E T Consultant
Job #:
req30300
Organization:
World Bank
Sector:
Financial Sector
Grade:
EC2
Term Duration:
1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment
Location:
Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s):
English
Preferred Language(s):
French and Spanish
Closing Date:
11/22/2024 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. 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, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. 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 ROLE OF THE FINANCE, COMPETITIVENESS AND INVESTMENT (FCI) DEPARTMENT WITHIN THE PROSPERITY VICE PRESIDENCY
The Prosperity Vice Presidency is one of the World Bank Group's five verticals, with a mandate that emphasizes Growth, Finance, and Institutions for all." Our approach leverages data-driven analysis and combines expertise from both the public and private sectors, together with International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Prosperity Vice Presidency supports clients in advancing evidence-based structural reforms to establish the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth in the thematic areas of macro-fiscal policy; financial sector resilience, access, and deepening; private sector development, trade, and competitiveness; and governance and public sector reform, including statistical capacity. Prosperity is comprised of five Global Departments, including the Finance, Competitiveness and Investment (FCI) Global Department.
THE GLOBAL CRISIS AND DISASTER RISK FINANCING (CDRF) TEAM is comprised of two directorates: the Finance directorate, and the Trade, Investment and Competitiveness (TIC) directorate. Within the Finance directorate, the Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance Team draws on experienced professionals with skill sets covering all areas of climate and disaster risk finance and insurance. Collectively, the team assists countries in areas from policy formation to regulation and supervision to investment and creating new financial products against climate and disaster shocks, including index insurance and disaster risk financing. The team focuses in two primary areas: (i) enhancing access of households as well as small and medium enterprises to suitable financial services to foster access to and usage of financial services, increase productivity and income, reduce vulnerability to shocks; and (ii) increasing the financial resilience of countries against natural disasters by implementing sustainable and cost-effective financial protection policies and instruments.
THE ROLE OF THE GLOBAL DEPARTMENT FOR WATER IN THE WBG. The Water Global Department is organized with: (a) region-facing Practice Managers (PMs) covering Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia; (b) a Practice Manager for Global Solutions; and (c) five cross-cutting Global Solutions Groups (GSGs): (i) Water Resources; (ii) Water Supply and Sanitation; (iii) Climate Resilient Irrigation; (iv) Water, Economy & Climate Change; and (v) Water and Finance.
The DROUGHT SERVICES TEAM AND WATER INFORMATICS TEAM, housed in the Global Department for Water's Global Unit provides hands-on support to regions, task teams, and clients for improving the the processing and application of data and information, specifically earth observation and remotely sensed data, as well as in situ data for drought and flood risk management. This is achieved through the deployment of tools and expertise to support operations and strategic dialogue with clients. The Department has recently developed a new program of services around drought risk management through which support is being provided to governments on more proactive and tailored solutions to prepare for, mitigate against, and respond to droughts.
World Bank clients are faced with increasing complexity in securing water for economic growth, shared prosperity, and a livable planet. The uncertainty brought by climate change and other stressors exacerbates these challenges. At the same time, the proliferation of data and information, including the advent of artificial intelligence, creates nearly endless opportunities for clients to improve efficiency and efficacy of their decisions amidst this increasing complexity. However, significant barriers exist in translating these data into information, and ultimately knowledge for clients around the world. As incidence of dry shocks are increasing with climate change, client countries need to build their resilience to drought risks, including through risk finance and risk layering mechanisms.
Roles & Responsibilities:
The FCI CDRF team, in partnership with the Drought Services and Water Informatics Teams of the Global Water Department, is seeking an Extended Term Consultant (ETC) with a background and experience on disaster risk financing, drought risk management, data science, and remote sensing and its applications. This ETC will support the development and operational application of remote sensing and drought analytics for use in disaster risk financing, as well as informing investment identification and prioritization in the areas of monitoring and early warning systems, geo-spatial analytics, and other climate risk related data and analytical work. This role will be of particular value to the growing use of parametric triggers in disaster risk financing instruments, including those under the World Bank Crisis Response Toolkit, and many regional and country projects. It will also provide direct support to operational teams working to integrate drought resilience investments into operations.
Experience in designing financial risk management solutions in emerging markets is an advantage. His/her overall objectives will be to: 1) contribute the development of analytical & advisory services to improve the financial resilience of developing countries against disaster and climate shocks; 2) support operational application of innovative analytical approaches and technologies for risk financing; 3) build the knowledge agenda and foster collaboration on drought risk financing, through strengthening partnership between FCI and Water GPs; 4) provide expert program support to the Global Department for Water on climate data and drought resilience, particularly in the areas of monitoring and early warning systems, drought risk assessment, and risk financing; and 5) foster partnerships with external partners on drought monitoring and risk finance. Whilst the ETC will focus primarily on global analytics and operations in drought-prone countries, s/he will be assigned to work on countries and issues which span a full global portfolio, and it is expected that this ETC will have a strong role in informing and participating in operational work.
