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
Regional Context
The South Asia Region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) is at a crucial stage of development. Rapid economic growth, driven by urbanization and demographic dividend, has brought down poverty rates, but severe forms of exclusion and disparities based on ethnicity, caste, and gender remain. Rapid growth has also come with congestion and pollution in cities. South Asia is more than other regions affected by changes in temperature and extreme weather event. Additional challenges are that South Asia is underperforming in exports, has large informal sectors and low female labor force participation rates. All these challenges must be addressed to secure rapid growth in coming decades.
Private sector led growth, focused on investments in infrastructure, energy, logistics and cities are essential to generate the jobs needed to employ South Asia’s sizeable youth population. At the same time, the region needs to continue building human capital so that South Asia’s population is well equipped for the jobs of the future.
Human Development Practice Group (HD PG)
The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries.
Sector and Country background
Education is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and the majority of children worldwide are now in primary school. Nevertheless, some 260 million children are still out of primary and secondary school.
In Bangladesh, the dynamic work program covers all levels of education including pre-primary, primary, secondary, non-formal, tertiary and skills development. The current education portfolio of Bangladesh consists of 5 projects with about $1.84 billion in commitment in IDA and grant co-financing. Products in the Bangladesh program require high quality technical content and economic analysis to respond to the needs of the client, and the team carries out various programmatic ASA, impact evaluations and just-in-time policy work including on topics such skills for green jobs, earning recovery, female labor force participation, and vulnerable youth.
The position is a locally recruited staff (LRS) position based in Dhaka and will primarily focus on working in Bangladesh. It may also include critical work in the South Asia region and globally as the need arises.
Role & Responsibilities:
The selected candidate would be expected to:
• Support teams in designing and developing new projects and providing implementation support for clients and monitoring project performance.
• Support the team in preparing Implementation Completion Results Reports of closed projects.
• Serve as a core contributor to the economic, financial and analytical work carried out by the team, with a focus on learning recovery and emerging areas of importance in the sector.
• Support the team in the delivery of the work program and lead the delivery of individual tasks as assigned.
• Help to support policy dialogue and interactions with relevant government authorities; development partners; and civil society organizations.
• Be active in the thematic areas related to the Human Capital Project as well as Learning Poverty.
• Proactively work across sectors to build synergies and identify entry points to leverage education and skills development and promote equitable and resilient growth in Bangladesh.
• Bring global and regional good practice and lessons learned to promote education system strengthening, improve inclusive access to high quality learning and skills development, and enhance institutional accountability.
• Contribute to reviewing or providing inputs to documents on behalf of the sector team.
Selection Criteria
• Master’s degree in economics, education or relevant field.
• 5 years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience in quantitative research and analytical work in education or the social sectors
• Demonstrate ability to think and work across sectors.
• Integrate divergent viewpoints of multiple external and internal stakeholders into a coherent project/program/strategy.
• Possess political judgment, diplomatic acumen, and negotiating skills.
• Build and sustain key stakeholder relationships with government and other key stakeholders.
• Guide clients and/or development partners in establishing priorities and identifying key operational issues and optional solutions with a demonstrated ability to bring together different perspectives.
• Demonstrate deep understanding of policy making process in Bangladesh and the role of own sector of expertise in that process.
• Guide research efforts and translate technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies and for discussions with clients and development partners.
• Mentor junior and support staff in the team.
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.
