E T Consultant- Education Specialist, Early Childhood Policy Academy Education and Skills Uni
Job #:
req38999
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
The Early Childhood Policy Academy is designed to build capacity and share knowledge, while supporting countries with high-quality technical assistance to design and deliver quality early childhood development (ECD) investments and policies. The program responds to countries' needs with in-depth content on a range of topics related to ECD and childcare, including workforce development and jobs creation. There are four interconnected work streams:
• Early Years Fellowship: This workstream is designed to develop the next generation of early childhood leaders and develop more and better investments in early childhood, while also improving the quality of ECD operations and analytical work. Fellows are young professionals hired as STCs to work for two years within their home country to support early childhood analytical and operational work, while participating in an extensive professional development program; the Fellows play an important role to foster cross-sectoral collaboration within the WBG, across governments, and with partners.
• Engaging Policymakers Hybrid Cohort: This workstream engages a group of 12-15 countries in an 18-month program of hybrid learning through a community of practice approach. Countries are selected through a competitive process which emphasizes potential to inform portfolio and pipeline operations and support new business development. Each country delegation (supported by a WBG team) sets specific goals for their participation to ensure coursework informs policy choices and operations in real-time. Through participation in virtual courses and learning exchanges, policymakers earn credits to become eligible for in-person activities, including study tours, trainings, and conferences.
• Conferences and Workshops: This workstream responds to requests from WBG regional and vertical teams to co-create virtual and face-to-face learning opportunities to learn from one another and international experts.
• Self-paced Courses: This workstream adapts content into self-paced courses (typically two to six hours) on the WBG's Open Learning Campus (OLC) to reach a wider audience.
Since 2021, the program has reached 500+ clients, staff and partners across 50 countries and leveraged $4 billion in new and improved finance to support young children's development. This work is closely aligned with WBG strategic priorities and corporate commitments, including the Education and Skills Strategy, Gender Strategy [redacted], the Knowledge Compact, the Corporate Scorecard, and policy commitments in IDA20 and IDA21. The program is linked to a range of other programming financed by the Early Learning Partnership Multi-Donor Trust Fund (ELP), including special initiatives such as Read[redacted], Scaling up ECD Measurement and Invest in Childcare. The Early Childhood Policy Academy is a core component of the Education and Skills Solution 1: ECD and Childcare.
Objectives and Scope of Work
The ETC will be hired to work as a core member of the Early Childhood Policy Academy team with the following main priorities: (i) support follow up activities with policymakers and WBG teams from Cohort 1 and regional workshops; (ii) lead the selection process of the Cohort 2 of Engaging Policymakers and Cohort 4 of Early Years Fellows and serve as the team contact with WBG teams; (iii) develop coaching and technical content for Early Years Fellows; (iv) support the implementation of the Policy Academy activities; and (v) document insights on how capacity building efforts are strengthening ECD and childcare systems to support the K360 ECD and Childcare Solution.
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 detail on the main tasks are provided below.
• Support follow up activities with policymakers and WBG teams from Cohort 1 and regional workshops.
• Lead analysis of end of cohort evaluations, interviews and project data on country progress to develop short briefs and 1-2 blogs.
• Communicate with Bank teams and clients to clear briefs and in post-graduation follow-up communication.
• Support preparation, facilitation, and follow-up of post-graduation virtual sessions and Regional Childcare Conference virtual check-ins. These sessions are planned both with the recently graduated cohort of policymakers as well as with policymaker delegations from 30 countries that participated in the West and Central Africa Regional Childcare Conference (held May 2025) and the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Childcare Conference (held May 2026).
• Lead the selection process of the Cohort 2 of Engaging Policymakers and Cohort 4 of Early Years Fellows and serve as the team contact with WBG teams.
• Support the update of selection materials (Expression of interest forms, TORs, Fellows analytical test and interview questions);
• Under the guidance of the TTL, manage the selection process of countries that will host Fellows and Policymaker delegations and serve as the communication focal point for the country TTLs and the selection committee.
• Develop coaching and technical content for Early Years Fellows.
• Prepare orientation materials for Fellows and support facilitation of virtual and in-person orientation sessions with Fellows.
• Organize technical content from past cohorts and develop new content to support Fellows to be effective in their roles as supporting early childhood and childcare analytical work, operations and as the focal point for their policymaker delegation.
• Support the implementation of the Policy Academy activities.
• Lead design of results framework indicators, frequency and tools for both Fellows and the policymaker delegation.
• Lead design, implementation and analysis of evaluation surveys and quarterly feedback from policymaker delegations and make recommendations on changes to strengthen program implementation.
• Track, analyze, and communicate policymaker participation in Level 1 activities.
• Support facilitation during virtual sessions.
• Lead analysis on take-up of self-paced courses on OLC and make recommendations to improve participant completion.
• Document insights on how capacity building efforts are strengthening ECD and childcare systems to support the K360 ECD and Childcare Solution.
• Support documentation of insights of what works for internal and external stakeholders.
• Curate capacity building tools on K360.
Selection Criteria
• Master's in education, early childhood, public policy, or related field
• At least 8 years of experience in designing and delivering/facilitating capacity building activities in early learning/education
• Demonstrated experience in engaging with policymakers and World Bank staff across countries and regions
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing implementation research projects
• Strong understanding of the Early Childhood Policy Academy workstreams
• Proven experience and success in large-scale project design and management on teacher professional development, coaching, and/or virtual learning
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English
• An excellent track record of being proactive and working effectively in teams
• Superb attention to detail, and demonstrated sound organizational skills; and
• Ability to deliver assignments in a timely manner while operating under tight deadlines and juggling multiple tasks
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.
WBG Culture Attributes:
1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
As per WBG policy, an Extended Term (ET) appointment is subject to a lifetime maximum of three (3) years. Former and current ET staff who have completed or are in the process of completing their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.
