Description
IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities. Our mission is to leverage the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet.
IFC is deeply committed to advancing gender equality and economic inclusion as laid out in IFC’s 2030 Roadmap for Gender and Inclusion to deliver game-changing private sector partnerships and programs to accelerate gender equality and inclusion in emerging markets. Aligned with the new World Bank Group (WBG) Gender Strategy (2024-30): Accelerate Gender Equality to End Poverty on a Livable Planet, IFC’s Roadmap is built on six priorities offering high potential for impact in and through the private sector. These areas aim to (1) Allocate Capital that Drives Inclusion, (2) Make Supply Chains Inclusive, and (3) Remove Barriers to Entrepreneurship, Employment, and Leadership (including addressing gender-based violence). Equally important are three cross-cutting themes that are foundational to achieving sustainable results across the priority areas and require action: (4) Bridging the Digital Divide; (5) Accelerating Inclusive and Gender-Smart Climate Action; and (6) Ending Gender-based Violence and Harassment.
As part of its mandate, IFC’s Cross-Cutting Vice Presidency includes a dedicated team, the Gender and Economic Inclusion (GEI) Department (GEID), that works with IFC’s investment and advisory teams to support private and public sector clients in providing all genders and underserved communities with equal economic opportunities as leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, consumers, and community members. GEID leads strategy development and implementation for the organization, provides tailored operational solutions and client advice, innovates, and incubates novel approaches, serves a thought leader and disseminator of knowledge on GEI issues, supports mobilization through impact investing and sustainable financing; and forges public and private sector partnerships with the aim of creating economic opportunities and development for all.
GEID is establishing a new operating model built around Global Operations in four Regional Gender Hubs and two new units focused on Thought Leadership and Innovation. The Innovation unit will drive initiatives to identify/generate, design, pilot, and expand new advisory and investment mechanisms to mobilize capital that incentivizes private sector action on gender and inclusion. The Innovation Center will be designed to enhance closer collaboration with industry and regional operations and investments officers, and external partners, to deliver new models/processes that enable cross-department co-creation of solutions that meet a range of client business needs and are adapted to country contexts. The Innovation Center will focus on solutions that accelerate gender equality and economic inclusion while deepening and scaling impact in alignment with the priorities of IFC’s 2030 Roadmap on Gender and Economic Inclusion.
The Inclusive Capital Lead will spearhead a dynamic function, influencing both the design and strategy of the first Innovation Unit for IFC’s Gender and Economic Inclusion Department (GEID). This role will focus on enabling IFC to allocate capital directly and indirectly with clients in ways that drive inclusion. The Inclusive Capital Lead will be responsible for generating new opportunities and identifying investment linkages for existing solutions, considering the full spectrum of debt and equity instruments in emerging markets.
Topics of focus will vary based on business needs and market opportunities and may include:
– Developing alternative fund and advisory structures to unlock equity capital for women entrepreneurs.
– Integrating incentivization schemes into supply chain financing projects to enable access to working capital for underserved women-led MSMEs.
– Addressing binding constraints, such as the lack of benchmarkable data, to advance the use of sustainable finance for social issues, including gender equality.
The position will report to the Principal Innovation Officer and will be based in Washington, DC. It will oversee a small team of dedicated professionals with specializations in areas such as sustainable finance and gender-lens investing. It will work closely with the Supply Chains and Cross-Cutting Innovation Leads. Each Lead will manage the sourcing, incubation, and piloting of select solutions in deep collaboration with cross-departmental teams across IFC including industry, regional, GEID, and other department staff as relevant including the World Bank colleagues.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Innovative Transactions and Products:
• Identify and support the development of innovative gender and inclusion transactions and products, integrating cutting-edge gender and inclusion approaches into project design and advisory services.
• Design and implement scalable solutions and platforms like “Banking on Women” that can be replicated across markets, increasing the impact of IFC investments and advisory services toward the WBG Gender and Inclusion Strategy KPIs and Corporate Scorecard.
• Experiment with and test new investment structures, including using blended finance, aimed at promoting gender and economic inclusion in partnership with industry teams.
• Develop and implement pilot projects to assess the feasibility and impact of innovative investment and advisory delivery models.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to refine and scale gender and inclusion investment advisory structures.
Crowdsourcing and Co-Creation:
• Inform and lead select crowdsourcing and co-creation processes to identify and enable gender and inclusion-focused investment and advisory opportunities.
• Spot game-changing trends, technologies, and business models that can help bring gender and inclusion solutions to emerging markets.
• Conduct sector-specific data analysis and stress-testing of various operating models to help generate ideas for new projects, new products, and platform businesses, in collaboration with Thought Leadership Unit, Corporate Strategy, and industry departments.
• Enable investment transactions that intentionally seek to address social inequalities (including gender gaps) across debt and equity in emerging markets.
• Contribute to due diligence, financial analysis, risk assessments, project/facility structuring, and client/partner negotiations for potential investments, as relevant to innovation GEI solutions.
