Education Specialist at the World Bank

Akwajobs   (Yaoundé, Cameroun)

Posted : 22 January, 2020

Category : Education   Location : Yaoundé, Cameroun

Job type : Full Time

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Education Specialist

Job #: req5774
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Education
Grade: GF
Term Duration: 3 years 0 months
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment
Location: Yaounde,Cameroon
Required Language(s): English
Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date: 2/10/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

We are on a mission to change the world; do you want to join us where it matters the most? Invest in your personal and professional development and acquire the skills that are vital for a global career in international development. A role in an FCS (Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations) location will be a truly impactful experience!

Fragility Conflict and Violence: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/fragilityconflictviolence

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. Visit www.worldbank.org.

THE EDUCATION GLOBAL PRACTICE

Education is central to achieving the World Bank Group’s twin goals of (1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and (2) promoting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in every developing country.  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 and conflict affected countries, 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. The Global Director works with Regional Directors, who serve as the interface between the Regions and the Practice. The Education Global Practice Management Team, which is the group that leads and manages the GP, consists of the Global Director, the Regional Directors and seven Practice Managers.

EDUCATION AND THE AFRICA REGION

The World Bank Group 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), 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 the cutting-edge possible 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 GP is comprised of three Practice Management Units for the Africa region. The HAFE3 Unit covers 14 countries in West and Southern Africa, across four Country Management Units (CMUs), and includes Anglophone, Francophone, Spanish, and Lusophone countries. In that context, the unit is responsible for policy dialogue, analytical work, and operational investments in the education sector. The unit’s growing portfolio currently includes operations for about US$2 billion, sourced from IDA, IBRD, and Trust Funds, and technical assistance (TA) products in both low-income countries and MICs.  The portfolio spans the full spectrum of the education sector from ECD to higher education as well as F-relevant skills development. The portfolio is increasingly using new lending instruments and approaches to support systemic reforms, including the program for results (PfoRs) and the multi-phased programmatic approach (MPAs). The unit produces innovative and programmatic analytical and advisory services (ASA).

Many of our operations and analytical products are based on approaches that: (i) assist countries in developing and implementing strategies for ensuring quality teaching and learning at all levels of education (ECD, basic education, secondary education and tertiary education), and in addressing the issues that face these countries' disadvantaged and vulnerable groups; (ii) ensure that education systems respond to the needs of labor markets; (iii) continue to stress the focus on results; build capacity for monitoring and evaluation of reforms, and foster knowledge sharing; (iv) promote innovative strategies, cross-sectoral linkages, and partnerships with the private sector and other development partners whenever relevant; (v) develop and scale up successful strategies for regional collaboration to leverage economies of scale; and (vi) aim to strengthen governance, accountability, and transparency in the education sector.

The AFCC1 CMU covers the countries of Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome Principe. The Bank’s education portfolio in Cameroon include the following (a) an International Development Association (IDA)-financed Education Reform Support Project, approved in May 2018, which aims to improve equitable access to quality basic education, with a focus on selected disadvantaged areas, featuring results-based and performance-based financing modalities; (b) an IDA/Global Partnership for Education (GPE)-funded Additional Financing; and (c) IDA-financed Skills Development and Secondary Education Project, under preparation. Cameroon also participates in the IDA-financed regional Africa Centers of Excellent Projects.

The World Bank is also active in knowledge generation on key issues in the education sector in Cameroon.  In this regard, planned analytical work for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 includes education sector analysis and sector plan funded by GPE. In addition, the Cameroon education team contributes relevant analysis and inputs to cross-sectoral and macroeconomic/public finance reports and strategic documents.

In light of the above, the World Bank seeks to hire an Education Specialist/Economist, based in Yaoundé to lead or contribute to the education policy dialogue, provide implementation support to the education portfolio; and lead a program of high-quality analytical work and TA in Cameroon.  provide analytical and operational support to the Cameroon education portfolio and related activities.

The selected candidate will report to the Practice Manager for HAFE3 and will be expected to work in close collaboration with the CMU.  The selected candidate is expected to work with country office colleagues as well as other team members based in Washington DC working on the different programs.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The incumbent will support (and lead) policy dialogue with the client on key issues in education and skills development and provide daily implementation support to the government on the lending operations. He/she will also be expected to lead or/co-lead analytical work to inform policy discussions.

The main responsibilities include

Support of operations. In consultation with the TTLs, handle operational matters on a day-to-day basis. 

