Economist - Midrand at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)

Job Description    

• The Economist is responsible for macroeconomic analysis and report writing, econometric modelling, research and cost benefit analysis of key macroeconomic variables in support of infrastructure development. The Economist will report to the Senior Economist and is responsible for providing support to the Senior and Chief Economist. The position is within a small highly productive team that requires agility and fast turnover of information. 

Key Responsibilities    
Technical outputs

• Conduct macroeconomic analysis, modelling and forecasting to inform decisions made by the DBSA.
• Provide cutting edge analytical support to the Chief and Senior Economist and DBSA leadership through timely and rigorous economic intelligence work.
• Provide comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and macroeconomic projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economies and operations.
• Provide support and input to investment and technical assistance project teams on macro-economic issues related to country/regional context, macroeconomic trends, country, region or sector -specific analysis.
• Participate in the design, preparation and dissemination of analytical economic work and reporting, including economic updates, macroeconomic modelling/forecasting and various briefs.
• Contribute to the interpretation of analytical findings, formulation of key messages, and identification of national economic policy implications and recommendations that are supported by the evidence.
• Provide data driven economic analysis in the form of presentations, memos, reports, notes and analytical findings in support of contributing to the business of the DBSA.
• Conducts and communicates complex market and economic outlook analysis and research on infrastructure development on a variety of projects.
• Keep abreast of latest research and innovative solutions pertaining to the development agenda and macroeconomic issues in the region, considering their practical applications for the DBSA.
• Contribute to building synergies and cooperation across functions in the DBSA.

Key Measures of Outputs

• Produce quality monthly and quarterly economic reports.
• Prepare presentations that can serve at Board and Executive level.
• Update and maintain the DBSA macroeconomic database.
• Provide inputs and assumptions for the macroeconometric model.
• Responsible for updating, maintaining and running the quarterly DBSA macroeconometric model in collaboration with the Senior Economist.
• Contribute to at least one special economic note per quarter.
• Contribute to quick turnaround high quality outputs as requested by the Chief Economist and Senior Economist from time to time.
• Contribute to the developmental agenda of the DBSA through sectoral analysis.
• Economic contributions to the corporate plan, CE reports, strategic planning and annual reports.

Key Internal Liaison Relationships

• Chief Economist
• Economists, Knowledge Management and Research, Strategy
• CEO & Executive Management     ]
• DBSA Management
• All Divisions 
• Board and Board Sub-committees

Key External Liaison Relationships

National Treasury

• Government and other Stakeholders
• DFI’s, Knowledge partners, Think tanks, local/international organisations

Expertise & Technical Competencies    
Minimum Requirements:

• A Master's degree in macroeconomics, econometrics, development economics, applied statistics or any related discipline. 
• Five to ten years economist experience in a major financial, public or international institution.
• Extensive knowledge of empirical application of different macroeconomic theories.
• Demonstrated research track record, deep understanding of the function of the South African economy and policy.
• Proven expertise in macro-economic analysis and forecasting with a focus on empirical methods.
• Demonstrated knowledge of broad analytical techniques, statistics, econometrics as well as mathematical and operations research tools, such as EViews and R.
• Sound knowledge and good grasp of the infrastructure landscape, financial markets political economics, macroeconomics as well as socio-economic, development issues, challenges and opportunities in South 
• African and the rest of Africa. 
• Knowledge of the financial and regulatory environments within relevant sector and/or geography.
• Proven track record of leading and preparing good quality reports, documents and presentations for Exco, 
• Board and high-level stakeholders.

Technical Competencies:

Economic Research

• Ability to construct macroeconomic models using sophisticated econometric techniques.
• Ability to initiate innovative research ideas and techniques in order to improve policy making content of development research.
• Ability to analyse and interpret countries policy documents and macroeconomic accounts with the purpose to distil policy and financing requirements.
• Ability to take initiative and be self-driven. Work well in a small team in the Economics unit, but also be able to work closely with the KMR and Strategy team. 
• Ability to provide completed final work outputs, with minimal editing required from the Senior Economist, in the relevant formats that adhere to the DBSA style guide. 
• Contribute to a highly productive Economics Unit that plays an important support function in the DBSA. 
• Contribute towards providing accurate, well-thought through information. 
• Contribute towards knowledge and information sharing which is critical in achieving the Unit’s goals. 

Business Acumen

• Understands the projected direction of the industry and how changes might impact the organisation.
• Good understanding of commercial drivers and is able to take decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations. 
• Good understanding of DBSA economic priorities and how they can be implemented to meet DBSA's strategic objectives. 
• Good understanding of DBSA's core sector role in achieving DBSA's strategic objectives. 
• Good understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations

Strategic Planning

• Ability to analyse business trends, implications, and options to contribute towards holistic and longterm strategic plans essential to meet DBSA's objectives and future goals. 
• Contribute towards developing long-term objectives, strategies, and goals. 
• Ability to analyse complex economic trends and their impact on organisational strategy.
• Contribute to the strategic objectives of the DBSA.

Planning and Organising

• Be able to meet tight deadlines. Willing to go the extra mile, which sometimes will require working outside of normal working hours. Have relatively fast turn-around time for outputs
• Uses effectively advance time management processes to deal with high workload and tight deadlines.
• Organises, prioritises, and schedules tasks so they can be performed within budget and with the efficient use of time and resources.
• Achieves goals in a timely manner, despite obstacles encountered, by organising, reprioritising, and re-planning

Reporting & Communication

• Contributes towards the production of complex environment reports, takes an editorial role, determines content and level of detail, and ensures consistent messaging and branding.
• Writes complex technical and non-technical documents and briefs.
• Able to communicate complex problems or concepts, by making them simple and understandable for others.
• Adapts language to the level of the audience in order to ensure that the message has a positive impact and is interesting to the audience.
• Is articulate, demonstrates a wide range of vocabulary, and is confident when talking to large/high level audiences.

Detailed Oriented

• Quickly identifies relevant and irrelevant information to support accurate decision making.
• Maps out all the logistics and details of a situation to ensure smooth and flawless implementation.
• Consistently identifies all relevant details that are not obvious in complex situations.
• Requires the highest standards for accuracy and quality for their work.
• Establishes processes to ensure accuracy and quality of services delivered by the team.

Written & Verbal Communication 

• Writes effective correspondence, prepares questions and reports, statements of circumstance and briefing notes.
• Writes complex technical and non-technical documents and briefs.
• Able to communicate complex problems or concepts, by making them simple and understandable for others.
• Required Personal Attributes    

Behavioural Competencies:

Customer Service Orientation 

• Tries to understand the underlying needs of customers and matches these needs to available or customized products and services.
• Adapts processes and procedures to meet on-going customer needs.
• Utilises the feedback received by customers, in order to develop new and/or improve existing services/ products that relate to their on-going needs.
• Thinks of new ways to align DBSA’s offerings with future customer needs.

Self-awareness and Self Control 

• Withholds effects of strong emotions in difficult situations. 
• Keeps functioning or responds constructively despite stress.
• May apply special techniques or plan ahead of time to manage emotions or stress.

Strategic and Innovative Thinking 

• Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions and challenges conventional thinking.
• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others, leveraging internal and external sources of information, to build incremental revenue and growth opportunities.

Driving delivery of results 

• Sets challenging goals that will have a significant impact on the business or support the organisational strategy. 
• Commits significant resources and/or time to ensure that challenging goals are achieved, while also taking action to mitigate risk. 

Teamwork & Cooperation 

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale, and resolves conflicts.
• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
• Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.

Closing Date    
2023/07/04