Lead Portfolio Advisor [Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, P-5]

## **Organizational Setting**

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

The Department for Country Operations (DCO) oversees the origination, design and management of IFAD investments, including sovereign and non-sovereign operations, as well as the design and implementation of non-lending activities within country programmes, including policy engagement and SSTC. DCO is the department that primarily interfaces with governments, the private sector and other stakeholders to deliver IFAD's programme of work and to provide oversight to ensure quality of the portfolio.

DCO is led by an Associate Vice-President and is composed of five (5) regional divisions: Asia and the Pacific Division (APR), East and Southern Africa Division (ESA), Latin America and Caribbean Division (LAC), Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN) and West and Central Africa Division (WCA), the Private Sector Operations Division (PSD), and two (2) units: the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Unit (SSTC) and the fragility unit (FRU).

The Regional Division WCA is led by a Divisional Director, based in the IFAD Regional Office in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. The Division leads on the design and delivery of IFAD country and regional programmes in WCA. The precise country coverage of the division varies across replenishment periods.

## **Job Role**

The Lead Portfolio Advisor provides authoritative expertise and technical leadership on programmes at the global, regional and national levels through spear heading relevant corporate processes to enhance the efficiency of IFAD-funded operations

The incumbent contributes, with the Regional Economist, towards the overall management of the WCA division under the leadership of the Regional Director and Country Directors to ensure full and timely divisional portfolio management and PoLG delivery with high quality. At times acting as OIC for WCA and representing the Director at senior management meetings and external events as necessary.

## **Key Functions and Results**

1.OPERATIONAL POLICY ADVICE AND DEVELOPMENT: The Lead Portfolio Advisor spearheads relevant corporate processes to enhance the Fund's business model, with a particular focus on efficiency of IFAD-funded operations. Activities may include but are not necessarily limited to:

- As part of the Portfolio Advisors' Group, supporting ODE in the development and/or the revision of relevant operational policies and procedures aimed at enhancing the performance of IFAD-funded interventions (e.g. the SIS policy, and guidelines);
- Promoting the use and compliance with new and revised operational policies and procedures by country teams within the division;
- Taking the lead on ensuring full divisional compliance with IFAD Supervision and Implementation support (SIS) Policy and guidelines and establishing relevant divisional quality assurance systems to ascertain quality and cross-country consistency of key SIS missions' deliverables and those related to project completion reports;
- Taking the lead on the divisional self-assessment work which culminates in the yearly Portfolio Stock take exercise;
- Providing authoritative advice to country teams pertaining to project results-based management;
- And providing authoritative advice to the Regional Director and Heads of Multi-Country Offices (MCOs) planning exercise.

2.COUNTRY PROGRAMME ADVICE AND DEVELOPMENT: The Lead Portfolio Advisor provides authoritative advice on operational matters related to the divisional portfolio, keeping abreast of all relevant corporate changes and reforms having a bearing on portfolio management. Activities may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

- Providing demand-based authoritative advice to the Divisional Director, MCO Directors and Country Directors on operational requests (e.g. extensions, suspensions, cancellations, additional financing, restructuring),
- Closely monitoring portfolio performance and working closely with Country Directors to develop and implement project performance improvement plans for projects-at-risk,
- Ensuring quality review of supervision mission and project completion reports (PCRs), including clearing the reports in ORMS and monitoring timely disclosure, as well as providing inputs to the Management Letters;
- Plays a role in identifying a