Associate Director, Regional Policy Lead - SSA at EBRD

The Associate Director, Regional Policy Lead (AD RPL) is the key VP3 representative in Sub-Saharan Africa Region (a “region”) and is responsible for the prioritisation, design and delivery of the Bank’s policy agenda in that region, as well as the Bank’s economic and political assessment of that region. The role is located in one of the Bank’s Resident Office in Nairobi, Kenya.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• Orchestrate the prioritisation of policy engagements in their region, in consultation with the Head of RO, Country Management, the Director, Regional Policy and Strategy and the thematic and sectoral VP3 (PSD and CSD) and Banking teams. This includes responsibility for the preparation of policy compacts for each county of operation in their region, prepared on the basis of Country Strategies.
• Oversee the portfolio of active policy engagements, using the tools of the policy database, briefings for senior management and the policy compacts.
• Contribute to the preparation of the Country Strategies for each country of operation in the relevant region, taking responsibility for working with Banking country management to design an overall narrative and agenda.
• Actively contribute to the respective regional management team through the regional management meetings and otherwise.
• Lead the regional team of VP3 staff, assuring good utilisation of scarce resources, in collaboration with policy delivery teams in HQ and Country Management.
• Manage the cooperation between the PSD and CSD specialist teams and the Regional Policy and Strategy team in the region, ensuring effective sharing of information and coordination while avoiding duplication; with cooperation based on the principles that sector expertise and responsibility for a defining a sectoral agenda lies with PSD and CSD, while prioritisation, integration of multiple policy themes and local stakeholder management is the responsibility of the AD, RPL and regional team.
• Coordinate the preparation of updates to other Bank counterparts on economic and political developments in the relevant region, overseeing and supporting in particular the work of the political counsellor and regional economist allocated to that region, including working with the relevant political counsellor and the Deputy Director, Political Affairs, to deliver periodic Article 1 assessments for each country in the relevant region.
• Support the career development of regional VP3 staff through coaching through personal development plans.
• Ensure an optimal mix of policy and advisory offerings for large banking transactions, using synergies with the Bank’s investments to maximise transition impact. During implementation, ensuring joined-up delivery of TCs including but not limited to OpsCom submissions for large projects, specifically in the public sector.
• Support Country Management in their dialogue with country authorities, specifically on policy matters (Overall responsibility for dialogue with country authorities lies with Country Management).
• Support RO and sector Banking teams in delivery of their core objectives, including the identification, origination, review, structuring and implementation of investments. In that context the Policy Lead has  a particular focus on linked policy dialogue, both upstream and transaction-specific with the goal of maximising the transition impact of the Bank’s interventions.

 Qualifications & Skills / Experience & Knowledge

• Advanced degree in economics or related field from a leading university, or equivalent professional experience;
• Strong knowledge of economic and policy issues facing transition economies and emerging markets;
• Extensive relevant postgraduate professional experience, preferably in an international organization, government agency, think tank or other policy environment;
• Experience with policy delivery on emerging market economies, in particular, on countries of operation of the EBRD;
• Demonstrated capacity to deliver sectoral reforms.
• Familiarity with emerging market investments would be an advantage.
• Knowledge in one or more sector policy areas and project experience would be a major plus;
• Excellent personal skills;
• Excellent communication and writing skills;
• Experience in team management;
• Fluency written and spoken English. Fluency in one or more of the languages of the relevant region would be an advantage.
• Ability to plan and organise work unsupervised;
• Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines;
• Good organisational and multi-tasking skills;
• Ability to operate in a multicultural environment and build effective working relationships with internal/external clients and colleagues