Senior Country Coordination Officer

Reference #	ADB-HR-13-0316
Position Title:	Senior Country Coordination Officer
Department	South Asia Department
Division	Bhutan Resident Mission
Location
Recruitment Type	National and Administrative
Date Posted	29 May 2013
Closing Date	15 June 2013 , 5:00 p.m. (1700 Manila Time, 0900 GMT)

Job Purpose:

- Provides in-depth technical expertise in financial, budgetary, administrative, and personnel functions of the Resident Mission (RM).
- Responsible for client relationship, business plan preparation, and office administration. Supports external and internal relations, coordination, and consultation initiatives with external partners, and relevant departments in ADB.
- Assists in strategy formulation, regional cooperation initiatives, processing of loans and technical assistance projects (TAs) and administering non-delegated loans and TAs.
- Supervises and reviews the work of junior RM staff and consultants and quality of work outputs, guides staff and consultants, and defines tasks.

Expected Outcomes

Leadership and Strategic Management

• Facilitates discussions with the government and the private sector relating to particular solutions to problems (with prior consultations with various operating and support teams in ADB).
• Contributes new or innovative approaches to policy and operational issues.
• Supervises and reviews the work of junior RM staff, consultants, and contractual staff and quality of work outputs, guides staff and consultants, and defines tasks.
• Supervises RM staff including contributing in the formulation of work plans in line with departmental objectives, and their supervision.

Country Partnership Strategy

• Assists in the formulation and execution of the strategy and business plans.
• Takes responsibility for client relationship and reports on the validity of the strategy over time.
• Supports work on the evaluation of the strategy and individual operations.

Project Management

• Assists in the processing of new loans and TAs in all sectors in which ADB is involved, including assisting in the arrangements for ADB missions.
• Provide support in organizing tripartite portfolio review meetings (TPRMs)
• Provides support during the preparation of concept papers for TAs and projects.
• Provides inputs to the processing of loans and TAs to ensure local perspective is properly considered and integrated.

Portfolio Management

• Monitors the quality of loans and TAs and undertakes corrective actions as necessary to maintain quality.
• Assists in the implementation of Headquarters (HQ)-administered loans and TAs, and provides mission follow-up support.

Operations Management

• Supervises the day-to-day RM activities and provides RM staff guidance on operational issues and ADB policies.
• Facilitates effective RM coordination and cooperation with other ADB departments and internal stakeholders.
• Ensures record keeping and sound control mechanisms at all times.

Economic, Thematic and Sector Work

• Provides relevant and current information on economic and political issues and policy changes, undertakes analysis and engages in policy dialogue with the government, and regularly reports to HQ.
• Assists in preparing the Country Performance Assessments.

Regional Cooperation

• Support South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) program and other regional cooperation initiatives.

• Provides support for various activities under ADB-supported sub-regional economic cooperation programs and other regional activities as planned.

External Relations and Coordination

• Liaises with concerned government agencies, and facilitates local communications as well as two-way flow of communication between HQ and the government.
• Provides support for relationship management.

Personnel Administration

• Maintains personnel and confidential records.
• Arranges and processes recruitment of local staff, planning/evaluating job allocation, job rotation, and engages contracted services as needed.
• Develops and implements an in-country training program, advising and assisting HQ staff in all actions related to their settlement on joining the RM and on location back to HQ by:
• Reviewing staff benefits, such as application for ADB loans;
• Processing these as per policies and procedures and making recommendations to Head of Office;
• Developing, negotiating and finalizing contracts of leases for HQ staff residences.
• Supervises the performance of RM and contractual staff by providing clear direction and regular monitoring and feedback on performance; prepares performance evaluation (PR) of RM staff.
• Ensures the overall quality of RM staff work.

Others

Performs other duties that may be assigned as reflected in the incumbent’s workplan.

Educational Requirements:

Master’s degree, or equivalent, in economics, business administration, accounting or equivalent.

Relevant Experience And Other Requirements:

Work Experience
- At least 10 years of professional experience, including regional, country and sector project experience and at least 6 years of supervisory experience.

Technical Knowledge
- Proven application of expertise and experience within a specific area (economic, sector or thematic), or breadth across multiple areas with in-depth knowledge within one area
- Sound knowledge of government administrative systems and procedures.
- Clear understanding of the economic, political, social, and developmental issues specific to the country.
- Effective report-writing and communication skills in English and the national language.
- Proficiency in use of spreadsheets and required information technologies.
- Strong oral and written communications skills.

People and Leadership Skills
- Good supervisory and interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to liaise effectively with government officials and other international organizations.
- Able to mentor junior National Staff (NS) and Administrative Staff (AS) to facilitate work planning, delivery, and quality review.
- Able to work collaboratively with teams as a constructive team member.

Core Competencies:

Application of Technical Knowledge and Skills

• Independently performs more complex technical tasks without supervision.
• Demonstrates breadth and depth of job relevant knowledge and skills.
• Builds networks within the team to ensure they benefit from, share, and leverage knowledge.

Client Orientation

• Flexibly delivers services and solutions to better meet client needs.
• Develops trusting relationships with internal and external clients leading to mutually satisfactory relationships.
• Understands current and emerging client issues prior to proposing solutions.
• Regularly collects client feedback and implements suggestions to address issues.

Achieving Results and Problem Solving

• Proposes practical measures to address significant and unexpected problems and challenges.
• Remains sensitive and alert to the views of different stakeholders and their influence on outcomes.
• Identifies risks and proposes ideas for how they can be managed.
• Formulates recommendations to address deficiencies when results are not achieved.

Working Together

• Addresses team members not contributing to required standards.
• Commits to delivering timely and high quality work to assist in the team’s success.
• Develops and maintains good internal and external peer and senior level relationships.
• Helps teams understand common features to build rapport and overcome challenges.

Communication and Knowledge Sharing

• Provides stakeholders with the level and quality of information required to achieve outcomes.
• Encourages others to seek long-term solutions to address feedback opposed to focusing on immediate concerns or reactions.
• Uses knowledge to equip clients and staff for more effective outcomes.
• Designs and implements project and program knowledge and services.

Innovation and Change

• Consistently seeks more effective and practical ways for the Departmental delivery of services, products, and processes.
• Proposes new ways to improve the quality and relevance of products and services.
• Includes the core benefits and reasons for change when developing comprehensive change roll out plans.
• Influences and persuades decision makers by presenting business cases supporting the proposed changes.

Immediate Reporting Relationships / Other Information:

• Supervisor: Director, Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division, South Asia Department
• The following staff positions may be supervised by the incumbent:
• Administrative Staff
• National Staff (NS1 and NS2)

Important Instructions

This vacancy is for a local staff position with local remuneration package. It is only open to nationals and residents of Bhutan.