Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? 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 WBG consists of five specialized institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). IBRD and IDA are commonly known as the World Bank, which is organized into six client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, several corporate functions, and – as of July 1, 2014 – has introduced fourteen Global Practices (GPs) as well as five Cross-Cutting Solution Areas (CCSAs) to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients.
The global development community is at an auspicious turning point in history. Thanks to the success of the past few decades and favorable economic growth, developing countries now have an unprecedented opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation. This is the vision of the WBG: to eradicate extreme poverty by reducing the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day to 3 percent by 2030 and promote shared prosperity by fostering the income growth of the bottom 40 percent in every country.
To achieve this vision, the WBG Board of Governors approved a strategy for the organization that utilizes the combined strength of the WBG institutions and their unique ability to partner with the public and private sectors to deliver customized development solutions backed by finance, world class knowledge and convening services. The strategy has three components: (1) maximizing development impact by engaging country clients in identifying and tackling the most difficult development challenges; (2) promoting scaled-up partnerships that are strategically aligned with the goals; and (3) crowding in public and private resources, expertise and ideas.
The architecture underpinning the strategy and instrumental to its success is the establishment of Global Practices and Cross-Cutting Solution Areas that, in concert with the WBG Regions, will design solutions that address clients’ most pressing developmental challenges, and ultimately, enable the WBG to meet its twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
The Sustainable Development Practice Group helps countries tackle their most complex challenges in the areas of Agriculture, Climate Change, Environment and Natural Resources, Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience, and Water.
The Social Development theme addresses issues related to: (a) social inclusion of the poor, vulnerable, and the excluded; (b) promoting accountable institutions; (c) supporting socially cohesive communities and groups with a focus on prevention of conflict, crime and violence, as well as supporting post-conflict development; (d) using community driven development as a tool for developing local infrastructure and delivering services; and (e) addressing issues related to social risk management, including those covered by the World Bank’s social safeguard policies on Indigenous Peoples and involuntary Resettlement, and by the Environmental and Social Standards (ESSs) in the new Environmental and Social Framework. The work on inclusion of vulnerable and excluded group covers, among others, issues related to Gender and Gender-Based Violence, LGBT, Disability, ethnic minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and displaced populations.
Effectively addressing gender-based violence contributes to the achievement of the World Bank’s twin goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity by increasing women’s and girls’ ability to participate in society and livelihood opportunities. Gender-based violence (GBV) – including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse – is a prevalent feature in settings across countries where the World Bank operates; recent estimates by WHO indicate that 35 per cent, or roughly one in three, women worldwide have experienced some form of physical or sexual assault in their lifetime. The costs of GBV, both direct and indirect, are a staggering burden for households and economies. While the time horizon for reducing gender-based violence is necessarily affected by the need to shift norms and attitudes that underlie GBV given the widespread acceptance of violence against women and girls, it is generally agreed that effective interventions at the programming and project level in several sectors could help change attitudes and behaviors and enhance women’s ability to participate and benefit from development programs (Ellsberg et al. 2014).
In order to understand and address more effectively key drivers that contribute to incidence of GBV, the recently released report by the Global GBV Task Force emphasizes the need to improve social risk assessment and specifically assessment and identification of key risks of SEA and GBV. Identifying and understanding both project-related and existing contextual risks linked to GBV and particularly sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse is critical to ensuring World Bank projects do not create, contribute to or exacerbate existing dynamics or vulnerabilities perpetuating violence; it is also critical to inform the development of appropriate prevention and mitigation measures to be integrated into project design and to be monitored throughout project implementation.
In an effort to reduce potential risks presented by World Bank operations and to identify key interventions that may contribute to effective GBV prevention and response, the Bank is recruiting a Senior Social development Specialist with extensive knowledge and experience in operations and GBV.
