Senior Gender Officer – Innovation at African Development Bank

THE COMPLEX:

The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on 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: (i) to develop, policy and strategy; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pool of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; and (iv) represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

THE HIRING DEPARTMENT/DIVISION:

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. As part of the Gender, Women and Civil Society Directorate, the Gender and Women Empowerment Division provides leadership on mainstreaming gender in operations.

THE POSITION:

The Senior Gender Officer – Innovation will provide policy and technical support to foster innovative and non-traditional approaches of promoting gender equality and women empowerment.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Division Manager, AHGC.1, the responsibilities of the Senior Gender Officer – Innovation include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assist in the design of innovative workstreams to advance gender equality and women empowerment in the context of the Bank’s strategic thrusts;
• Increase the visibility of the Bank’s innovative initiatives and show progress in their implementation;
• Conduct and prepare studies, reports, background/position papers and blogs on a range of issues relating to gender equality and women’s empowerment, collecting and synthesizing best practices;
• Identify and propose the development of potential high-growth sectors and initiatives that increase women access to markets and opportunities;
• Strengthen the Bank’s approach towards supporting creative industries to increase women’s economic opportunities;
• Support best practices in the identification and development of a pipeline of bankable propositions to support and scale the delivery of the innovative projects;
• Build capacity of Bank staff and clients in the area of innovation for gender equality and women empowerment;
• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master’s degree or its equivalent in Gender Studies, International Development, Finance Development, Economics or closely related disciplines. Relevant qualification in development project management and project finance is a plus.
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of professional experience on gender and social inclusion in the development space and experience in project management.
• Demonstrate experience in working with innovative approaches towards gender equality in an African context;
• Demonstrate experience in Information and Communication Technologies project coordination and management within multilateral development banks;
• Demonstrate knowledge of the role of the private sector, entrepreneurship and of women in business in development;
• Demonstrate understanding of regional, social and economic issues, analysis and policy formulation; knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in African countries is an added advantage.
• Demonstrate strong communication and organization skills, dealing with various stakeholders with different backgrounds and capacity to perform in complex situations.
• Ability to build effective working relationships in a diverse multicultural environment;
• Communicate and write effectively in either French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint); knowledge of SAP is desirable.