Reference Number: 230452

Position Level: IS 5

Department: Sectors Group

Division: Office of the Director General, SG

Location: Asian Development Bank Headquarters

Date Posted: Monday, July 24, 2023

Closing Date: Monday, August 14, 2023 11:59 p.m. (2359 Manila Time, 0800 GMT)

Overview

Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Manila, Philippines and is composed of 68 members, 49 of which are from the Asia and Pacific region. ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. ADB combines finance, knowledge, and partnerships to fulfill its expanded vision under its Strategy 2030.

ADB only hires nationals of its 68 members.

The position is assigned to the Office of the Director General and Chief, in the Sectors Group (SG). Under ADB’s NOM, the SG is a single operational group comprising seven sector offices that aim to deliver impactful sector strategy, initiatives, and integrated solutions that advance ADB’s strategic agenda in the region and with ADB’s clients. The SG delivers or supports the delivery of sovereign, nonsovereign, and advisory operations, and knowledge services, supports regional departments (RDs) and resident missions (RMs) in engaging with Developing Member Countries (DMCs), and ensures ADB’s technical leadership externally and internally.

To view ADB Organizational Chart, please click here.

Job Purpose

The Senior Sector Planning Specialist will function as the foresights analyst/strategist and help the SG Senior Management Team in strategic foresights-oriented planning, and SG-wide coordination to achieve key results in this area. The position will help identify key and defining trends in the development arena, and help leverage internal and external knowledge to enable ADB to effectively achieve the 4 shifts of the NOM. It will help develop a futures-oriented portfolio of projects and technical assistance (TA), and knowledge solutions and products. The incumbent will help establish an overall futures-oriented framework for the SG work planning, monitoring, and reporting, group-wide quality assurance, and other functions. The incumbent will closely engage with Director General and Chief of SG, and Deputy Director General, SG; and collaborate with the SG Management team to identify strategic sectoral direction and priorities. The incumbent will report to the Head, Sector Operations Coordination Specialist, Sectors Group and will supervise National Staff and Administrative Staff.Responsibilities

•  Develops and ensures the adoption of a strategic foresights-oriented approach and work stream for the Sectors Group, to help achieve the 4 Shifts of the NOM (namely, Climate Change Shift, Private Sector Development Shift, Solutions Shift, and New Ways of Working Together Shift).
•  Helps the Sectors Group create a foresight value chain, including data scanning, analysis, and visualization of insights.
•  Guides sector assessments to shape them to be highly futures oriented.
•  Works with the various teams under the Sectors Group, on a demand-driven as well as selective supply-driven basis, to help articulate how the sectors are likely to change in ADB’s DMCs.
•  Works with Practice Directors in all sector offices to develop a set of strategic foresights-oriented interventions, comprised of a pipeline of emerging needs and projects.
•  Ensures strategic integration of foresights with and across programmatic objectives and processes of the Sectors Group, in a highly integrated manner with those of all Regional Departments, including into Sectors Group’s strategic planning, work planning and results management.
•  Coordinates the formulation and implementation of ADB-wide strategies, policies, and results-management initiatives, including the work program and budget framework, sector policies, Development Effectiveness and Annual Reviews within the Sectors Group.
•  Ensures the adoption of tools and processes to specific contexts, employing methods and approaches that promote inclusiveness and sustainability.
•  Helps the Sectors Group develop foresight product roadmaps, to support sustainable adoption, contextualization, uptake and continuous development of new foresight offerings and services.
•  Maintains knowledge of technologies, trends, developments, and approaches applied in futures and foresight.
•  Absorbs foresight capacity development tasks targeting internal and external partners, including documentation of best practices, developing tools, resources, training, guidelines, and policy development.
•  Creates highly impactful visualizations, engagement approaches and communications around emerging trends and issues on foresights-oriented thinking for the Sectors Group.
•  Undertakes other activities as assigned by Head, Sector Operations Coordination.

Qualifications

Relevant Experience & Requirements

•  Master’s degree or equivalent, in engineering, economics, computational sciences, social sciences, business administration or related fields; or University degree in any of these or related areas, combined with at least 5 years of experience relevant to the position (e.g., through research and analytics or specific sector or thematic work) can be considered.
•  At least 10 years relevant professional experience in managing projects, portfolios, and pipelines for development institutions.
•  International experience working in development in several countries.
•  Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
•  Please refer to the link for ADB Competency Framework for International Staff level 5.

General Considerations

The selected candidate, if new to ADB, is appointed for a term of 3 years.ADB offers competitive remuneration and a comprehensive benefits package. The actual appointment salary will be based on ADB’s standards and computation, considering the selected individual’s qualifications and experience.

ADB seeks to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and given equal opportunities to work in an inclusive environment. ADB encourages all qualified candidates to apply regardless of their racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural background, gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities. Women are highly encouraged to apply.

Please note that the actual level and salary will be based on the qualifications of the selected candidate.