Mozambique borders Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Swaziland. About 66% of its population of 28 million (2017) live and work in rural areas. It is endowed with ample arable land, water, energy, as well as mineral resources and newly discovered natural gas offshore; three deep seaports; and a relatively large potential pool of labor. Mozambique’s strong ties to the region’s economic engine, South Africa, underscore the importance of its economic, political, and social development to the stability and growth of Southern Africa as a whole. The main development challenges Mozambique faces include maintaining the macroeconomic stability considering exposure to commodity price fluctuations and upcoming general elections, and reestablishing confidence through improved economic governance and increased transparency, including the transparent handling of the hidden debt investigation. Moreover, structural reforms are needed in support of the currently struggling private sector. Another major challenge for the economy is to diversify away from the current focus on capital-intensive projects and low-productivity subsistence agriculture toward a more diverse and competitive economy, all the while strengthening the key drivers of inclusion, such as improved quality education and health service delivery, which could in turn improve social indicators. http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mozambique/overview.
The Social Development team has a growing work program in the Mozambique Country Management Unit (covering Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius), encompassing project loans and grants, advisory and analytical programs and active partnerships supporting a wide range of engagements across sectors, including social safeguards and social risk management; community driven development; citizen engagement and social accountability; social inclusion; and social resilience.
SAFS1, one of the four Africa Social Development units, is looking to recruit a Senior Social Development Specialist to support the unit’s lending, analytical, advisory and social risk management work, with particular focus on Gender-Based Violence. The selected candidate will work with respective colleagues in Social Development, Gender and respective GPs to mitigate potential risks of GBV and expand opportunities for GBV prevention and response in Bank-supported operations. The Senior Social Development Specialist will be based in Maputo, Mozambique, and will provide support to other countries in the same Country Management Unit in meeting the Bank’s expanding social development and inclusion agenda. She/he will report directly to a regional Practice Manager and will be expected to work closely with country management unit and task teams in the country. The selected candidate will also be expected to work collaboratively and develop good relations with the broader Social Development and other Global Practice teams, Global Solution Groups and Global Theme teams specializing in Gender and Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV).
The Senior Social Development Specialist will provide technical guidance and support to operational teams and country clients, both to identify and understand key risks projects pose to incidence of GBV, and also to work with teams and clients to design and implement operational interventions to prevent and respond to GBV. S/he will promote attention and integration of GBV issues in WBG operations and knowledge activities, with particular focus on infrastructure and human development sectors, and broadening the evidence base for activities on prevention and response that work in the portfolio. The selected candidate is also expected to actively engage in operational work, leading the design, preparation and implementation of Social Development projects.
Provide technical guidance and support on Gender-Based Violence and Social Risk Management
Serve as the GBV focal point for the Mozambique Country Management Unit (Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles) and engage actively and regularly with country unit management leadership and task teams on how to integrate evidence-based activities to prevent and respond to GBV within their projects and portfolios;
Lead in screening investments operations to identify key projects at high risk for sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of GBV, and to develop and implement recommendations and interventions to address these risks; provide guidance to Task Team Leaders in the design of projects with GBV prevention, response, or mitigation elements;
Provide leadership and technical inputs into analytical work related to GBV and other gender issues, including serving as peer reviewer for relevant project documents and products;
Coordinate with operational teams to develop cross-sectoral knowledge products to help operational teams apply good practice and translate research and evidence into clear policy messages; Play an active role to promote policy update of evidence-based recommendations;
Collaborate with key focal points on GBV within Social Development, the Gender and the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings Theme groups;
As appropriate, build and maintain partnerships with key international institutions helping to drive the GBV agenda (e.g., other multilateral and bilateral donor institutions, research groups, and civil society organizations); and
As needed, draft briefing notes and talking points for the WBG Sr. Management for relevant internal and external engagements.
This position suited to constructive, highly motivated team players with an eye for detail, understanding the bigger picture context of operations, and creative problem-solving abilities. The successful candidate should have strong operational and analytical skills, have practical experience handling complex/sensitive social development issues through participatory processes of stakeholder engagement, and be able to integrate social development considerations in an operational context.