AFAWA Officer, AHGC0 (West & North Africa) at 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: AFAWA Officer – Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (For West & North Africa), AHGC0

Reference: ADB/20/114
Location: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4

The Complex
The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on two of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy High 5s priority of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”. The complex objectives are:

To develop, policy and strategy;
Provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions;
Develop new financing instruments;
The Vice President will act 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 Hiring Department:

Within the Complex, the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department is designed to improve coherence and coordination across Complexes on Gender and Civil Society Organization issues. The Department ensures strategic priorities are reflected in resources allocation, enhances monitoring and management of performance, and strengthens the focus on results.
The Department also houses a number of special initiatives including the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), a flagship program of the Bank that aims to bridge the gender gap in access to finance and unleash women’s entrepreneurial capacity across the continent. AFAWA’s holistic approach focuses on 3 pillars: (a) access to finance, leveraging AfDB’s various instruments such as lines of credit, equity investments and risk sharing mechanisms, (b) technical assistance, to financial institutions as well as women entrepreneurs, and (c) policy dialogue to reform the legal and regulatory frameworks affecting women businesses.

The Position

The Principal AFAWA Officer will be based in ABIDJAN, CÔTE D’IVOIRE, under the supervision of the AFAWA Program Coordinator and the leadership of the Director, Gender Women and Civil Society Department.
The Principal AFAWA Officer will work on the design, structure and implementation of operations under the access to finance and Technical Assistance (TA) / Capacity Building pillars of AFAWA.
He / She will deliver substantial, innovative and measurable results related to increasing access to financial services and markets for women-owned SMEs and support the knowledge and learning agenda for banking women-owned SMEs. Given the importance of the enabling environment to enhance access for women-owned SMEs, the Principal AFAWA Officer will oversee and monitor progress on the pillar working in close collaboration with the regional gender specialist and the AFAWA Enabling Environment Officer.
The AFAWA Officer should have extensive experience in SME and Gender Finance/Gender Lens investing or related consulting services and be familiar with designing, implementing and managing banking advisory programs.
He / she will have a deep understanding and practical experience working with key banking operations and have strong capabilities in data management and analytics.
He / She will also contribute to the AFAWA team’s knowledge management initiatives.

Duties and Responsibilities
The AFAWA Operations Officers under the oversight of the AFAWA Coordinator (AHGC.0), will perform the following duties and have the following responsibilities:

Business Development:

Working closely with the Private Sector Finance Department and other relevant Bank departments, organize / participate in business development missions through market analyses and meetings with existing and potential clients to identify potential areas for AFAWA support to increase access to financial services for women. This will include pipeline identification and participation in client due diligence and appraisal, identification of technical assistance and capacity building support
Prepare AFAWA TA pitch books and project proposals approval reports including project objectives, scope of work, key deliverables, timelines, budget and expected outcomes and impacts with input from the client and relevant Bank Departments
Participate in drafting donor proposals and securing funding for AFAWA programs as needed.
Work closely with Digital Financial Services to design and implement projects to facilitate women-owned SME’s access to digital finance and the digital economy.
Contribute to tools and standards to further enhance the Bank’s ability to deliver strong and impactful access to finance and markets programs for women entrepreneurs on the continent.

Design Implementation and Quality Assurance:

Participate in the review of both lending and non-lending projects within the ambit of the AFAWA Program, strengthen the provision of operational inputs for the mainstreaming of AFAWA key performance indicators, including the identification of women entrepreneurship indicators and development outcomes and specific technical assistance activities.
Work closely with the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department, as well as the Financial Sector, Private Sector and other Sector Departments (notably the Agriculture Finance and Rural Development Department), to harmonize the integration of AFAWA in Bank’s operations
Provide market intelligence on the women’s market and business case for investing in women; recommend innovative and operational products/toolkits with the aim of addressing adequately the challenges women entrepreneurs face in accessing finance and markets and achieve the objective of AFAWA.
Have overall responsibility for project AFAWA technical assistance and capacity building design at client level, including scope of work definition, timeline and budget setting, outcome target setting, stakeholder identification and mapping, terms of Reference development including procurement of experts and coordination essential to the implementation of AFAWA projects.
Manage client relations through open and regular communications to assess progress and satisfaction; anticipate and respond to client needs
Prepare and draft internal and external project documents and reports e.g., project documents, mission reports, project supervision and completion documents
Monitor and review project implementation, scope of work and resources deployed, to ensure project qualitative and quantitative milestones are achieved, and corrective actions taken when necessary, provide project updates for internal and external audiences
Meet with clients on a regular basis to assess project progress; continually anticipate and respond to client needs to ensure client satisfaction
Supervise consultant work to ensure high quality and on-time delivery of work program
Contribute to research and knowledge management events and publications
Perform analysis of client-related data and information to derive insights
Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Selection Criteria

Hold at least a Master’s degree or equivalent in Development Finance, Business, Economics, or related field; relevant qualification in investment appraisal and project finance is a plus.
Have a minimum of six (6) years of SME finance experience, with track record in banking women-owned or led Enterprises – experience in developing gender financing products is an asset.
Good command of undertaking comprehensive due diligence and clients’ portfolio data analysis as well as SME Banking practices;
Experience in financial and investment policy engagement, particularly in relation to inclusive finance and women’s access to credit.
Experience in designing and leading technical assistance and capacity building programs for SMEs and more specifically women-owned SMEs.
Good understanding of Human Centered Design methodology is a plus
Strong client relationship management skills, including the ability to develop and maintain mutually beneficial stakeholder relationships with senior management and ensure timely and appropriate follow-up
Ability to identify possible shortcomings of clients (and to propose solutions, formulated through detailed technical assistance proposals.
Demonstrate strong analytical and reporting skills.
Ability to perform in non-traditional sectors and work autonomously within deadline.
Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English and French. Working knowledge of Arabic is an asset.
Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint); knowledge of SAP is desirable.