Innovation Process and Solution Lifecycle Management:
• Oversee the development and management of innovation processes and create an agile environment that encourages entrepreneurial thinking and seeks creative programming.
• Foster collaboration across departments, especially industries, and ensure the efficient deployment of staffing and resources, with a rigorous selection of solutions to pursue.
• Oversee the lifecycle of Inclusive Capital projects from ideation to scaling, ensuring rigorous evaluation and refinement.
• Ensure successful implementation of flagship programs by managing project teams and maintaining high standards of quality.
• Incubate high-impact projects and initiatives that require upstream development before investment.
Strategic Development of Innovation Center:
• Work closely with the Principal Innovation Officer to develop and execute strategic initiatives that drive Innovation Center goals and metrics in line with WBG/IFC Gender KPIs and overall IFC business KPIs.
• Contribute to the development of policies and frameworks that support inclusive investment practices.
• Collaborate closely with thought leadership unit, especially the Data/Impact team to define pathways from research to solutions.
• Collaborate closely with regional operations teams to identify pathways/destinations for innovation solutions.
Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration:
• Foster a culture of collaboration with internal and external partners, ensuring diverse participation in inclusive capital innovation initiatives.
• Monitor and support standard-setting activities, including gender-lens investing criteria and disclosure approaches, to ensure alignment with market best practices and new investment mechanisms.
• Collaborate with cross-industry teams to support gender and inclusion-related project execution and upskilling initiatives.
• Engage with regional and industry teams to incorporate their insights and ensure alignment with needs.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, including clients, partners, and donors.
Knowledge Sharing and Upskilling:
• Facilitate knowledge flow across GEID, IFC and the World Bank Group, and promote the adoption of new approaches and best practices.
• Help build external recognition of IFC’s distinctive capabilities in innovation and gender and inclusion to catalyze a greater flow of investment and advisory opportunities in gender and inclusion.
• Mentor and support junior team members working on Innovation activities, providing guidance and expertise in investment transactions and innovative structures.
• Contribute to bespoke gender and inclusion-related training sessions and external events.
• Facilitate the development of gender and inclusion-related case studies, tools, and publications to enhance institutional capacity on inclusive capital topics and best practices.
Resource Mobilization:
• Contribute to fundraising efforts to secure financial support for innovation projects and the innovation center operations, including concessional seed funding to stimulate market-moving solutions.
• Allocate resources effectively, prioritizing initiatives with the highest potential impact on gender equality.
Monitoring and evaluating performance:
• Contribute to the development of Innovation Center performance metrics, value proposition and strategic communications to establish the unit under the guidance of Principal Innovation Officer.
• Establish robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the impact of inclusive capital innovation initiatives.
• Use data and evidence to inform decision-making and improve program outcomes.
• Report on progress and impact to GEID Leadership Team, internal and external stakeholders.
Selection Criteria
The candidate should be a seasoned candidate with in-depth investment and consulting experience working with the private sector and across institutional structures to deliver inclusive investment solutions. They routinely lead staff, initiatives, programs, projects, and integrate the work of others (often multi-disciplinary). They confidently deliver quality output and can work and inspire others with a sense of urgency. They can proficiently interact with companies’ senior management, development partners and communicate with senior government counterparts and other organizations with confidence on the topic at hand.
Minimum requirements
Education:
• Master’s degree in economics, finance, business, or other relevant discipline required.
Professional Experience:
• At least eight years of professional experience in private sector development in emerging markets with decision-making responsibility, ideally with a focus on gender and inclusion.
• At least 8 years of experience in investment structuring with strong financial analysis skills.
• Experience designing advisory projects, including results frameworks to capture gender/inclusion outcomes and impacts.
• Broad experience across gender and economic inclusion topics with the demonstrated ability to engage with credibility and confidence.
• Proven track record in developing, successfully implementing, and scaling high-impact initiatives.
Skills and Abilities:
• Innovative strategic thinker with a proven track record in developing and successfully implementing and scaling high-impact initiatives.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with sound business judgment to identify issues and present creative and practical solutions.
• Ability to self-manage, multitask, and work under time constraints.
• Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills in English, including the ability to communicate ideas clearly and confidently, articulate issues, and recommend solutions.
• Seasoned communicator with experience as a strategic advisor to the C-suite within a global organization.
• Proven collaborator with the ability to build trusted relationships across all levels of a complex organization.
• Excellence in organizational management with the ability to coach staff, manage, and develop high-performance teams, and set and achieve strategic objectives.
• Professional agility to easily adjust to the rapidly changing dynamics within and outside the organization.
• Action-oriented, entrepreneurial, adaptable, and innovative approach to business planning.
• Excellent business acumen and analysis skills; strong pattern recognition; horizontal thinker and synthesizer.
• Passion, idealism, integrity, positive attitude, mission-driven, and self-directed.
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.
