Upstream Officer – Infrastructure (Africa) at World Bank Group

Description

Do you want to build a career that is full of meaning and impact? The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities where they are needed most. Visit www.ifc.org

IFC has embarked on an ambitious new growth strategy (IFC 3.0) to stimulate more investment activity, especially in Low Income Countries (LICs) and Fragile and Conflict affected Situations (FCS). This strategy calls for generating our own opportunities by proactively working “Upstream” to create, deepen, and expand markets and to imagine, design and implement investment projects. It requires taking a systematic approach to understanding the regulatory and sector bottlenecks that prevent the flow of private capital into productive investment in our member countries and addressing these bottlenecks through World Bank Group engagement on policy reforms and programmatic interventions at the country and sector level. It also requires capacity to leverage WBG programs and projects to develop our own proactive sector interventions and to imagine and design projects even in the absence of reforms.

IFC is seeking an Investment or Operations Officer for Upstream with deep expertise in the infrastructure sector. The selected candidate will focus on developing high-quality Upstream pipeline in the Africa region under the supervision of the Regional Upstream Lead. S/he will also support policy work and other interventions across the World Bank Group to prioritize various initiatives and to maximize the impact of Upstream efforts. Please visit our website for more information on IFC’s work in the infrastructure sector.

Duties And Responsibilities

The Operations Officer will have a wide range of evolving responsibilities, which will be exclusive or shared with other team members. Anticipated scope of duties and responsibilities during includes the following:

Upstream/Advisory

• Drawing on client demands and IFC’s areas of expertise, support, help identify and potentially lead the development & roll-out of specific “advisory products”, working closely with Industry Specialists.
• Coordinate with the World Bank on fiscal decentralization and other efforts related subnational regulatory frameworks to improve the enabling environment for IFC’s engagements within countries and across countries.
• Lead research about new areas of opportunity, with a lens on innovation.
• Prepare documentation for IFC internal processes and help draft legal agreements
• Conduct other financial, legal or technical due diligence
• Appraise financial information from potential clients and prepare reports on periodic historical and projected financial statements, project progress reports, and other information submitted by clients
• Lead some parts of infrastructure business development, upstream and value-add advisory engagements
• Map infrastructure leads and conduct industry and market research
• Lead meetings with potential clients and help diagnose infrastructure issues and developing integrated investment and advisory solutions
• Collaborate with other infrastructure colleagues, including Industry Specialists to foster relationships with key internal stakeholders, including World Bank, Climate, Blended Finance, Partnerships, etc. related to the infrastructure business

Donor Reporting and Fundraising

• Organize project review meetings and supporting documents to facilitate cross regional learning
• Lead the development of bi-annual donor and project supervision reports for INR advisory projects and support drafting and provide inputs into the bi-annual project supervision reports for projects; ensure compliance with donor and IFC portfolio reporting requirements and consistency in reporting, including AIMM
• Oversee monitoring and evaluation of projects, ensuring results are properly tracked and supporting materials properly filed; ensure compliance with eventual IEG evaluations
• Spearhead fundraising and donor outreach in specific markets
• Work with the Blended Finance team, Climate Investment Funds and other multi-donor trust funds to identify and secure funds for advisory and investment projects
   

Knowledge Sharing, Capacity Building and Communications

• Input into overall communications and capacity building strategy
• Lead the preparation of specific knowledge products for internal and external audiences as requested, including strategic research, pitch books and proposals for both advisory and investment clients, case studies, smart lessons, etc.
• Work with internal & external communication experts to strengthen INR communication material and develop effective delivery models, including working with third party providers
• Support IFC’s participation in external events including briefing materials and presentations
• Support on partnership development strategy
   

Selection Criteria

• Master's degree or equivalent professional qualification in Business, Finance, Economics, International Relations, Science, Engineering, or other relevant field.
• At least 8 years of relevant experience in project and/or program development, in producing feasibility studies, hands-on advisory and/or consulting functions and deep understanding of investments in emerging markets.
• Genuine commitment to development and to the World Bank Group and IFC's mission, strategy and values.
• Understanding of IFC’s strategic priorities and changing business model against the backdrop of IFC 3.0.
• Capacity to innovate and challenge the status quo and a proven track record in new idea generation, business development, and creating projects/programs from scratch.
• Strong understanding of the infrastructure sector and ability to link policy reforms, advisory interventions, investment, and mobilization to deliver solutions at a country level via the Cascade approach.
• Experience engaging with private sector clients, local and national governments and other stakeholders to encourage pioneering business and market development.
• Experience in project/program management, including executing against implementation plans with defined business development milestones.
• Experience in monitoring and reporting on a portfolio of projects/programs/initiatives.
• Outstanding analytical and critical thinking skills; demonstrated ability to synthetize complex information and make concrete strategic and tactical recommendations.
• Excellent people skills, openness to feedback, new ideas, and ability to guide, and motivate others.
• Strong written and verbal communications skills in English. French and/or Portuguese language skills are a plus.

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