Senior Education Specialist Full-Time

Description

THE WORLD BANK GROUP

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.

THE EDUCATION GLOBAL PRACTICE

Education is central to achieving the World Bank Group’s twin goals:  it is a reliable route out of poverty because it has large and consistent returns to income for individuals and because it can drive economic growth.  It is also a prime vehicle for promoting shared prosperity.  The main challenge in the education sector is to achieve “learning for all, learning for life”—that is, to ensure that all children and young people acquire the knowledge and skills they need for their lives and livelihoods.  The developing world has achieved great advances in education in the past two decades, most notably in enrolling and keeping children in school and in approaching gender equality.  Yet these successes in expanding access to education have highlighted the major remaining challenges:  how to remove the educational barriers faced by the poorest people and those living in fragile states, and how to improve the quality of education so that schooling leads to real learning.  The WBG and the broader education development community are increasingly shifting focus to learning outcomes.  Because traditional input-driven programs often fail to promote learning, the WBG’s education strategy highlights the need for a more comprehensive systems approach to education reform, investments, and service delivery.  This approach is about increasing accountability and targeting results, as a complement to providing inputs.  And it also requires strengthening the knowledge base on education, to highlight where systems are achieving results, where they are falling short, and what the most effective solutions are.  These efforts are increasingly guided by the need to invest early; invest smartly; and invest for all.  Through high-quality analytical work, collection and curation of evidence, and practical know-how in these three areas, the WBG is helping its partner countries accelerate their educational progress.

The Education Global Practice is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the practice, together with Regional Directors who oversee the human development program in the regions working with nine Practice Managers.

EDUCATION AND THE AFRICA REGION

The WBG serves 48 client countries in the Africa Region (AFR). Clients range from low-income countries, among them several fragile and conflict-affected states, to a small but growing number of middle-income countries (MICs) but with weak human development indicators. Average annual per capita income varies widely, and inequalities persist in most African countries, with most of the Region’s population living in poverty. The Bank’s strategy in AFR is focused on two pillars – competitiveness and employment, and vulnerability and resilience –and prioritizes cross-cutting approaches founded in governance and public sector capacity.

In AFR, many countries have achieved considerable progress in access to basic education. But challenges persist, namely: improving the quality and relevance of education at all levels; expanding access to early childhood development (ECD) and post-basic education; developing emphasis on science, technology, and innovation; and improving skills development. Efforts are needed in each of these areas in order to produce a quality workforce to sustain, innovate, and expand on the current economic growth in the region.

The Education GP team in the region works with client countries – at the regional, sub-regional, national, and sub-national levels – to address their unique and shared challenges. We do this by addressing low quality at all levels of education, increasing the efficiency and accountability of education services, modernizing the higher end of the formal education continuum, integrating science and technology more effectively, and aligning skills formation with the needs of a fast-growing Region, including MICs. The GP aims to not only deliver high quality products but also to build capacity in client countries through collaborative interactions with country counterparts and other development partners. It seeks to bring cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the practical challenges facing client countries and at the same time places a high priority on knowledge generation, including through rigorous impact evaluations of education interventions.

The Education Sector Unit for Eastern Africa is responsible for policy, analytical and operational work in the education sector in the sub-region. The unit currently has a portfolio of regional and country projects and programs, analytical and technical assistance activities financed through IDA grants and credits, Trust Funds and Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) and using investment and results-based financing.  The portfolio spans the full spectrum of the education sector from early childhood education to higher education and research. The unit is committed to delivering high quality technical products to support education development in the Bank’s client countries, and to do so in a manner that builds capacity through collaborative interactions with country counterparts.

The Unit’s core goals are to  (i) expand coverage of early childhood development in a cost-effective manner (ii) ensure universal completion of quality primary/basic education (iii)  improve learning outcomes, particularly in reading, mathematics and science and (iv) expand access to and quality of secondary, technical, vocational, and higher education, with a focus on applied sciences, engineering and technology and strengthening the links between post-basic education systems and labor markets. The unit is also developing innovative approaches to education, including the use of digital technologies to expand access and improve quality and results-based modalities for Bank projects. It tries to achieve these goals through education sector interventions (financial and analytical) and through interventions in other sectors that influence education outcomes, as well as through partnership activities with a variety of partners.