The ETC will be co-financed by the CDRF team (51%) and the Water Global Unit (49%). (S)he will report into the CDRF Practice Manager but her/his work program will be coordinated jointly with both teams, with an expected 51:49 division of activities.
The candidate will:
⢠Support the technical development of financial solutions against climate and disaster risks - with a focus on drought - to help address client needs, including governments and public agencies (e.g., insurance programs and derivatives, financial risk management solutions), drawing on his/her own private and/or public sector experience and expertise.
⢠Provide substantial strategic and technical inputs to thought leadership on drought risk financing, including the development Next Generation Drought Index (NGDI) dashboard, and coordinating with technical and operational stakeholders across the WBG, private, and development sectors and academia.
⢠Explore the application of drought risk data and analytics to a broad range of financial sector agendas including financial stability and financial inclusion.
⢠Identify and support areas of mutual interest and cooperation between Water and FCI GPs, to include contributions to the UNCCD COP, risk financing for the Water sector, applications of the Combined Drought Indicator (CDI), and relevant applications of the NGDI dashboard in the Water sector;
⢠Support the implementation of disaster risk financing initiatives, with a focus on the innovative use of remote sensing;
⢠Produce in-depth analytical work and tools to build government capacity to understand, manage and communicate financial risk and to support the policy dialogue on financial risk management with governments;
⢠Translate technical and market-related solutions into knowledge management products and contribute to learning events;
⢠Provide support to teams for accessing, applying, curating, and transforming climate data for improving climate decision making;
⢠Lead overall operationalization and maintenance of drought related data and information for teams and clients, including the regular production of a Drought Bulletin, distributed by the Global Department for Water, and support to Drought Risk and Resilience Assessments;
⢠Support to the Drought and Groundwater Focal Area and the Drought Resilience Community of Practice (CoP);
⢠Provide just in time support to FCI and Water Teams to projects in countries facing droughts.
The candidate will also perform any other tasks are requested by the Practice Manager(s).
Selection Criteria
⢠An advanced degree (PhD preferred) or equivalent plus at least 5 years of experience in: a scientific discipline with focus remote sensing and drought risk monitoring; actuarial science; data science, risk modelling; financial mathematics; disaster management; water resources management, or a similar discipline required.
⢠Proven ability to work in teams, as well as support the delivery of complex analytical and advisory services.
⢠Proven ability to work under pressure and deliver high quality work on time.
⢠Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
⢠Fluency in another WBG language is a plus
Required Competencies:
⢠Deliver Results for Clients - Proactively addresses clients stated and unstated needs
⢠Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries - Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly receives diverse perspectives
⢠Create, Apply and Share Knowledge - Applies knowledge across WBG to strengthen solutions for internal and/or external clients.
⢠Make Smart Decisions - Interprets a wide range of information and pushes to move forward.
⢠Operational Project Management - plans ahead and anticipates requirements and challenges in advance; identifies key risks and mitigation measures; interprets background analysis and proposed solutions.
⢠Financial Policy - Demonstrates strong analytical skills & writing ability to help identify and assess policy issues in support of policy dialogue.
⢠Sector/Program Representation - Ability to constructively participate in strategic cross-sector dialogues within the network, across the country, among Bank colleagues and other development institutions, government, and other organizations.
Key Selection Criteria include knowledge and experience in the following areas:
⢠Understanding and expertise in financial risk management (e.g., financial product structuring, product performance review);
⢠Extensive experience working with remote sensing and its uses for drought risk management and applications for disaster risk finance;
⢠Extensive experience working with developing country governments, financial sector, and development/humanitarian actors in drought-affected countries.
⢠Expert-level skills and experience using MS Excel/VBA, statistical tools (e.g., R, SAS) and GIS/risk mapping tools.
⢠Experience translating specialized financial expertise and technical risk management topics into training materials and tools for non-technical audiences.
⢠Presentation skills demonstrating the ability to communicate the results of complex analytical output to a variety of audiences with different levels of technical knowledge and experience.
⢠Demonstrated in-depth understanding of parametric and index insurance as well as insight into international aid and development architecture.
⢠Demonstrated analytical and research skills on issues related to impact of crises/shocks, vulnerability, and risk management.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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.
Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.
