Principal Macro-Economist & Public Financial Managemnt Specialist - The Governance Division

• Position title: Principal Macro-Economist & Public Financial Managemnt Specialist - The Governance Division
• Grade: PL-4
• Position N°: NA
• Reference: ADB/11/3
• Publication date: 27/12/2011
• Closing date: 20/01/2012

Objectives

The core objectives of the Governance Division (OSGE1) in the Department on Governance, Economic and Financial management (OSGE) is to strengthen economic governance and public financial management in Africa, through the a mix of complementary aid instruments, including budget support, institutional strengthening projects, non-lending special initiatives, diagnostic work, and advisory activities. The Bank’s Gouvernance Strategic Directions and Action Plan (2008-2012) provide the policy and strategic framework for Bank’s engagement in governance. The Bank’s objective in governance is to enhance efficiency, transparency and accountability in the management of public resources through the support to policy reforms and the strengthening of institutional capacities. Bank’s skills mix and resource base are progressively being aligned to that objective. The Division pursues these goals through budget support operations and institution building projects, informed by targeted economic and sector work to better understand challenges and opportunity for anchoring good financial governance in Regional Member Countries (RMCs), including fragile states. The Division undertakes high-level policy dialogue with regional members’ governments on governance reform priorities. It is responsible for the identification, design and delivery of Bank support in that domain.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the general direction of the Manager, Governance Division (OSGE.1), the incumbent will carry out the following tasks:

• Manage up to three country portfolios including a mix of instruments and policy dialogue focusing on good financial governance and sound public financial management; Participate in the identification, appraisal, supervision and ex-post review of Bank support programs in the area of economic and financial governance with a focus on macroeconomic management, fiscal policy, fiscal public financial management, and their incidence on growth and macro-economic stability in RMCs. These operations include budget support operations, institutional strengthening projects, and targeted diagnostic works with a focus on building effective institutions that promote equity, transparency, and accountability in the management of public resources.
• Facilitate enhanced collaboration with bilateral and multilateral partners in policy dialogue, joint budget support groups, institutional capacity building interventions and upstream analytical work in the area of economic and financial governance; and ensure participation of non-state actors in the Bank’s work to promote effective and accountable public institutions .
• Work with relevant Bank departments, Country Teams and Regional Departments to mainstream economic and financial governance issues, including anticorruption concerns, and contribute to the preparation of Country Strategy Papers (CSP) and Country Policy and Institutional Assessments (CPIA); provide guidance to Country and Regional Departments on economic and financial governance dialogue with RMCs.
• Act as the focal point for a special initiative, non-lending activity or targeted diagnostic work aimed at taking forward innovative operationally-relevant policy and knowledge on one of the areas of intervention of the Department, such as anticorruption, sector governance, domestic accountability, demand for better governance, debt management, revenue governance, taxation reform, public procurement, external auditing and legislative oversight, in close coordination with OSGE task team leaders, ADB Country Economists and relevant departments and unites of the Bank, such as, where applicable, the fragile states unit (OSFU), the results department (ORQR), the policy department (ORPC), the research department (EDRE), and other relevant departments and units.
• Coordinate, with other departments and donors, targeted diagnostic work, at the country and regional levels, to strengthen policy knowledge, improve quality at entry of operations and enhance the results framework of Bank interventions in the area of economic and financial governance. Participate in relevant upstream analytical and diagnostic work, including participation in PFM assessments (PEFA, PEMFAR, PER, PETS,) with a view to inform policy dialogue and country reform processes, as well as enhance Bank’s operational effectiveness.
• Provide state of the art technical expertise to RMCs on fiscal policy formulation and strategies for promoting good economic and financial governance, including sound budget practices, participatory planning, external oversight and domestic accountability.
• Draft Management statements and technical contributions on economic governance and public financial management issues for various Bank Group reports, for dissemination in print or electronic format (including the Internet); and draft articles for publication in external professional journals.
• Represent the Bank in national, regional, and global partnerships, networks, conferences, workshops, and training seminars on issues related to governance in general, and fiscal policy and public budgeting in particular.
• Contribute to cross-department working through contribution to task forces operations in other countries, as team member or peer reviewers.
• Perform any other duties pertinent to the work of OSGE.1, assigned by the Division Manager or the Sector Director.

Selection Criteria

Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience

• At least a Master degree or equivalent university degree in development economics, macroeconomics, economic policy management, public finances, public sector auditing;
• Minimum of six (6) years of experience in public policy, economic policy, or government financial management, and strong experience in the design and delivery of operations (including investment projects and policy based operations), as well as project management, preferably in a multilateral development finance institution; at least four (4) years of which should be focused on developing countries, preferably in Africa;
• Sound understanding of macroeconomics, fiscal policy and public budgeting issues in developing countries and demonstrable experience of the operational policies, procedures and practices of major bilateral or multilateral development agencies in Africa;
• Ability to apply innovative approaches, work independently and apply new methods to solve problems, while remaining efficient in a fast-paced, changing and challenging institutional environment;
• Ability to communicate and write effectively in English or French, with a good working knowledge of the other language; knowledge of Portuguese or Spanish would be an added advantage.
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software (Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, MS projects); knowledge of SAP highly desirable.

Document download

Principal Macro-Economist & Public Financial Managemnt Specialist - The Governance Division (166 KB)

Apply online

Apply for this position

To apply for this position, you need to be national of one of AfDB member countries.