The World Bank has a longstanding commitment to support education in Mozambique and plays a central role in the sector’s dialogue and coordination of external support. Recent education operations in Mozambique covered Early Childhood Education (ECD), primary and secondary levels, vocational education and training and higher education. The Bank also has a robust program of analytical work, including several impact evaluations, studies and two rounds of the Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) survey. Two education projects are currently under preparation in Mozambique. The Improvement of Skills development Project (MozSkills – P167054) will support TVET and higher education with US$104 million of IDA financing to increase access and quality education and training in selected priority areas. This project will be implemented by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Higher Education and TVET (MCTESTP) and the National Authority of Professional Education (ANEP). The project Increasing Learning and Empowering Girls in Mozambique (MozLearning – P172657) will include US$240 million of IDA and GPE funds (US$100 from IDA and US$140 from GPE) and aims at increasing learning readiness and girls’ retention in basic education in underserved areas of Mozambique. MozLearning will be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Human Development (MINEDH) and will contribute to a pool donors’ fund- the Education Sector Support Fund (FASE in Portuguese), which accounts to around 90 percent of external support to the education sector in Mozambique. The two projects are expected to be approved by the Board in FY21.

The World Bank is also active in knowledge generation in the education sector of Mozambique. An impact evaluation of the ECD component of the Education Sector Support Project (P125127 – closed in December 2019) is being completed. The ESSP has been critical for the development of the ECD strategy of MINEDH in Mozambique and the randomized evaluation will provide a rigorous assessment of the program’s impact on children’s cognitive and socioemotional development, on mothers’ labor force participation, and on school attendance of older siblings. Also, a pilot program to improve early literacy in primary education is being designed, including an impact evaluation to assess its impact before scaling up. The pilot, Aprender +, will implement guided lessons plans for teachers and coaching from trained coaches.

The unit is seeking a Senior Education Specialist/Senior Economist based in Maputo, to lead the education policy dialogue and coordination with development partners, supervise the education portfolio and continue developing the IDA pipeline, lead a program of high-quality analytical work and TA and contribute to/ lead other tasks in the Country Management Unit (CMU), including those involving other Global Practices. The selected candidate may also contribute to education tasks throughout the Eastern and Southern Africa region.

The selected candidate will report to the Education Practice Manager for Eastern Africa (HAEE1).  While based in Maputo, the selected candidate is expected to work with a multi-sectoral/global practice country office colleagues and the Country Management Unit (CMU), as well as other team members based in Washington D.C. Depending on business need, the selected candidate may work on education tasks that are regional if required.

Roles & Responsibilities:

The selected candidate will be expected to engage in high quality dialogue with an experienced client who wishes to learn from relevant international experience adapted to local conditions, while at the same time, providing timely and quality implementation support to deal with implementation capacity and governance challenges. The selected candidate must have: (a) a strategic vision for the country together with a sound understanding of the local context; (b) strong education technical expertise and integrity and be able to support the government in meeting its goals of ensuring universal completion of basic education with quality while gradually expanding secondary and higher education; (c) ability and agility to identify areas for policy and/or institutional reforms that could be addressed through DPOs or results-based approaches; (d) engage with other global practices to enhance Mozambique’s development trajectory. The selected candidate will further develop the pipeline, identify and conduct just-in-time analyses and notes to respond to the government’s needs.

The main responsibilities of this position include:

• Policy Dialogue and Building Client Capacity. Lead and contribute to sectoral policy dialogue with the government of Mozambique at different levels, and development partners and civil society organizations involved in the education sector. Identify and nurture opportunities for participating in the broader policy dialogue in the country especially in so far as they impact on education or where the education sector can make a contribution. Build client capacity to use findings of policy research/ analytical work for developing new policies and undertaking sector reforms. Provide technical advice on key issues for the education sector’s development, by bringing relevant international experience and research to assist in developing local solutions;
• Operations. Lead and/or contribute to the development of new lending operations, both in education and multi-sectoral, tapping into the Bank’s full range of instruments; review and prepare operational documents, coordinating across practices and project components with other team members; and provide day to day operational support and advise the government on technical and operational aspects of project implementation for ongoing projects;
• Analytical Work and Non-Lending Services. Design and lead in the preparation of “cutting edge” technical products that respond to critical policy questions identified by the client and which have an impact on policy and operational design. Produce “just in time” notes of high quality, as well as lead longer analytical reports. Work on cross-sectoral teams to contribute to products such as public expenditure reviews and implementation of decentralization.  Contribute to the country diagnostics and other core analytic work. Contribute to the unit’s analytical work by generating “think pieces” and synthesis papers;
• Leadership: Work closely with the Practice Manager, the education team and the CMU to identify new business in the education sector, including innovative financing approaches, technical advisory services, other services, as required;
• Partnerships: Work constructively with partners, including multilateral and bilateral development partners, UN agencies, non-profit organizations, academia and civil society. Contribute to alignment and coordination around country-led priorities.
  In performing these roles, the selected candidate will be expected to influence the design and execution of major policy and/or research initiatives for the Bank, the clients, and other donors. He/she will lead or participate in developing innovative operational approaches across the education sector with a focus on addressing implementation challenges and developing results-based approaches.

