Lead Social Development Specialist

Lead Social Development Specialist

Job #:

req22620

Organization:

World Bank

Sector:

Social Development

Grade:

GH

Term Duration:

4 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:

International Recruitment

Location:

Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):

English essential

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:

5/29/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprise 30 extremely diverse countries with a population of nearly 500 million people.

The ECA region faces multiple challenges today. First, the region is considerably vulnerable to climate change. It has a large potential to strengthen climate change resilience and improve energy efficiency, thereby reducing its contribution to climate change. Second, the COVID-19 outbreak has affected all the economies in the region, impacting people's health and education service delivery, and causing a sharp slowdown in growth in many countries. Third, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is causing significant humanitarian and infrastructure losses in Ukraine and drastically interrupting covid recovery, increasing costs of food and energy and destabilizing macro-fiscal outlooks across the region. The devastating war is further exacerbated by several conflicts in the region including unsettled land disputes and delineations. These major challenges and crises serve to re-emphasize the critical importance of ECA's medium-term strategic agenda. In order to reach the World Bank Group's twin goals, the ECA region's strategy focuses on: (i) boosting human capital - addressing inclusion, resilience, quality of delivery and next generation Human Capital challenges, (ii) enabling markets - supporting the private sector to compete in a knowledge-intensive global economy, (iii) green transition - innovative knowledge and financing engagements to decarbonize, build resilience and support a just transition through policy engagements, investments, and (iv) building & strengthening institutions - supporting the quality of spending, improve debt management, and enhance service delivery.

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca

The Sustainable Development (SD) Department supports the WBG's twin goals by focusing on sustainable and inclusive growth. It is at the forefront of the green, resilient and inclusive agenda. The SD Department covers five global practices: Agriculture and Food, Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resources & Blue Economy, Environmental and Social Framework, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience & Land, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, and Water. The Climate Change Group is a global group that is part SD. The ECA SD Department has a portfolio of $2.4billion (16 projects) in new annual lending commitments, $10billion (85 projects) in overall commitments, and 90 active ASAs.

For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/socialsustainabilty

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND INCLUSION GLOBAL PRACTICE

The Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice helps countries tackle deep rooted social problems stemming from fragility, climate change, exclusion, and the digital age with people centered solutions that build on local values and institutions. The Practice engages with citizens, communities and governments to deepen resilience, build inclusion, and empower vulnerable and marginalized groups to have influence and voice. It prioritizes participatory, multi-sectoral approaches that build on norms and informal institutions to address social challenges and to build more inclusive, empowered communities. The Practice also works across the Bank's portfolio to implement the Environment and Social Framework (ESF) standards. The ESF offers an overarching platform for fostering inclusive approaches to ensure vulnerable groups benefit from Bank investments and mitigate against related risks.

The Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice has adopted a new strategy that aims to promote inclusive sustainable development anchored on three pillars:

• Social Inclusion: enhancing opportunities for equality and inclusion of all people irrespective of income level, geography, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation or other grounds of discrimination; Advancing inclusive laws, regulations, policies and institutions; and Investing in access to markets and services for hard to reach and marginalized groups living in lagging regions.

• Social Resilience: Strengthening social risk management for social sustainability; Enhancing social cohesion and opportunities in fragile communities; Strengthening social resilience to climate extremes and natural hazards; and Supporting emergency response and an inclusive recovery from COVID-19.

• Social Empowerment: supporting community empowerment for more effective service delivery; Fostering accountable governance including from the bottom up; and Promoting community-driven women empowerment and livelihood support programs.

Duties and Accountabilities

The Lead Social Development Specialist will be responsible to:

• Lead strategic technical and analytical activities on Community and Local Development (CLD) to address impacts of War and Conflict, green and just transition, social and spatial exclusion, women's empowerment, and digital innovation and smart village development, across the ECA Region.

• Lead and/or provide technical guidance to task teams preparing or supervising CLD operations focused on development response to impacts including displacement caused by War and Conflict, socially inclusive Green and Just Transition, benefit sharing for communities in large infrastructure operations, community-driven responses in lagging and fragile regions; multi-sector post-conflict recovery and women's empowerment; and review and advise on technical documents for operations and analytical work in these areas and participate in dialogue with clients.

• Guide Task Team Leaders (TTLs) on all operational tasks related to lending operations key technical, fiduciary and safeguards requirements during the preparation, supervision and completion of operations.

• Assist the Practice Manager and TTLs to manage dialogue and joint programming with principal partner agencies working on the agenda including donors, bilateral and multilateral agencies, foundations, and private corporations; co-lead the building of development diplomacy platforms/processes around complex multi-country inclusive, green and resilient recovery and development operations.

• Lead contributions to corporate agenda on fragility and Community led development, social sustainability, green and just transition, benefit sharing, dialogue and documentation; as well as cross-regional, cross-GP and IFC collaboration.

• Play a key role in leading and coordinating internal strategic planning and dialogue with the Sustainable Development Practice Group, the global social sustainability and inclusion unit, and the global FCV unit.

• Support implementation as well as global knowledge sharing around the SSI Global Practice strategy in ECA, contributing with operational innovations, and strategic direction, as well as operations and analytics on war and conflict impacts and response, green and just transition, social inclusion, and citizen engagement.

• Manage the development, maintenance and sharing of knowledge and experience across the SSI team and other teams in ECA and across the Bank.

