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 and mitigating risks in operations, having the oversight of emerging risks from the portfolio, as well as aggregating and reporting on these risks to the Regional Director and relevant committees
  • Working closely with the Lead Regional Economist ensuring, as required, that experiences and lessons learned from the ongoing portfolio are fed into project designs,
  • Providing field support on demand during supervision and implementation support missions, as well as design missions as required;
  • Working closely with PFM & FCD to expedite withdrawal application processing and other loan administration tasks (e.g. addressing ineligible expenditures): and
  • Overseeing, monitoring and supervising IFAD's expanding private sector and equity investment portfolio. LPA's support should include advice on investment solutions, portfolio.

3.KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING: The Lead Portfolio Advisor engages in a wide range of peer-to-peer interactions and systematically manages and shares both formal and informal knowledge pertaining to relevant qualitative and quantitative information and best practices for the benefit of all country programmes. Activities may include but are not necessarily limited to:

  • Making use of all corporate media and delivery mechanisms, including divisional publications with particular responsibility for documenting and analyzing implementation-related issues common across country programmes;
  • Taking the lead on designing and delivering needs-based training modules and improving results-based management performance.

4.RESULTS MONITORING AND REPORTING: The Lead Portfolio Advisor leads the monitoring and reporting processes on the regional portfolio (loans and grants) management, performance and results for Divisional, Departmental and Corporate levels. This entails, as part of the regional team, organizing and overseeing portfolio data analysis, periodic portfolio performance reports/updates, portfolio reviews and stock takes, production and dissemination of knowledge products, briefs, case studies as required and delivering of presentations. The Lead Portfolio Advisor leads the divisional quality assurance processes for SIS, MTR, PCR, data/results reporting and the timely submission and disclosure of reports as well as updating of the various systems (GRIPS and ORMS). Upon request, the Lead portfolio advisor provides input to new COSOPs and the design of new loans and/or grants based on lessons learned from the country portfolio performance. The incumbent coordinates divisional contributions to the corporate Results Measurement Framework (RMF) and provides support to MCO Heads and Country Teams towards compliance with IFAD rules, regulations and policies, implementation of corporate operational strategies, establishment of targets and monitoring of results achievement. The Lead Portfolio Advisor also provides authoritative advice to MCO Heads, Country Directors and Country teams on implementation matters, notably but not limited to Monitoring & Evaluation and results reporting; they directly contributes to implementation support has required for enhanced portfolio performance. The Lead Portfolio Advisor collaborates closely with ODE on departmental and corporate initiatives and takes an active role in the Departmental Portfolio Advisory group to review and develop adapted strategies, policies, procedures and guidelines. Finally, the Lead Portfolio Advisor should liaise with key partner departments, notably IOE and OTD, as well as some divisions (e.g. PFM, FCD, LEG and AUO).

5. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS: The Lead Portfolio Advisor plays a significant role in assisting, as required, the Divisional Director in relation to all tasks assigned to them and is expected to act with honesty, fairness, impartiality and sensitivity in exercising authority and interacting with colleagues and external parties. The Lead Portfolio Advisor manages complex processes and provides expert advice on a wide range of issues related to the functions and responsibilities of the division, ensuring accuracy and timeliness of the substantive outputs. This includes but is not limited to direct review and preparation of relevant documents and reports; identification of priorities, strategic opportunities, problems and issues to be addressed through pragmatic corrective actions; liaising with relevant parties, taking on focal responsibility for corporate activities and initiating follow-up actions. The incumbent takes the lead to develop, implement and evaluate assignments, coordinating any divisional and/or corporate initiatives as requested by the Division Director. The incumbent leads and coordinates the preparation and implementation of divisional high-level events with a particular focus on substantive engagement ensuring appropriate protocol, representational opportunities, and visibility. As a change agent, the Lead Portfolio Advisor understands and applies the principles of change management and proactively serves as a role model for transformation. The incumbent represents the regional division at internal, and IFAD at external, meetings as required. The Lead Portfolio Advisor is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the management of IFAD resources. This includes People Management, through support to recruitment and supervision/mentorship of staff and non-staff specialists, as well as technical leadership/capacity development; Resource Management by providing strategic advice into programme and divisional budget development, and Knowledge Management by ensuring knowledge content within specialty/thematic areas is continuously updated and available.

The LPA works with the Lead Procurement Officer of WCA helping Country Directors and their teams address issues related to procurements and the management of contracts in country portfolios to prevent major implementation delays and assists the Regional Director to ensure the achievement of divisional procurement goals and objectives.

Key Performance Indicators

The Lead Portfolio Advisor's provision of authoritative professional expertise and technical leadership has a direct impact on programmes at the global, regional and national levels through spear heading relevant corporate processes to enhance the Fund's business model, with a particular focus of enhancing institutional efficiency and efficiency of IFAD-funded operations. The Lead Advisor represents the position of IFAD in national, regional as well as global fora and conferences. Innovation is required in the adaptation and development of approaches and methods to evolving portfolio contexts. Work at this level is considered as substantially complex and of critical concern to the Fund. In particular, portfolio advisory work requires in depth identification and consideration of a full range of factors relevant to the examination and discussion of programme problems and policies in the solution of methodological problems or in the formulation of policy proposals and project recommendations.

The LPA provides leadership and oversight in the gathering, compilation, management and sharing of data and knowledge emanating from the WCA country portfolios gathered during the results monitoring and reporting exercises and portfolio management reviews.

