E T Consultant
Job #:
req38553
Organization:
World Bank
Sector:
Social Development
Grade:
EC2
Term Duration:
0 years 6 months
Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment
Location:
Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s):
English
Preferred Language(s):
English
Closing Date:
10/23/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Eastern and Southern Africa (E AFR) Region
Home to about 700 million 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: (i) creating Jobs and Transforming Economies, (ii) building up the Digital Economy, (iii) making institutions more Efficient and Accountable, (iv) investing in People, (v) supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption: (vi) addressing the Drivers of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence; (vii) Building Partnerships and Working across the African Continent.
Eastern and Southern Africa (E AFR) Region: https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/region/afr/eastern-and-southern-africa
The People Vertical
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 policy 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.
The People Vice Presidency (HDVP) at the World Bank Group is made up of the Departments for education; health and social policy. Additionally, the HDVP houses the gender group. As such, HD is central to the World Bank Group's goals to end extreme poverty by 2030 and raise shared prosperity.
Gender in AFE
The World Bank Group's Gender Strategy [redacted] ("Accelerate Gender Equality to End Poverty on a Livable Planet") prioritizes concerted action and financing at scale to (i) end all forms of gender-based violence and strengthen human capital; (ii) expand and enable women's economic opportunities, including more and better jobs and greater ownership and use of economic assets; and (iii) advance women's leadership and participation in decision-making, including by widening access to enabling services. In AFE, this agenda is advanced through operations and analytics that address binding constraints for women and girls-especially gender-based violence-and strengthen accountability for gender outcomes across the portfolio. Complementing World Bank engagement, IFC is scaling investments and advisory services in AFE to increase access to finance for women-led SMEs, promote women's participation and leadership in firms, and strengthen gender-smart business practices across priority sectors and value chains.
Across Eastern and Southern Africa, gender platforms coordinate and support country and sector teams to systematically advance women's and girls' empowerment across the portfolio. Led by the Social Protection Gender Team and anchored in close coordination with Country Management Units and sector teams, the platforms work directly with operational teams to identify and operationalize entry points to strengthen gender equality in design and implementation; generate and disseminate user-oriented country analytics (including gender and GBV assessments and operational good practice notes) to inform client dialogue and policy engagement; and deliver client capacity building through training, partner coordination, and outreach to champions in government, development partners, and civil society. Through these functions, the platforms accelerate implementation of the WBG Gender Strategy [redacted] and the AFE Regional Gender Action Plan by translating strategic priorities into concrete operational support, while also strengthening results focus and accountability by helping teams meet and track corporate commitments reflected in the Corporate Scorecard.
Duties and Accountabilities:
HAESO seeks to hire an ETC that will be a core member of the AFE Socia Protection gender team. In this assignment, the ETC will serve as a technical lead, providing analytical and operational support to integrate gender considerations across country strategies and portfolios; advising and supporting Task Teams on gender tagging and gender-informed project design from concept through implementation; maintaining regional portfolio monitoring and reporting tools; identifying and promoting good practice operations; delivering trainings and participating in relevant technical discussions with teams, clients, and partners; and producing and disseminating knowledge products (e.g., toolkits, good practice notes, scorecards, blogs, and learning materials) to strengthen cross-sector learning, communications, and capacity building across the region.
Selection Criteria
• Bachelor's degree in in social sciences (e.g. Anthropology, Sociology, Political Sciences etc.), with very strong technical skills is required.
• A minimum of 5 years of full-time relevant professional experience in development or humanitarian aid
• Proven successful experience of working on humanitarian and/or development coordination
• Confirmed collaboration and successful experience working with multi-disciplinary teams.
• A strong sense of partnership and ability to work independently with limited supervision.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
The following would be an advantage but not required:
• Operational and analytical experience leading or co-leading work in key SDG focus areas such as stakeholder and citizen engagement, gender and social inclusion, community and local development, social cohesion and conflict sensitive programming, social resilience, climate change, etc. is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated project management / operational skills, would be an advantage.
Competencies Level GF, Social Development Specialist:
Integrative skills: demonstrates ability to think and work across WBG, practices and sectors • Integrates divergent viewpoints of multiple external and internal stakeholders into a coherent project/program/ strategy • Considers corporate commitments (e.g., MFD, climate, gender) in project approach
Policy Dialogue skills: possesses political judgment, diplomatic acumen, and negotiating skills • Builds and sustains key stakeholder relationships with government and other key stakeholders • Guides clients and/or development partners in identifying key operational issues and optional solutions with a demonstrated ability to bring together different perspectives
Knowledge and Experience in Development arena: demonstrates sound knowledge of World Bank Group's Twin Goals and the complementarities among different World Bank Group member institutions • Demonstrates deep understanding of policy making process and the role of own sector of expertise in that process • Fully understands Bank's development initiatives and policies and practices related to l ending and non-lending operations • Guides research efforts and translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies and for discussions with clients and development partners • Anticipates client needs and requests and guides the development/ offering of relevant tools to clients.
Communication and Influencing Skills: demonstrates the ability to influence and persuade others to accept ideas and suggestions (such as counterparts in government, international partner organizations, academia, and Bank colleagues, senior staff and managers). Has ability to communicate and defend, orally and in writing, challenges and positions to colleagues and management
Specialized Knowledge & Technical Skills:
Social Development Specialist Technical Skills & Knowledge
• Act as a resource for Task Team Leaders, Task Teams, and country teams to strengthen the integration of gender in country strategies and operations, including by monitoring deliverables and timelines for country engagement products and maintaining and regularly updating the Gender Tag Monitoring Excel Sheet to enable timely follow-up, proactive monitoring, management, and reporting of gender tag performance across the portfolio.
• Work in close coordination with Task Teams and gender focal points to identify and monitor good practice operations; support implementation and monitoring of the WB Gender Strategy and the AFE Regional Gender Action Plan, including timely inputs, tracking, and reporting; and strengthen linkages across WB-financed projects to address implementation challenges and improve responsiveness and quality.
• Ability to act as a key resource on knowledge management and communications activities across the region, including preparing learning and capacity building sessions; drafting blogs and other feature stories; and supporting the development of toolkits, good practice notes, and other learning materials on gender.
This is a locally recruited position, not an internationally recruited position. As a result, the conditions of employment will be in line with the employment market in the country where the position is located.
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.
