Social Protection Specialist/Economist at World Bank Group

 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.
• Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) 
• Home to about half a billion of Africa’s people, Eastern and Southern Africa is a geographically, culturally and economically diverse region of 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South. Children under 18 make up almost half of the total population. The subregion boasts of some of the world’s richest human and natural resources and, apart from South Africa, the countries are predominantly raw material exporters. 
• The subregion harbors some of Africa’s protracted conflicts, rendering many of its countries fragile, while significant gaps in education, health, and skills development continues to keep people from reaching their full potential. This creates a huge development challenge, impacts heavily on the lives and livelihoods of people, and hinders regional integration and trade. But it also creates an opportunity to work closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and young people to chart a brighter course for the future.
• The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,207 staff, mostly based in 26 country offices, has been helping countries realize their considerable development potential by focusing on the following priorities:
• Creating Jobs and Transforming Economies: We are working with countries across Africa to stimulate job creation and economic transformation by leveraging all sources of finance, expertise, and solutions to promote investment.
• Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030 – a vision that, if realized, can boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year, and reduce poverty by 1 percentage point per year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.
• Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support is helping governments strengthen public policy processes, manage resources effectively, and reinforce fair and reliable delivery of public services.
• Investing in People: We are at the forefront of helping African countries accelerate human capital gains and empower women by improving their access to education and skills acquisition, sexual and reproductive health services, and employment opportunities. With the influx COVID-19, we are mobilizing financial support and timely analysis and advice to countries across the subregion deal with the pandemic.
• Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption:  In the face of increasing climate-related risks, we are working with African countries to advance efforts to adopt renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and green infrastructure. Several East African countries are currently facing a debilitating Desert Locust infestation, threatening the already precarious food security situation. The Bank has put together a program to help affected countries deal with the scourge. 
• Addressing the Drivers of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence: Given the cross-border nature of conflicts in Africa, we are employing an approach that simultaneously focuses on the drivers of fragility while also supporting well-targeted regional initiatives to create opportunities for peace and shared prosperity.
• Building Partnerships and Working across the African Continent: We are scaling up our work on regional integration, taking a holistic view of the continent that covers both North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The World Bank is a dedicated partner for Eastern and Southern African countries, helping them deliver strong development outcomes for their people. A brighter future for Africa is a better future for the world.
• Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice
• As part of comprehensive approach to supporting human capital investment, the Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice delivers operational approaches and evidence-based solutions to help individuals, families, and communities to manage risk, cope with chronic/transitional poverty, and access better safety net combined with livelihoods and jobs opportunities to self-sustain themselves over the longer term. These include:
• Strategies, analysis, financing and design of evidence-based programs delivering social safety nets/social assistance in the form of cash transfers, public works programs, and fee waivers.
• Advisory and analytical services on design and delivery of contributory transfers (including old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, disability and survivor benefits), and their fiscal sustainability (including budget support for transitions).
• Analysis, design and delivery of labor market and youth employment programs (with a focus on supply side interventions and intermediation policies), as well as policy advice on labor market regulations and interventions.
• Strategies, analysis, financing and design of integrated social protection delivery systems (e.g., payments, identification, registries, referral systems) as underpinnings of effective social programs that can help the poor and vulnerable groups to cope with poverty, climatic shocks, and fiscal reforms.
• Ongoing Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice Support and Engagement Strategy in Southern Africa
• The Southern Africa Country Management Unit (CMU) supports the World Bank’s program in South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, and Botswana. The SPJ Team works across all five countries, with the bulk of activities focusing on South Africa and Lesotho, as well as working on regional themes that cut across the countries. 
• Various operations, knowledge products, and advisory support have been delivered by SPJ in the client countries managed by the Southern Africa CMU to enhance the coverage and efficiency of safety net cash transfers, to improve active labor market programs and social assistance to better assist unemployed and discouraged youth, and to prepare the social protection and labor support system for Climate Change.
• The South Africa work program includes:
• Youth Employment: the development and piloting of digital tools to improve young people’s preparation for the labor market, ASA and technical assistance to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of active labor market programs, technical assistance on Economic Inclusion programs, and cross-GP collaboration on a country-wide Jobs Platform.
• Social Assistance: ASA and technical assistance to improve the efficiency of the social protection (grants) system, technical assistance to link social assistance and labor market programs, strengthening social assistance delivery systems, lending (via DPO) to provide emergency social assistance during COVID.
• Social assistance, jobs, and climate change: ASA on adaptive social protection, ASA to understand green jobs, support to operations (IPF to support the closure of the Komati power plant, DPO to adjust social assistance and ALMPs for a Just Transition).
• The work program in the other 4 countries include
• Lesotho. The SPJ-led Pathways to Sustainable Livelihoods Project (PSLP) (US$ 26.5 million) supports poor and vulnerable households to engage in productive economic activities, and provides assistance to the Ministry of Social Development to strengthen their social protection delivery systems, expand digitalization of payments (including a G2Px ASA), and improve targeting. The SPJ Team also contributes to the Basic Education Strengthening Project (BESP, US$7 million) by supporting project activities to strengthening the availability of social assistance to improve secondary school retention rates for poor students.
• Eswatini. The focus of the work is on improving the targeting system for social assistance and on youth employment.
• Botswana and Namibia. Technical support to the government of Botswana to develop a labor and employment strategy, as well as contributions to a DPO . Technical assistance to Namibia and Botswana on their social assistance systems including registries and delivery systems. 
• Regional. A regional ASA to launch a dialogue on Adaptive Social Protection.

DUTIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• The successful candidate will be a key member of the Southern Africa SPJ team and support the World Bank’s engagement in the design and implementation of the SPJ program in the Southern Africa CMU. The selected candidate will be based in Pretoria, South Africa. The main work duties would be focused on the work program in South Africa.

Major responsibilities include: 

Analytical and technical assistance work:

• Independently carry out assigned responsibilities for a variety of analytical and operational tasks, e.g. technical analyses, design of technical assistance interventions, monitoring and evaluation, results reporting, etc.
• Participate in country level-studies and other analytical and technical assistance activities addressing social protection and jobs issues, including leading discrete products within the larger tasks.
• Carry out basic data analysis, including working with the Poverty and other GP teams to generate empirical data relevant for the SPJ program.
• Provide technical support and contribute to analytical and operational tasks being carried out in other countries that are aligned with the technical expertise.
• Contribute to the drafting of trust fund proposals.
• Manage short term consultants and vendors to deliver quality work in a timely manner.

Operational work and support to clients:

• Support the Government counterparts with policy advice around SP issues including engaging with a wide range of clients and following up on tasks to keep the dialogue moving.
• Participate in SPJ missions and support Task Team Leaders/Co-Task Team Leaders in the preparation and implementation of operations, including preparation of mission-related documents and reporting on implementation progress.

Cross-sectoral collaboration, partnerships:

• Represent the SPJ global practice in multi-sectoral CMU initiatives.
• Contribute to strengthening the SPJ GP collaboration with other GPs in the CMU. 
• Provide SP inputs to corporate activities/documents e.g. CPF, CPIA, Country Briefs, operational monitoring tools, as required.
• Represent the SPJ team in coordination fora by the development partners and or government counterparts. 

Selection Criteria

• Graduate degree and minimum of Masters’ level qualification in economics, human development (social protection, education, health), social policy or related sector.
• Minimum of five years of relevant experience in analytical and/or operational work, social assistance/protection, jobs, and/or safety nets. Experience in youth employment is a plus.
• Experience working with clients to build capacity and engage in dialogue on social protection, labor market programs, and service delivery. 
• Experience in World Bank operations and analytical tasks, as demonstrated through being team member for analytical and lending operations.
• Ability to effectively collaborate across Global Practices, government departments, and development partners.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills, both for policy audiences and academic audiences.
• Fluency in English 
• Prior experience working in Southern Africa is a plus.

Competencies

• SPJ Sectoral Knowledge and Experience - Analytical and operational expertise in SPJ. Priority will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience in youth employment.
• World Bank procedures, work-flow and internal division of labor – understands and follows World Bank Policies and Procedures, including those for Knowledge Management products and Trust Fund management.
• Client Orientation - Record of developing strong internal and external client relationships. Capacity to interact effectively with a range of stakeholders within and outside the Bank. Good interpersonal communication and diplomacy skills.
• Drive for Results - Takes ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Collaborates with other team members and contributes productively to the team's work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view. Proven ability to work in teams and intercultural environment, with minimal supervision.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English required.
• Data Collection, Processing and Analysis – Demonstrates ability to contribute to the analysis, possess knowledge of the sector strategy, programs and portfolio issues. Capable of: i) gathering and compiling data from various non-digitized and digitized sources, ii) organizing and analyzing them using computerized spreadsheets (e.g. MS-Excel), iii) carrying out basic econometric data analysis and iv) preparing succinct narratives based on the analysis. 
• Ability to convey analysis in easily communicable and compelling fashion, and on often short turnaround times. Demonstrated ability to capture knowledge and communicate main messages in knowledge briefs and policy notes, as well as power point presentations for high-level audiences.
• Ability to multi-task, manage competing demands and effectively time-manage tasks.
• World Bank Group Core Competencies