparation of the complex’s quarterly operations and budget implementation repor
• Assist in the preparation of the complex’s contribution to the corporate Annual Report and the Annual Portfolio Performance Review (APPR) report.
• Undertake any other assignments as may be determined by AHVP management from time to time.

Expected Deliverables:
The following are the key deliverables for this assignment:

• Reports of acceptable quality on all the assignments listed above.
• Contributions in project appraisals reports that are acceptable by management for processing and approval by the Board of Directors.
• Reviews of operational and strategic documents as assigned by the supervisor.
• Compendium on key lessons and recommendations towards improving the quality of complex operational and strategic documents.

Methodology:

• The consultant will be based in the Front Office of the Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development under the supervision of the Vice President Advisor(s).
• He will work closely with the Front Office technical team and directly with the departments and where necessary will support project teams to improve the quality of operations and cross-cutting initiatives.

Consultant Qualifications
The Bank is looking for an experienced consultant with the following characteristics and qualifications:

• Minimum of a Master's Degree in Economics, Social Development, Development Economics, Strategic Management, Engineering or a closely related development field.
• A minimum of 8 years work experience of which 3 must have been in public sector lending or in a multilateral development banking institution.
• Extensive experience with the policy, strategy and operational landscape of multilateral development institutions. Knowledge of the African Development Bank and its operations or a similar multilateral development bank would be an added advantage.
• Experience in conducting analytical work on monitoring and impact evaluation in sector-wide development programs at national or regional levels.
• Experience in leading teams of diverse cultural and professional backgrounds in a multilateral and multicultural setting.
• A committed project leadership team with personal experience working in Africa with both public and private sector leaders.
• Fluency (written and spoken) in French or English, with preferably a good working knowledge of the other language.

Time Schedule for Deliverables and Reporting Requirements:
The period for this assignment is 6 calendar months with key timelines as shown below:

• Commencement of Assignment: 1st August 2023 
• The consultant shall report to the VP, AHVP. Day-to-day management of the consultancy shall be assured by a person designated by the VP. 

Application Closing Date
Thursday, 20th July, 2023 (17:00 GMT).

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Letters of interest and detailed Resumes to Faiza Ben Salah, via: f.bensalah@afdb.org

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Click here for the Job Description (PDF)

Note: Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to: Faiza Ben Salah, via: f.bensalah@afdb.org