E T Consultant- Education Specialist, Early Childhood Policy Academy Education and Skills Uni - copy
Job #:
req39065
Organization:
World Bank
Sector:
Education
Grade:
EC3
Term Duration:
1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment
Location:
Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s):
English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:
10/31/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Expanding access to quality childcare has the potential to yield multi-generational impacts by improving women's economic empowerment, child outcomes, family welfare, business productivity and overall economic growth. Recognizing the need for a whole-of-government approach and nonstate sector involvement to address the childcare challenge, the World Bank Group (WBG) launched the Invest in Childcare initiative in 2022 to expand the size, and improve the quality, of WBG investments in childcare to improve women's economic empowerment and child development outcomes as well as broader benefits for families, businesses and ultimately economies. At the country level, activities focus on making the case for childcare and supporting countries to design and implement quality projects, as well as to build capacity. At the global level, analytical work and the development of tools and guidance are contributing to the global evidence base and global public goods as well as supporting country work. The work program is coordinated by the WBG's Invest in Childcare team, working with a cross-sectoral working group of WBG staff and delivered jointly between the Education and Skills Global Unit and the Gender Department. The work of Invest in Childcare is a core part of Education and Skills Solution 1: Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Childcare.
There are four core sets of activities:
Country grants:
• BE catalytic grants. Competitive funding rounds for demand-driven activities in countries. Funding is used in various ways by teams based on their needs but typically includes one or several of the following: conducting upstream analytical work that generates knowledge or helps make the case for childcare, designing quality operations, providing technical support for implementation, strengthening the enabling environment and/or evaluating interventions.
• Recipient-Executed country grants. Match funding on a 1:1 basis (leveraging IDA, IBRD, domestic or other resources), up to a maximum of $10 million per country) allocated to WBG-financed operations.
• Global analytical work to make the case, generate data, evaluate impacts and build evidence, find solutions and develop tools, including:
• Gathering cross-country and within country data on childcare, including costing and ROI analysis.
• Building the evidence base through evaluations of childcare that comprehensively consider benefits for children, women, families and productivity.
• Preparing tools for country teams and clients that could also be used as global public goods.
• Capacity building and knowledge exchange
• Building external capacity through Early Years Fellowship and Early Childhood Policy Academy.
• Building internal WBG capacity through technical support to teams, disseminating tools and products and organizing knowledge opportunities.
• Project management
Scope of Work
The ETC will be hired to work as a core member of the Education and Skills team and be the co-team lead for the Invest in Childcare initiative with the following four main priorities: (i) oversee and provide technical inputs across all workstreams of the Invest in Childcare initiative; (ii) provide technical assistance to teams; (iii) manage the development of tools and resources for operational teams; (iv) be the technical lead on childcare within the Education and Skills Unit, supporting support corporate agendas to advance childcare. The ETC may also be expected to work flexibly on other assignments to support the scalable solution for ECD and Childcare, both independently and as part of several teams, and to multi-task with an orientation to results. More details on the main tasks are provided below.
• Oversee and support the delivery of all workstreams of the Invest in Childcare initiative
oDevelop workplans and budgets across Invest in Childcare workstreams to ensure effective delivery
oProvide technical review and quality assurance across all workstreams (financing, innovation and knowledge, and capacity building), ensuring coherence and coordination across the initiative. This includes a work program of over 90 BE and RE grants, 30 situational assessments, 29 impact evaluations, a global cross-country study across 11 countries, the development and testing of ROI methodology in 5-7 countries, and capacity building efforts with policymakers and WBG teams in over 50 countries.
oDevelop specialized childcare policy and implementation content for capacity building programs and knowledge exchange events.
oSpearhead thought leadership on what works for childcare, including through Emerging Learnings sessions with partners and oversight of briefs for internal and external audiences.
• Provide direct technical assistance to country teams:
oBe the first-line response to task teams reaching out for light-touch technical support (for 90 teams receiving BE and RE grants, plus others as needed). The team typically receives 3-4 requests a week. Types of assistance may include providing inputs for designing models; providing inputs/feedback on implementation tools (e.g. implementation manuals, quality standards, training materials, etc.); troubleshooting; presenting at client workshops, etc.
oIdentify teams that may require technical support (particularly to mitigate safeguarding risks) and offer appropriate assistance
oEngage more heavily in a small number of countries (e.g. where higher levels of technical support are urgently needed or in priority countries)
• Manage the development of tools and resources for operational teams.
oLead development of guidance on: PPPs for childcare and early learning; childcare entrepreneurship; and briefs on common childcare models (community-based childcare and home-based childcare).
oOversee and contribute to the development of all other guidance notes including on the childcare workforce, social norms, impact evaluations, DPOs and a package of country case studies.
oLead the process of distilling emerging insights from operations, diagnostics and evaluations
oEnsure curation of childcare tools on K360.
• Serve as the technical lead on childcare within the Education and Skills Unit and support corporate agendas to advance childcare across WBG.
oWork closely with Solution 1 Leads to develop and implement childcare as part of the Solution 1: Early Childhood Development and Childcare. This will also involve working in close collaboration with Solution Leads for Gender, Social Policy, and others to align messaging, approaches, and cross-referencing in K360 Solutions related to childcare.
oRepresent the unit externally with donors and partners as a childcare expert
oRespond to corporate asks and coordinate childcare reporting across corporate agendas, including SkillUp, Gender, and SP500 strategies, and the overall jobs agenda.
Other work as needed
• Prepare just-in-time reports and contribute to writing projects and technical briefs related to childcare to support the Education GP, the Gender Group and Invest in Childcare, as required.
Selection Criteria
• Education: a minimum qualification of a masters degree in education, child development, gender, international development, economics, political science or related fields.
• Experience: a minimum of 15 years of relevant international experience, including extensive experience working on childcare specifically.
• Demonstrated expertise on childcare and women's empowerment, including the evidence base, policy and program design, quality.
• Demonstrated experience in managing large projects with multiple workstreams.
• Thorough knowledge of public private partnership models and childcare entrepreneurship.
• Demonstrated experience communicating progress and results with management and donors
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English and at least one other language.
• Detailed knowledge of World Bank operations, including project cycles and how to support project preparation and implementation.
• Experience working or living in LMIC(s).
• Ability to juggle numerous competing demands and priorities, respond quickly to management requests and set priorities for self and others.
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and independently, seeking guidance on complex projects/issues from senior staff.
• Outstanding interpersonal and organizational skills, client-orientation, diplomatic skills, mature judgment, ability to collaborate with others in a multi-cultural environment, capacity to manage multiple tasks, identify and respond to needs as they arise, and remain flexible and self-motivated in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment.
• Willingness to travel.
Competencies:
• Client Orientation - Translates insight into practice across disciplines, hierarchies, geographies and organizational units in service of clients.
• Drive for Results - Ensures successful implementation and delivery of key programs and projects, ensuring that outputs positively impact results.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Demonstrates command of all forms of communication and presents in a clear, objective and engaging manner in high-level settings; ensures knowledge is captured and shared in a variety of ways.
• Knowledge and Experience in childcare / ECD - Possesses experience in working on policy-relevant analytical work and childcare / ECD projects.
• Integrative Skills - Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas and how they are interrelated; able to undertake cross-sectoral work in lending and non-lending operations.
• Deliver Results for Clients - Achieves results and identifies mission-driven solutions for the client.
• Make Smart Decisions - Recommends and takes decisive action
• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries - Initiates collaboration across boundaries and broadly across WBG and brings differing ideas into the forefront.
• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge - Creates, applies and shares knowledge from across and outside WBG to strengthen internal and/or external client solutions.
