Job Description
Interested candidates may still send their application documents until January 2, 2024, to dtssearches@devex.com. Please indicate the role you are applying to in the subject line.
Devex Talent Solutions is assisting Value for Good in seeking an Operational Investment Officer to be based in Brussels, Belgium.
HDX Hub Overview
The European Commission (EC), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced a new financing partnership to address critical global health challenges. The partnership marks a significant increase in funding for global health and human development under the European Commission’s European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) and is expected to include a match of new complementary funding for global health by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Under EFSD+, the European Commission has allocated more than €750m of guarantees for innovation in and access in health systems in low- and middle-income countries, as well as €40m of grants for Technical Assistance (TA), of which €290m will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The partnership is creating a Human Development Accelerator (HDX) Hub, to develop and manage pipeline of at least €1bn of investment into global health and human development in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The HDX Hub is responsible for identifying scoping and overseeing concessional investment opportunities and for ensuring close alignment between the EC, the EIB, and BMGF on global health financing investment decisions.
The HDX Hub will develop a pipeline of investment opportunities and will report on the overall portfolio of investments to a Joint Steering Committee and support the EIB investment and management processes. The HDX Hub will also identify new opportunities to partner between the EC, EIB, and BMGF, as well as with other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). This will help promote the EC, EIB, and BMGF as innovators in development finance, ultimately leveraging greater funding volumes for human development. In addition, the HDX Hub will explore ways to develop and adapt financial instruments to better address issues faced in LMIC human development. The team will also look for opportunities to shape partner investments to maximize collective impact and to further expand the partnership.
Governance
The HDX Hub will be overseen by a Working Group and answerable to a Joint Steering Committee of the EC, EIB and BMGF. The HDX Hub will be contracted to Value for Good for human resources and logistical support, and sit within the EIB, providing consulting support to the EIB investment processes. The team at the HDX Hub will be based in Brussels to ensure engagement with all relevant stakeholders.
Objectives
The HDX Hub will have the following objectives:
- Develop pipeline of investment opportunity proposals: Identify, scope, develop, and assess investments in global health and wider human development sectors (including nutrition, gender, and education) in collaboration with partners to maximize impact.
- Actively support EIB to manage the portfolio of investments: Support reporting on investment KPIs and progress, as well as support in actively managing the risk of the portfolio.
- Provide support to the Joint Steering Committee and Working Group: Develop materials, understand partner priorities, and ensure alignment to enable the partnership to efficiently identify and approve appropriate opportunities. The HDX Hub will also help identify and propose additional opportunities for collaboration between the EC, EIB, and BMGF.
- Support to enhance development finance capability to invest in human capital: Provide development finance expertise in areas relevant to human development and innovative finance in LMICs. Support the partners in shaping their instruments, funding windows, and processes to maximize their impact and alignment with human development investments.
- Develop long term vision for HDX Hub: The HDX Hub initially has a 4-year mandate, with an ambition to develop into a long-term team focused on human development investments and cross partner collaboration.
Overall Approach
- Outcome-oriented: Continually keeps an eye on performance, focusing on improving it, showing drive and determination to meet short and long-term goals.
- Agile: Adapts to differences and changes in the environment; takes a flexible approach to reach outcomes.
- Collaborative: Works cooperatively as part of a team and works collaboratively with peers across organizational boundaries based on a genuine interest in and an accurate understanding of others and their individual perspectives and concerns.
- Integrity: Willing to align her/his own behavior with organization-specific needs and intrinsic values, acting with integrity in ways that promote organization-specific missions, policies, and rules.
- Inclusion: We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices. Applicants and employees will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.
Role Description
The Operational Investment Officer will provide critical financial and investment expertise to the HDX Hub and to the EIB, taking end-to-end responsibility for opportunity identification, appraisal, negotiation, approval, and follow-up. The Operational Investment Officer will help in the collation and analysis of opportunity data, developing and managing the pipeline of at least €1bn, as well as managing reporting to the HDX Hub Working Group and Joint Steering Committee.
They will also bring an understanding of how financial instruments can support market shaping of key products, particularly those in the global health and life science spaces. They will assess and structure risks, preferably with experience in credit institutions and / or with guarantee instruments. Leveraging this knowledge and the creativity to develop innovative financial instruments, as relevant, the Operational Investment Officer will structure deals that drive both financial and development outcomes. They will present proposed deals for financial approvals.
They will work closely within the cross-functional HDX Hub team, with the legal, technical, and risk management areas of the EIB, as well as with senior management and experts at the EC and BMGF to coordinate approval processes and to ensure that deals deliver financial and development outcomes.
Accountabilities and Skills
Transaction origination process:
- Track developments and monitor target market for transactions
- Develop and maintain relationships with a network of promoters, borrowers and institutions
Lending process:
- Work with the HDX Hub, EIB, EC, and BMGF teams to advise on and shape potential projects to utilise the most appropriate financial instruments to address specific development needs
- Evaluate at an early stage the quality of potential projects and their chance of success, including as appropriate in consultation with key stakeholders
- Evaluate the project, credit, and compliance risk of operations, including leading and coordinating the work of external advisers and the project team
- Dynamically assess portfolio risk and reclassify risks over time to free up provisioning for investment
- Prepare credit application and contribute to the appraisal, approval, and lending process, prepare reports and lending proposals, and manage the approval process on selected operations
- Negotiate terms and conditions of loans and other project documentation
Optimization of operating tools
- Innovate and suggest improvements to existing tools, systems, and products in response to potential changes in the operational framework
- Ensure correct input of data into a management information system in order to contribute to the continuous improvement of working methods and development of products
Working methods:
- Share own information and experience in the management of lending operations with other members of the team in order to enlarge the knowledge and competencies of the team
- Work independently, in a multi-disciplinary team, and with stakeholders from a diversity of professional backgrounds
- Demonstrate strong oral and written English communication and presentation skills, including active listening skills and the ability to ask the right questions and acquire the information needed to drive decisions
Value added, cost management and return on operations:
- Ensure the quality and overall value added of lending operations; make sure that the financial terms match the risk profile and the type of operation in order to ensure that operations are as cost efficient as possible in the given context and providing for risk on an overall basis.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s and / or Master’s degree in finance / economics; dual degree with biology / medicine preferred
- 7+ years of relevant experience in the banking, financial, or development finance sector(s) with particular focus on global health and / or life science in LMICs
- Experience with financial and credit risk assessment
- Experience working with DFIs and/or EU institutions
- Experience working in LMIC markets or demonstrated interest in development preferred
- Experience in global health or life science preferred
- Certifications such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or other relevant certifications in finance preferred
- Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English; A good command of French preferred
Potential Salary Band: Competitive salary, 2-year full-time contract with the expectation to extend
Location: Based in Brussels, Belgium. Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
