Description
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. Visit www.worldbank.org.
South Asia Region (SAR)
SAR (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) is at a crucial stage of development. Rapid economic growth, driven by urbanization and demographic dividend, has brought down poverty rates, but severe forms of exclusion and disparities based on ethnicity, caste, and gender remain. Rapid growth has also come with congestion and pollution in cities. SAR is more than other regions affected by changes in temperature and extreme weather event. Additional challenges are that SAR is underperforming in exports, has large informal sectors and low female labor force participation rates. All these challenges must be addressed to secure rapid growth in coming decades. Private sector led growth, focused on investments in infrastructure, energy, logistics and cities are essential to generate the jobs needed to employ SAR’s sizeable youth population. At the same time, the region needs to continue building human capital so that the population is well equipped for the jobs of the future. For more information, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar.
Human Development Practice Group
The World Bank is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development (HD) working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop tailored solutions to protect and invest in their people, enabling them to reach their full potential and enjoy a good quality of life. Investments in human development are intrinsically important for individual well-being, and building human capital, which underpins productivity and economic growth. The HD Practice Group (PG) at the World Bank comprises of the Social Protection & Jobs (SPJ), Education (EDU) and Health, Nutrition & Population (HNP) Global Practices (GPs). The HD PG coordinates with other PGs to ensure an 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. For more information, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/human-development.
Human Development in Bhutan
In recent years, the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) has been expanding its investments in human capital with World Bank financial and technical support.
The Human Capital Recovery & Resilience Program for Results (HCRRP), implemented by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Employment (MoICE) and Ministry of Education & Skills Development (MoESD) aims to support building, protecting, and utilizing human capital, and builds on key commitments in its Five-Year Plans (FYPs). Objectives include improving employment outcomes and access and quality of education, with activities focused on expanding early childhood care and development, using technology for education delivery, deepening inclusive skills training to address rural/urban and gender disparities, enhancing employment and entrepreneurship support, among others.
The Accelerating Maternal & Child Health Outcomes Project (AMCHP), with the financial assistance of the Government of Japan, to be implemented by the Ministry of Health (MoH), aims support the RGoB’s comprehensive Mother & Child Health (MCH) program, by promoting investments in mothers’ health and children’s wellbeing in the first “1,000 golden days”. The Project intends to address the knowledge constraints and financial burden among pregnant and lactating woman in accessing health care, by promoting social and behavior change communications and providing cash transfers to the poorest and most vulnerable mothers with children under two-years, to incentivize demand for health services.
The COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project (C19ERHSPP) also implemented by MoH, has been supporting RGoB in its COVID-19 response. The Project provided much needed support for vaccine procurement as well as strengthening capacity to handle rapid increases in burden on healthcare facilities.
The World Bank also supports RGoB with budget support and policy formulation aligned with its FYPs wherein human development interventions continue to play a key role in the country’s developmental agenda. Analytical support which underpins such advisory services includes, or has included, assessments of the state of the labor market, health systems service delivery, education infrastructure, among others. Most recently, RGoB has requested World Bank support to improve employment outcomes by engaging the private sector and fostering entrepreneurship. This initiative will require a multi-sectoral approach to address to youth unemployment in the country which is further exacerbated by the upward outmigration trend over the past year. Support to RGoB in this regard will include significant analytical work, particularly on the drivers and patterns of migration.
Job Background
The World Bank is seeking an Extended Term Consultant (ETC), to work as a Human Development Specialist, to support the ongoing and prospective operational and analytical engagement in HD in Bhutan. While this position would be mapped to the SPJ GP in consideration of the current and prospective lending portfolio, it will require support to the EDU and HNP GPs in the country given the deeply interrelated work program in HD. This position requires an individual with sound judgment and diplomatic skills to work well across various units within the Bank, as well as with RGoB and development partners.
Roles & Responsibilities
• Provide clients with technical advice in the design and implementation of human development interventions.
• Support the Bank’s implementation support and monitoring functions for ongoing projects.
• Support the preparation of management briefs, analytical studies, technical reports, and methodological notes.
• Support the identification of financing sources for technical assistance and/or evaluation activities, and the preparation of relevant proposals.
• Support the organization of consultation workshops, knowledge exchanges, and dissemination activities, including the preparation of relevant material.
• Liaise with development partners and financiers and facilitate internal/external reporting.
• Extend operational and analytical support to other HD teams in SAR, if needed.
Selection Criteria
• Master’s degree in relevant discipline (e.g. economics, social sciences, public policy, etc.).
• Five years of relevant professional experience, with previous/current experience with government or development partner projects being an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience with policy dialogue on social protection and jobs, education, health and gender issues and understanding of implementation challenges in Bhutan, with experience across other sectors being an advantage.
• Sound knowledge of development, political, social, and cultural issues in Bhutan.
• Strong analytical skills and proven ability to conduct relevant research and apply technical knowledge to diagnose and propose solutions to policy and operational challenges.
• Experience in policy dialogue with clients, capacity building for implementing entities, managing partnerships, and knowledge dissemination for stakeholders.
• Experience in producing high quality documents such as technical papers, strategy reports, or journal articles.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with proven ability to work in a team and intercultural environment.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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This vacancy is archived.