Recruitment of a Legal Consultant to  Update  of  Presidential  Directives  and  other  Administrative Issuances – Côte d’Ivoire

Description :

2. The African Development Bank hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: Legal Consultant, Update of Directives and other Administrative Issuances
3. The services to be provided under the Assignment include:

The Legal Consultant will be responsible for ensuring that key administrative and institutional documents such as Presidential Directives and other administrative issuances are fit for purpose in the Bank’s current context. This involves reviewing and updating identified administrative issuances to ensure that these instruments reflect and are aligned with the Bank’s current Business Delivery Model (DBDM) and process reengineering efforts. .

3. The Organization and Methods Division (SNDI.1) invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this Assignment (documents, reference to similar services, experience in similar assignments, etc.).
4. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Procurement Policy Framework for projects financed by the Bank Group, October 2015 Edition, available on the Bank Website at http://www.afdb.org. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist.
5. The estimated duration of services is six months with possibility of extension and the estimated starting date is 15 July 2019.
6. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 08:00 to 17:00
7. Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than 04 July 2019 local time and specifically mentioning Recruitment of a Legal Consultant,  Update  of  Presidential  Directives  and  other  AdministrativeIssuances

For the attention of: Mrs. Felicia Avwontom

African Development Bank

Organization and Methods Division (SNDI.1) African Development Bank (www.afdb.org)

Headquarters – Abidjan (Côte D’Ivoire)

Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 BP. 1387, Abidjan 01

Côte d’Ivoire

Tel: +225 20262866 / +225 20263131

E-mail: f.avwontom@afdb.org ; m.cobinah-ebrottie@afdb.org

Establishment of the short list :

9. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume.

Terms of reference :

Legal Consultant, Update of Directives and other Administrative Issuances

Introduction :

The African Development Bank (AfDB) was established in 1964 with a mandate to promote economic growth and social progress across the continent. It comprises 80 member states, including 54 African countries (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda includes delivering financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. To ensure greater developmental impact and accelerate delivery for Africa, the Bank is focusing on five major areas (High 5s) of its Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022). These five areas are energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa.

The Senior Vice-President (SVP) supports the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group to achieve its strategic objectives. The SVP is also responsible for driving a performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results; ensuring the seamless coordination of the implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions and the identification of institutional and managerial weaknesses and the proffering of necessary corrective measures and actions. The incumbent also oversees and ensures compliance of the Bank with the dictates of its policies and strategies, including fiduciary, environmental, and social safeguards, risk management functions, etc.

The SNVP and SMCC Directorate (SNDI) coordinates and supports the SVP in the execution of his responsibilities. The SNDI Director also plays the role of secretary to the Senior Management Coordination Committee (SMCC) Secretariat, and supports the SVP in Board and Board Committee meetings.

The Organization and Methods Division (SNDI.1) supports the SVP in the execution of responsibilities related to ensuring organizational efficiency. This includes coordinating the implementation of Bank-wide activities relating to business improvement and change management; ensuring seamless coordination of the implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions; and, identifying institutional weaknesses, and the necessary corrective measures and actions. A core activity of SNDI.1 is coordinating the management (collection, update, preparation, publishing, dissemination, and archiving) of management issuances (Presidential Orders, Presidential Directives, Administrative, Financial and Operational Instructions). In light of the Bank’s adoption of a new business delivery model (DBDM) and process re-engineering efforts, there is a need to ensure that the Bank’s administrative issuances are up to date and will facilitate implementation of these transformation efforts in support of organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Objectives of the assignment :

The Legal Consultant will be responsible for finalizing and implementing the recommendations of a fitness check to ensure that key administrative and institutional documents such as Presidential Directives and other administrative issuances are fit for purpose in the Bank’s current context. This involves reviewing and updating administrative issuances to ensure that these instruments reflect and are aligned with the Bank’s current Business Delivery Model (DBDM), process reengineering efforts; helping set up structures, guidelines, and processes to standardize and improve the directives management system.

Main activities and deliverables :

Reporting to the SNDI.1 Division Manager and working in close collaboration with the Bank’s General Counsel and Legal Services Department and other relevant departments, the consultant will carry out the following duties:

3.1. Review, complete, and finalize—for presentation to Senior Management—the Directives Fitness Check report, building on (1) the work done by the Bank-wide Task force set up by SNDI.1; and, (2) intelligence from the General Counsel and Legal Services Department (and other key departments) on problematic areas to be addressed.