• Coordinate closely with Country Management teams and Task Teams and provide back-up and cross-support where required.

• Respond to ongoing and ad hoc information requests from internal and external parties.

More generally, the Lead Social Development Specialist will be expected to:

• Provide leadership on social sustainability issues in the ECA region (social inclusion; fragility, conflict and violence, social risk management, social resilience, local governance/decentralization, social accountability and citizen engagement), including carrying out relevant policy dialogue and helping to build a robust pipeline of operational engagements with country clients.

• Lead and/or oversee analytical, advisory, and technical assistance activities with a focus on issues related to social cohesion, social resilience, citizen engagement and social inclusion.

• Proactively contribute to the regional and global social development agenda, in collaboration with colleagues within and across global practices.

• Lead and/or participate in complex operational activities.

• Provide strategic direction and innovation.

• Oversee preparation or produce a range of key policy papers, practice/technical reports, etc.

• Monitor practice work and investment operations to ensure overall quality of products.

• Lead and contribute to the mobilization of and implementation of trust funds and strategic partnerships for building social sustainability interventions in the region.

• Play a lead role in global knowledge sharing, including learning and exposure visits, workshops and seminars, and in producing knowledge products.

• Serve as focal point or spokesperson on sector issues to clients and other external constituencies and expert groups.

• Develop and build client relations at senior levels and play a promotional role in generating new business for the Bank.

• Play a key role within the practice in terms of guiding/mentoring other staff and contributing to the design of professional and operational training or development activities in SSI Global Practice.

• Contribute to management and oversight of the ECA SSI team, including: contributing to unit team building; supporting/occasional acting for Practice Manager(s); and coaching/mentoring/supporting teams, especially less experienced TTLs, in addressing complex analytical or implementation issues.

• Provide SSI inputs for country strategies, analytical work and other country operations.

• Develop opportunities to improve social impacts across the portfolio.

• Mentor junior staff on community-driven development and other SSI themes.

Selection Criteria

This is a challenging position suited to constructive, highly motivated leaders and team players with an eye for detail, understanding the bigger picture context of operations, and creative problem-solving abilities. The successful candidate should have strong demonstrated operational and analytical skills, strategic vision, to be able to integrate SSI considerations in operational and policy contexts. Proven experience in managing and leading complex projects and programs in challenging settings and demonstrated ability to motivate and facilitate the work of other specialists in the field, are essential. Proven record of business development and resource mobilization. In addition, we seek the following:

• Advanced degree in a relevant social science (anthropology, sociology, political economy, social development, public policy, etc.) with a substantive professional experience (a minimum of 12 years in the case of a PhD or 15 years in the case of a Master's degree) in sustainability, social safeguards and/or social development (voice and participation, gender, community-driven development, citizen engagement).

• Proven ability to lead complex multi-sector operations and demonstrated ability to undertake or oversee high-quality analytical work.

• Excellent leadership skills and proven track record in leading staff, programs, and budgets and in delivering quality results in a timely manner.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor and guide less experienced staff, providing assistance in setting priorities and identifying training needs.

• Demonstrated multi-regional experience and knowledge of Bank operations or similar operations in other international finance institutions and experience generating and managing co-financing operations with other development partners.

• Strong operational leadership experience with Community Driven Development type projects, including those with a focus on economic empowerment, in fragile and conflict-affected settings is essential.

• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing activities in support of green and just transition initiatives with an emphasis on socially resilient communities.

• Knowledge and experience in the ECA region is highly advantageous.

• Experience and ability to dialogue with senior government officials, and other stakeholders including the private sector, donor community and civil society.

• Demonstrated experience with coordination and 'development diplomacy' around complex programs addressing regional conflict/fragility, including leading joint, post-conflict recovery assessments with other development partners is valuable.

• Fluency in English, along with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Excellent time-management skills and ability to juggle numerous competing demands and priorities, and to respond quickly to government, donor and management requests.

• Excellent interpersonal, problem-solving, and teamwork skills and ability to think innovatively and strategically to find balanced and practical solutions to complex social development challenges.

• Very high level of energy, initiative and self-motivation; willingness to travel frequently and work under challenging circumstances.

WBG COMPETENCIES

• Integrative Skills - Possess in-depth understanding of Bank resources in all areas of work in the network, and proven fungibility.

• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Influence the design and execution of major policy and/or research initiatives; conceive and promote innovations in development policies, project design, organization and management to improve operational and sector work.

• Policy Dialogue Skills- Track record of conducting effective policy dialogue with country counterparts; communicate and defend difficult issues and positions to senior bank management and government officials.

• Social Development Implications on Policy, Institutions, and Operations - Comprehensive understanding of the implications of social development on policy, institutions, and operations.

• Participation and Consultation - Expert at facilitating consultative and participatory approaches and interpreting and representing the Bank's view internationally.

• Analytical Tools for Social Sustainability - Expert at applying different research and analytical tools, and in interpreting and applying the results to policy dialogue, institution building, and operations.

• Lead and Innovate - Inspire and influence others to drive innovation.

• Deliver Results for Clients- Act as a trusted, strategic advisor, partnering with clients to deliver results.

• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries - Lead collaboration across WBG and with partners drawing on robust professional networks.

• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge - Establish an environment where knowledge is created, applied and shared.

• Make Smart Decisions - Make timely decisions that have a broad impact.

This internal requisition is open to WBG and IMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/ temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case an external candidate applies, their application will not be considered.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.