• Participate in the full cycle of project preparation, implementation support, and evaluation.
• Support mission preparation and contribute to mission objectives, including inputs to mission aides-memoire and implementation status reports (ISRs).
• Support monitoring and evaluation of project development objectives and implementation progress, intermediate outcomes, and results-based financing/disbursement linked indicators.
• Contribution to analytical work and non-lending services. 
• Contribute to the design, preparation, and dissemination of analytical products (e.g. sector assessment, policy notes, impact evaluation, public expenditure reviews, country systems diagnostics, case studies, etc.); provide input on a range of issues (e.g., education finance, management and governance, teacher policies, skills development , etc.) that respond to critical policy questions identified by the client and have an impact on policy and operational design.
• Work on cross-sectoral teams (especially, Health, Nutrition and Population; Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management; Social Protection and Labor; Governance; Trade and Competitiveness) to contribute to products such as public expenditure reviews, service delivery surveys, and impact evaluations. 
• Contribute to the country diagnostics and other core analytical work. Advise country and sector teams on education issues and activities. Support to human development (HD) and other operational and analytical work. 
• Provide education sector input to regular Bank’s products/outputs (e.g. HD sector briefings and memos, background reports, project performance reviews, etc.). 
• Liaise with HD staff on integrated HD inputs and activities. 
• Respond to ad-hoc information requests from internal and external parties. Work with staff from other global practices on HD/education related issues (e.g. development policy operations (DPOs) with HD triggers, analytical work related to governance, management and financing of education sector, etc).
• Support building client capacity. Supporting building client capacity to use findings of policy research/analytical work for developing new policies and undertaking sector reforms.
• Provide technical advice on key issues and strategic directions for the country’s education sector development.Partnerships. 
• In coordination with the task team leader based in Cameroon, represent the World Bank in bilateral or multilateral meetings and activities with other development partners.
• Participate in regular Local Education Group (LEG) meetings and contribute to its work and follow up on key recommendations.

In performing these roles, the selected candidate will interact with counterparts in government, a variety of international and other partner organizations, and with Bank colleagues and managers within the Education GP, the CMU, as well as those in other GPs. She/he will be expected to work in close collaboration with the other members of the education team and colleagues in other GPs. Furthermore, given the situation of fragility in Cameroon related to refugee and anglophone crises, the selected candidate is expected to work on the fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) topics as related to education and HD.

Selection Criteria

The education GP is seeking an experienced, versatile, and highly motivated candidate to work on a large and growing portfolio as part of the education team based in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

The ideal candidate will combine excellent technical capabilities; a capacity to translate analytical findings into policy and into innovative Bank operations to help clients shift policies in new directions or to pilot new approaches; and operational skills to provide effective implementation support for the Bank’s growing portfolio. 

The candidate should have:

Education:

• A minimum of a Master’s Degree (PhD preferred) in economics, education (economics of education, education policy, etc.), public policy, or a related field;

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the education sector.  Relevant experience with policies and interventions in the education sector, familiarity with World Bank's operations and business processes will be a plus;Analytical/technical skills: Strong analytical and technical skills, including an understanding of the core education data sets, indicators, tools for analysis of this data, and the use of evidence for education policy;Client orientation: Strong client orientation and proven ability to work with government agencies, and with partner organizations;Team work and interpersonal skills: 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:  Proactive attitude to challenges 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 realistic priorities for self and others;Language and communication skills; Excellent communication (oral and written) skills in French and English.  The candidate will be expected to write concisely and expediently; present technical information to clients; and represent the WBG education team among donors and the client; Travel:  Willingness to travel, as required by the different tasks.

Key Competencies:

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 this data, and the use of evidence for education policy;

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 develop/offer 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 examine similar policy questions in multiple regions;

Integrative Skills:

• Demonstrates strong integrative thinking and ability to support project teams in developing of an integrated point of view around development challenge;
• Analytical services and advisory (ASA) policy, strategic and technical analysis for country/sector issues:  Provides inputs to key ASA documents by analyzing relevant issues, soliciting input from others, and using data and facts to support conclusions and/or position;

Written and verbal communication: 

• Delivers information effectively;

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;

Business judgment and analytical decision making: 

• Analyzes facts and data to support sound, logical decisions regarding own and others' work.

Poverty has no borders, neither does excellence. We succeed because of our differences and we continuously search for qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds from around the globe.

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