Working Relationships

The work relationships of Lead Portfolio Advisors involve the provision of authoritative advice and the negotiation and resolution of problems that arise in mission planning, monitoring and evaluation or the preparation of studies and reports. The incumbent exercises wide professional latitude in contacts in their field(s), providing technical leadership and capacity building to internal and external partners.

The LPA, together with the Lead Regional Economist, supervises, coaches and manages the WCA's regional team of technical specialists and analysts and general service staff and ensures that they effectively assist the Regional Director and the country teams in the management of the WCA country portfolios and programmes for impact. The incumbent also helps the Regional Director and the Country Directors mobilise support and inputs from across IFAD and outside of IFAD to expeditiously address implementation issues encountered at country and regional levels. The incumbent provides mentoring support and training to new senior programme staff and CDs to IFAD and WCA on programme management issues.

Job Profile Requirements

Organizational Competencies:

Level 2:

  • Building relationships and partnerships - Builds and maintains strategic partnerships internally and externally
  • Communicating and negotiating - Acquires & uses a wide range of communication styles & skills
  • Demonstrating leadership - Leads by example; initiates and supports change
  • Focusing on clients - Contributes to a client-focused culture
  • Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating - Challenges, innovates & contributes to learning culture
  • Managing performance and developing staff - Manages wider teams with greater impact on others and on the organization
  • Managing time, resources and information - Coordinates wider use of time, information and/or resources
  • Problem-solving and decision-making - Solves complex problems and makes decisions that have wider corporate impact
  • Strategic thinking and organizational development - Staff in management and/or strategic leadership roles
  • Team working - Fosters a cohesive team environment

Education:

  • Education includes Advanced university degree from an accredited institution listed on https://whed.net/home.php in Rural Development, Finance, Economics, Public Policy or related field is required (*):
    (*) Note: For internal candidates, this requirement will be assessed in line with the provisions set forth in IFAD's Human Resources Implementing Procedures. Level - Advanced university degree

Experience:

  • At least ten (10) years of progressively responsible professional experience.
  • Four (4) years in a multi-cultural organization, rural development/financial institutions or government services, in the area of implementation and supervision of rural development programmes.
  • Two (2) years of experience of rural and agricultural development work in West and Central Africa or similar socio-politically challenging and environmentally fragile situations in other developing countries.

Languages:

  • Required: English AND French (4 - Excellent)
  • Desirable: Spanish or Arabic

Skills:

  • Advocacy: Know-how in advocacy, to maintain and promote constructive dialogue around IFAD's vision to external actors
  • Analytical skills: Outstanding ability to analyse and synthesize qualitative and/or quantitative information from a variety of sources and filter out key insights and recommendations
  • Performance management: Know-how in managing performance, learning management, establishing learning plans and ensuring staff supervised meet their development needs while meeting the needs of IFAD
  • Project coordination: Identification of key-priorities, ability to work with others, coordinate and structure work to meet deadlines and adjustment of workplan/resource allocation when needed, identification and management of project-related risks
  • Risk management (e.g. reputational): Identification and assessment of potential liabilities and risks in IFAD's activities, particularly vis-à-vis third parties; ability to handle risks via contingency and mitigation strategies
  • Strategy implementation: Ability to lead and manage the development and implementation of medium to longer-term strategies for IFAD / for respective divisions
  • Interpersonal skills: Ability to deal patiently and tactfully with others (e.g. visitors, clients, callers, etc.), including senior individuals (e.g. high-level meeting participants)
  • Political acumen: Ability to conduct sound political analysis and understand complex environments, providing options and advice
  • Synthesis: Outstanding ability to synthesize and simplify complex technical information for a variety of (non-technical) audiences
  • Policy dialogue: Know-how in the representation of IFAD as a trusted and strategic partner, advocating and promoting IFAD's mandate and vision; effective consultations with IFAD counterparts - like ministries and governmental bodies at all administrative levels, donors, civil society
  • Programme/Project development, management: Know-how in Programme/Project development, implementation, management
  • Topical expertise - Programme Mgmt for Agricultural Development: Expertise relevant to the specific role (e.g. For ethics office assistant, procedures outlined in the Code of Conduct, Discipline and Anti-harassment provisions of applicable rules and guidelines)

Other Information

IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD. In accordance with IFAD's Human Resources Policy, the President can decide to assign them to any of the activities of the Fund. All International Professional staff members are required to be geographically mobile and positions in the professional category are subject to changes in location at any time in line with strategic priorities and reform initiatives in IFAD.

IFAD is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic, social or political background, colour, nationality, religion, age, gender, disability, marital status, family size or sexual orientation in line with its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy and the Policy to prevent and respond to sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.

Please be aware of fraudulent job offers. IFAD does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process. Official communication from IFAD will always come from e-mails ending in @ifad.org

In accordance with IFAD's provisions, all new staff members will normally be placed at the first step in the grade level for which they have been selected. For information on IFAD's remuneration package, please visit IFAD's compensation and benefits page on our website. Applicants are invited to use the ICSC compensation calculator to estimate the salary and benefit entitlements.

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

In the interest of making most cost effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.

How to apply

🔗 How to Apply for this job at IFAD:

1️⃣ Visit our careers portal: https://job.ifad.org

2️⃣ Search by Vacancy ID (enter only the number: 35443) or J*ob Title ''*Lead Portfolio Advisor''

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4️⃣ Select "Apply" to begin your application

🕧 Deadline to apply: Wednesday, 1 July 2026 23.59 CEST