The mandate of the Directives Task Force was to conduct a fitness check of current management directives. Its work was guided by the following criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, coherence; and Relevance. Its responsibilities included the following:

• Reviewing existing directives to ensure their validity, clarity, and consistency ;
• Identifying outdated, missing or overlapping directives ;
• Examining, where possible, directives implementation successes and problems ;
• Identifying opportunities to improve implementation and reduce administrative burden without compromising the purpose of the directives ;
• Formulating recommendations to enhance the Bank’s directives system ;
• Providing input on proposals for numbering, filing and retrieval, dissemination snf archiving of Management Directives in conformity with the guidelines and procedures established by institutional Directive ;

The preliminary list of critical issues affecting directives as reported by the task force were :

• Validity of directives : Many of the directives were issued a number years ago— some as early as 1980. There is, therefore, need to determine if those directives are still valid in the current operating context.
• Language discrepancies :Some of the directives are not available in both working languages of the Bank—English and French.
• Outdated designations of Organizational Units : With the implementation of the new Development and business development model (DBDM), the Bank’s organizational structure has changed, and this has led to the establishment of new organizational entities with new designations (e.g. CHHR instead of CHRM). Directives issued prior to the implementation of the DBDM refer to the former entities. Moreover, older directives still talk of the ADB and not the AfDB.
• Non-compliance with the template proposed in PD 03/2002 : PD 03/2002 concerning the Bank’s Directives System proposes a template, which should be used in drafting Directives. However, it was discovered that not all directives follow this format.
• Obsolete job titles, wording and acronyms : Many directives, especially those establishing and/or regulating committees and their membership refer to positions (job titles) which no longer exist.
• Need to update cross-references  : to other directives.
• Need to streamline the categories : of directives.
• Out-of-date categories of guidance documents : including Administrative Memorandums concerning functions and responsibilities of the various departments .
• Further details are provided in the Fitness Check Report.

The consultant is expected to review and finalize the report and recommendations within three weeks of the start of the assignment so that the report, along with an action plan can be submitted for management clearance prior to implementation of the recommendations. Given the critical nature of this assignment, a monthly status report, along with the completed deliverables will be submitted to the Senior Vice President and SMCC.

Working in collaboration with the key Departments/Units responsible, review/revise and update Management directives as approved in the Fitness Check Report submitted to management. Priority will be given to bringing all critical directives in line with new institutional orientations (the Ten-Year Strategy and the High-5s), organizational structure (decentralized Regional and Country Offices, Operations Sector organized to reflect the High-5 priorities, and reconfigured Support Complexes), and re-engineered business operational processes (in line with the work of the Delivery Accountability and Process Efficiency Committee [DAPEC]). Provide guidance on legal aspects of implementation of the recommendations of the Directives Fitness Check review, as approved by Management.

Provide guidance and the documentation necessary for the implementation of recommendations of the fitness check, including the following:

• Establishment of a Task Force on Management Directives, under the coordination of SNDI.1, to oversee institution-wide efforts to continually clean up, update and harmonize Management directives (composition of task force, TOR, and procedures) ;
• development of clear and transparent processes, procedures, templates, formats and guidelines for the preparation, review and approval of Management directives in each of the main recognized categories: Presidential Orders ;  Presidential Directives ;  Management Instructions; Management Circulars ;  Guidelines ; and Templates / Formats.
• Development of processes and guidelines on the directives management system, and on the drafting of institutional documents and publications to ensure the production and distribution of high-quality outputs in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Administration/reporting :

The consultant will report to the Manager, Organization and Methods Division.

Qualifications and experience :

• At least a Masters’ degree (or equivalent) in law, policy work, economic development or related area ;
• At least 10 years’ experience in similar jobs, preferably in a multilateral development bank ;
• Expertise and deep knowledge of the administrative structure, organization and texts of the Bank Group ;
• Deep knowledge of all aspects of the administrative and legal matters of the Bank ;
• Good knowledge of the Bank’s recent transformation effort, in particular, knowledge of the DBDM ;
• Proven experience and strong skills in the preparation of legal documents such as directives and other administrative issuances ;
• Good knowledge of current development trends and familiarity with international law and related matters within the Bank and other international organizations ;
• Nationality of a Bank Member Country;
• Demonstrable knowledge of Africa’s development challenges and business environment ;
• Demonstrable knowledge of the African Development Bank and its operations, corporate and operations policies, guidelines, processes and procedures, and strategies, directives management system as well as ongoing transformation effort is essential. ;
• Solid writing skills , critical and analytical thinking, clear communication ;
• Fluent in English or French and working knowledge of the other language ; and
• Proficiency in Bank standard software applications: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint .

Duration and location of assignment :

The assignment will be carried out over a period of six (6) months, renewable once commencing on 15 July 2019.

The duty station for this assignment will be Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.