Financial Operations Analyst Job #: req32818 Organization: World Bank Sector: Financial Sector Grade: GE Term Duration: 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Chennai,India Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): English Closing Date: 5/7/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Are you a very passionate advocate for education? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of children? The Global Partnership for Education Secretariat (GPE) would like to hear from you.
Who We Are GPE is a shared commitment to end the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better world. We bring together governments, teachers, civil society, donors, United Nations agencies, development banks, businesses and private foundations to transform education systems so that every girl and boy can have hope, opportunity and agency.
What We Do GPE helps low- and lower-middle-income countries to build stronger education systems so that all children can get the education they need to thrive. We currently support nearly 90 countries where the needs are greatest and focus on reaching the children who are the most vulnerable, including girls, children with disabilities and those affected by extreme poverty or conflict. Our unique approach works. Since 2002, 160 million more children in GPE partner countries have set foot in classrooms for the first time, more than half of them girls. GPE is also the largest provider of education grants in the global COVID-19 response, providing partner countries with vital resources to ensure that learning can safely continue.
How We Work Now, GPE is working to help governments transform their education systems to get the most vulnerable children in school, improve teaching and learning, and build equitable, inclusive and resilient education systems fit for the 21st century. Between 2020-2025, GPE will support transformative change in up to 90 countries and territories, which are home to 1 billion children. Transforming education is about creating lasting changes and achieving impact at scale. GPE sets out to deliver this transformative change by convening partners, mobilizing funds and catalyzing reforms to help partner countries accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality.
Raise Your Hand In July 2021, the Global Education Summit put GPE firmly on the path to be fully-funded by 2025, by raising a record US $4 billion from donors for GPE’s Raise Your Hand campaign. At the Summit, Heads of State and Government from partner countries made historic commitments to education financing and GPE also mobilized an unprecedented number of pledges from businesses, private foundations and development banks.
A fully funded GPE would support transformed education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, enable up to 175 million children to learn and help get 88 million more girls and boys in school by 2025. In the longer term, this investment could add $164 billion to economies in GPE partner countries, lift 18 million people out of poverty, and protect 2 million girls from early marriage.
Governance And Organizational Arrangements The GPE Board of Directors includes ministerial-level board members and alternates representing 20 constituencies that reflect the Partnership’s breadth. The Board Chair is HE President Jakaya Kikwete and the Board Vice Chair is Ms. Christine Hogan. The Board of Directors, with its three standing committees, provides policy and strategic oversight and approves or delegates funding decisions.
The GPE Secretariat, with 160 employees and hosted by the World Bank, is responsible for translating the policies and strategies set by the Board into practical support for partner countries, coordinating with diverse stakeholders and galvanizing global support for SDG4. The Secretariat’s headquarters are in the World Bank’s offices in Washington, D.C., with a European office in Paris, an Africa office in Nairobi, a satellite office in Brussels, and a support office in Chennai.
GPE is one of the largest donors for basic education in low and lower-middle-income countries. It offers several financial instruments (i.e. grants) to support programs to transform education systems in its partner countries. As of 2024, the volume of its active grant portfolio amounts to US$3 billion.
GPE grants finance programs implemented by partner country governments and grant agents, who are ultimately responsible for delivering these programs. GPE Secretariat monitors the performance of these programs during the implementation and at the completion. The purpose of the grant monitoring by the Secretariat is threefold: i) to support partner countries and grant agents in delivering results, by detecting the issues faced during the implementation and by ensuring that these issues are being handled appropriately, ii) to learn lessons from program implementation and to provide information to adapt GPE’s standards, policies and operating model, and iii) to be accountable to GPE Board, donors and stakeholders for how GPE grant money is used. Grant performance data also plays an important role in the fundraising.
ABOUT THE TEAMThe Finance & Grant Operations (FGO) team focuses on fiduciary matters, grant processing, monitoring and administration, risk, innovative financing, and trustee finance.
The Grant Operations practice sets policies and guidelines for GPE's grant processes, aiding partner countries in accessing funding and overcoming implementation barriers. It closely collaborates with Country Program Officers who are the Secretariat’s focal point to GPE’s grant agents on grant processes. Grant processes largely consist of 3 phases - application, implementation and closing. During the implementation and after the closing, grant agents must submit report to GPE Secretariat, which Grant Operations practice compiles regularly at the portfolio level. This data, together with other data, helps systematically understand the performance of GPE grants.
ABOUT THE JOBThis position will be based initially in Chennai but may be relocated if business needs arise that make it necessary to do so.
Since most of the GPE Secretariat staff and consultants are based in Washington, DC., Paris, and Brussels, communication will predominantly occur virtually using World Bank-approved communication tools. This role requires working hours between 2 pm and 11 pm local time to cover business hours in Washington, DC, and Paris/Brussels.
DescriptionDuties And AccountabilitiesThe Grant Monitoring Analyst is responsible for maintaining and organizing grant performance data, ensuring accuracy, compliance with organizational requirements, and consistency of methodologies. This role involves analyzing various grant data, preparing reports on grant performance, and supporting Country Program Officers and grant agents in monitoring grants. The tasks of the Grant Monitoring Analyst include, but are not limited to:Reporting on grant performance- Assist in the preparation of various documents to report on grant performance by gathering necessary data, putting them together, creating figures and tables, and drafting reports.- Construct and maintain a comprehensive database on grant performance by consolidating various data points, ensuring data quality, and updating information regularly.- Provide data analysis support to identify trends and insights from grant performance data, to learn lessons from grant implementation and to inform decision-making.- Collect and compile grant data requested by donors, evaluators, researchers, and other stakeholders, ensuring timely delivery of accurate information.- Generate figures and tables to visually represent grant data for donor reports, utilizing software tools to create clear and informative visuals that enhance the understanding of grant performance.Support to Country Program Officers and grant agents in monitoring grants- Coordinate with Country Program Officers to ensure the timely submission of reports, facilitating communication, and collaboration to meet deadlines.- Facilitate communication between Country Program Officers and grant agents regarding grant-related inquiries.- Ensure the comprehensiveness, quality and accuracy of the data included in the reports Grant coding and costing- Code grants’ program document to systematically understand the thematic areas and education levels supported by the grant and to estimate the amount of grant financing allocated to each- Aggregate coding data at the portfolio level to present thematic areas supported by GPE grants- Prepare documents, writeups, figures and tables to report on thematic areas and education levels supported by grants.IT system for grant reporting and monitoring- Transfer data included in grant reports received offline to the online system to ensure accuracy and completeness of the data in the system- Support grant agent focal points in accessing GPE’s online reporting system- Support transition to the new online system by compiling the data included in the current system- Collaborate with the IT team to finetuning the functionality of grant reporting and monitoring system- Assist in preparing training for Country Program Officers and grant agents on the use of new system
Selection Criteria
Education