Duties and Accountabilities:

• Contribution to education sector analytical work: Participate in analytical work and provide high quality customized analytical and advisory services linked to country circumstances (including relevant lessons from international experience) on wide range of issues and policies related to education.Skillfully manipulate large datasets, such as school census and national learning assessment data, summarizing findings clearly and drawing out policy recommendations. Contribute to activities such as impact evaluations, economic analysis of education operations, public expenditure reviews, and other education analytical work;
• Support of operations: In consultation with the TTLs, handle operational matters on a day-to-day basis.In this context, she/he would participate in the full cycle of project preparation, implementation support, and evaluation. She/he will support mission preparation and contribute to mission objectives, including inputs to mission aides-memoire and implementation status reports (ISRs). She/he will support monitoring and evaluation of project development objectives and implementation progress, intermediate outcomes, and results-based financing/disbursement linked indicators.The main objective is to help ensure the effectiveness and timely implementation of projects, including close follow-up on project implementation progress and alleviation of bottlenecks;
• Support to human development (HD) and other country analytical work: Provide education sector input to regular Bank products and outputs, e.g. HD-wide analytical tasks, CMU tasks.Liaise with HD staff on integrated HD inputs and activities;
• Support to ad hoc requests and briefings:Respond to ad-hoc information requests on education from internal and external parties.Draft briefings for management on education sector in general and specific topics as required.

Selection Criteria

• A minimum of a Master’s Degree (preferably PhD) in economics, education (economics of education, education policy, etc.), public policy, or a related field;
• A minimum of 8 years of experience in the education sector;
• Strong analytical and technical skills, including an understanding of the core education data sets, indicators, tools for analysis of these data, and the use of evidence for education policy;
• Strong client orientation and proven ability to work with government agencies, and with partner organizations;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to work in a team and intercultural environment with minimal supervision;
• High levels of energy, initiative and flexibility in quickly adjusting to changing work program requirements. Ability to juggle numerous competing demands and priorities, respond quickly to internal and external client requests, and set priorities for self and others;
• Relevant experience with policies and interventions in the education sector, familiarity with World Bank’s operations and business processes will be a plus;
• Excellent communication (oral and written) skills to convey complex technical ideas to a non-specialist audience, and lead substantive policy dialogue with clients and stakeholders;
• Fluency in English (spoken and written); Fluency in Portuguese and/or Spanish highly desirable;
• Willingness to travel, as required by the different tasks.

Key Competencies:

• Integrative Skills: Demonstrates strong integrative thinking and ability to support project teams in developing an integrated point of view around development challenges;
• Policy Dialogue Skills: Possesses political judgment, diplomatic acumen, and negotiating skills; applies cross-country development knowledge to discussions with clients and development partners; anticipates needs and requests in the field and develops/offers relevant tools to clients;
• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena: Understands policy making process and the role of own sector of expertise in that process; finds relevant information/data and examines similar policy questions in multiple regions;
• Client Orientation: Takes personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to client queries, requests or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success;
• Drive for Results: Takes personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results, and has the personal organization skills to do so;
• Teamwork: Collaborates with other team members and contributes productively to the team’s work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view;
• Knowledge, Learning, and Communication:Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner; and
• Education Sector Knowledge and Experience: Possesses strong analytical and technical skills, including an understanding of the core education data sets, indicators, tools for analysis of these data, and the use of evidence for education policy.