African Development Bank

Request for Expression of Interest : CONSULTANCY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE MAINSTREAMING OF FRAGILITY AND RESILIENCE LENS IN THE BANK’S PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS

Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS)

African Development Bank (www.afdb.org)

Immeuble CCIA – Avenue Jean Paul II Abidjan Plateau 01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan 01 Côte d’Ivoire

Original : Français CONSULTANTS

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (REOI)

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Transition States Coordination Office

E-mail : a.l.sanogo@afdb.org | d.ugwoke@afdb.org

Expression of interest required for a Medium-Term individual consultant Brief description of the Assignment

A proper mainstreaming of fragility and resilience in the Bank’s various engagements highly contributes to improving projects design and implementation, thus the results and impacts on the development of the Bank’s Regional Member Countries. To achieve this, the Bank undertakes to recruit a consultant to support the process of institutionalizing the mainstreaming of fragility and resilience perspectives in its interventions with its Regional Country Members. The main responsibility of the Consultant is to develop a guideline that will inform the work of the various fragility and sectors experts in ensuring improved quality-at-entry of projects and programs. To this end, the consultant will support the Transitional States Coordination Office (RDTS) in the process of developing an operational manual of procedures and standards for the application of the fragility and resilience lens in Bank interventions at both the programmatic and operational levels.

Issuing Department :

Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS)

Place of assignment : Home based

Duration of the assignment : 6 months

Deadline for applications : October 28, 2021

Date of commencement :  November 08, 2021

Applications to be submitted to : a.l.sanogo@afdb.org | d.ugwoke@afdb.org | e.kemayou@afdb.org

 Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to : e.kemayou@afdb.org

How to Apply :

Interested candidates are invited to send their CV and letter of interest in a single PDF file (in English or in French) to d.ugwoke@afdb.org and a.l.sanogo@afdb.org with copy to e.kemayou@afdb.org in the the following email format.

File name: “[last name], [first name]” (e.g. Peterson, Anna)

Subject line: “RDTS Consultant – Fragility Lens Application, Operational Guidance”

Candidates are encouraged to include comment(s) on the ToR in their motivation letter. The annex II of this REOI should be filled and submitted along with the motivation letter and the full CV.

ANNEX II: TERMS OF REFERENCE

INSITUTIONALIZATION OF FRAGILITY AND RESILIENCE :

1. BACKGROUND :

State fragility and conflict situations manifest in several ways and pose major challenges and risks to Africa’s development. Addressing these situations is central to the strategic and operational priorities of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB). Over a third of Africa’s 54 countries are categorized to be in Fragile Situations. Armed violence, political, economic, social and environmental challenges undermine development efforts and regional stability in the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes, Central Africa and the Sahel regions, and the Mano River Union.

To respond to these challenges, the AfDB has prioritized support for fragile situations in its Ten-Year Strategy (2013-2022) and created the Transition States Coordination Office (RDTS), whose overriding mandate is to support poverty alleviation and promote shared prosperity in transition states by implementing the Bank Group’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in Africa (2014-2019). The Bank recognizes the need to thrive for more in-depth knowledge on the root causes and drivers of country fragility. The latter knowledge is essential in prescribing the appropriate policies, actions and measures that could be implemented to mitigate the identified risks at country level.

RDTS’s mission is to coordinate the Bank’s support to its Regional Member Countries (RMCs) affected by fragility to enable them to transit towards viable plans for achieving long-term, resilience, sustainable development, and inclusive economic growth. In order to facilitate the institutionalization of the integration of fragility and resilience perspectives in the Bank’s engagement in its Regional Member Countries, the Department is coordinating the process of developing the operational manual of procedures and standards for the application of a fragility lens in the design, implementation and monitoring of Bank operations and programs.

In this regard, the Bank is recruiting a consultant to support the process of developing an operational manual of procedures and standards for the integration of a fragility and resilience lens into Bank operations and programs.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY :

State and societal fragility is a significant challenge not just in Africa but the world over. G7+ countries including many in Africa, and development partners such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, OECD, Britain, and Switzerland, all have a focus on fragility and the challenge of building resilience. The African Development Bank has many operational commitments to countries classified as fragile situations.

The high risk of political instability, the weakness of the institutional systems, the complex nature of the socio-political dynamics, and the ever-increasing external pressures on livelihoods (climate change impact, commodity price shocks), put these countries on the verge of fragility. The overall CPIA of these countries has not seen a notable improvement over the past several years; in fact, for most of these countries, it has deteriorated. Likewise, the 2020 Country Resilience and Fragility Assessment (CRFA) of these countries exposes significant overall pressures over the seven dimensions, with insufficient capacities to handle and address those pressures.

In this context, the proposed consultancy aims to assist RDTS in leading the process of developing the operational guide of procedures and standards for the application of the fragility and resilience lens in the Bank’s programs and operations in its Regional Member Countries.

3. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES :

Under the general supervision of RDTS Director, the main responsibility of the consultant is to support the Bank in its effort to develop the operational manual of procedures and standards for institutionalizing the application of the fragility and resilience lens in the Bank’s operations and programs in its Regional Member Countries. The consultant will be required to perform the following main tasks :

• Support ongoing RDTS efforts to engage in consultations with appropriate internal units for the mainstreaming of resilience and fragility considerations in the Bank Group’s diagnosis (Country/Regional Resilience and Fragility Assessments and Country/Regional Diagnostic Notes), strategies (Country Strategy Papers and Regional Integration Strategy Papers) and operations (Preliminary Evaluation Notes, Project Concept Notes, Project Appraisal Reports, Regional Operations Prioritisation methodology, Additionality and Development Outcomes Assessments and Readiness Review Reports) ;
• Translate the outcomes of the internal consultations into the formulation of clear, concise and comprehensive Operational Guidelines. These Guidelines shall define the annual CRFA implementation process, starting from data collection to the compilation and validation of final scores ;
• Define how the CRFA results inform the Fragility and Resilience Assessments and most importantly, the operational manual should spell out processes, systems, safeguards and responsibilities governing the application of the Fragility Lens within the Bank Group’s activities at strategic and operational levels. They define how the qualitative and quantitative findings of the Fragility and Resilience Assessments are explicitly mainstreamed in the documents cited above and translated into a fragility-sensitive programming ;
• Contribute to the organisation of internal and external capacity building activities around the strategic and operational usage of the Bank’s fragility tools and their mainstreaming in the Bank Group’s activities for the benefit of key Bank Managers and Staff (Fragility Experts, Country Economists, Country Managers, Sectorial and Operations), Regional Member Countries (RMCs) and regional organisations.

4. SPECIFIC TASKS OF THE ASSIGNMENT :

The operational manual will be developed through a broadly inclusive and participatory process involving all stakeholders, including sector experts, within the Bank. To this end, the consultant will be guided by the following process :

Step 1: Document review : The consultant will review key documents available: Bank Strategy to address Fragility and Build Resilience, Guidelines for the Implementation of the Strategy to Address Fragility and Build Resilience in Africa and for the Transition Support Facility, BDEV Assessment Report of the Strategy, Concept Note of the Strategy 2022-2025 to Address Fragility and Build Resilience, any report deemed useful in the conduct of the assignment. In addition to the information from the document review, the consultant will arrange interviews with the sector managers, as well as with the fragility experts and sector experts in charge of the design and implementation of projects and programs.

Step 2: Interviews with key experts : Following the previously established schedule, the consultant will interview relevant managers and various experts to ensure that his understanding of the terms of reference meets the real needs of the Bank and future users of the operational guide.

Step 3: Preparation of the document : The consultant will draft the operational manual of procedures and standards for institutionalizing the mainstreaming of the application of the fragility lens and resilience in the Bank’s operations and programs in its Regional Member Countries. The document should contain chapters on specific and general procedures, particularly the activities, contains and responsibilities during both programs and operational engagements:

Operational Engagement : Project conceptual level o Project preparation level o Project appraisal level o Project supervision level

Programmatic Engagement :

• Fragility and Resilience Assessments ;
• Country Resilience and Fragility Assessments o Country Strategic Papers ;
• Regional Integration Strategic Paper o Economic and Sector Works.

5. PLACE OF ASSIGNMENT AND REPORT LANGUAGE :

The consultant is expected to begin his/her mission preferably on November 08, 2021 for a duration of six (6) months, with potential extension. He/She will be based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. A regular full-time presence in the Bank’s offices is required. Field missions may occasionally be required as appropriate.

As a complement of section 5.1 above, it must be noted that due to the COVID pandemic constraints, the assignment may have to be conducted from home, until such time which the Director RDTS will decide that the consultant must assume duty at the Bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. When the work is to be performed from home, the consultant must ensure engagement with stakeholders via different available methods of communication.

Reporting Relationship : The Consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Director RDTS, and report directly to the assigned Task Manager who will keep the Director informed on the ongoing processes.

If the consultant needs to travel to take up this assignment, round trip economy class air-tickets—with the shortest route—will be provided. The consultant will be responsible for his/her personal health insurance at his own cost.

The consultants’ report shall be drafted in English.

6. QUALIFICATIONS OF THE CONSULTANT :

The successful candidate should meet the following qualifications :

• Master’s degree (PhD preferred) in economics, political economy, International Relations/Development/Affairs, Peace and Security Studies, Public Policy, International Development Economics, or any other field that applies to the study ;
• At least 10 years proven expertise in relevant formulation and implementation of policies, programs and projects within the Bank, a similar development institution, in the public or private sector ;
• Excellent analytical and writing skills, preferably in both working languages of the Bank Group (French & English), coupled with the ability to work with multiple stakeholders and deliver quality reports on time ;
• Excellent capacity to handle discussions with diplomacy and tact, and ability to develop synthetic and detailed reports ;
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications (Word, Excel, Access and Power Point) ;
• Be readily available for the full duration of the study.

7. REMUNERATION :

Contract Amount: Remuneration will be commensurable with experience, in line with the Bank Group’s guidelines on individual consultants’ remuneration.

Method of Payment: The Bank shall pay the consultant on a monthly basis and the payment of the Contract amount shall be made upon production of a monthly report describing satisfactory progress towards the completion of the outputs described in this Terms of Reference.

Missions: Mission(s) to RMCs, where necessary and approved, shall be undertaken by the consultant and the full cost of such missions (Airfare, accommodation and per diem) paid by the Bank in accordance with the Travel Policy of the Bank.

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