Senior Health Specialist Job #: req32827 Organization: World Bank Sector: Health/Nutrition/Population Grade: GG Term Duration: 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: International Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): French (desired); Portugese (desired) Closing Date: 5/1/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank consists of two entities – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). It is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries. As the largest development bank in the world, the World Bank provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, and coordinates responses to regional and global challenges. Visit www.worldbank.org.
The Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice
The central contribution of the HNP Global Practice to the World Bank’s twin goals is to enable the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in which all people are effectively covered by essential health services, and nobody suffers undue financial hardship as a result of illnesses. In the quest for UHC, the HNP Global Practice is building on progress made in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, an array of analytical and advisory services, strategic partnerships with partner institutions and other financing agencies, and an active lending portfolio. The HNP Global Practice includes staff members in Washington, DC, and many country offices.
The HNP Global Practice is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the GP. The HNP Global Practice works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that HNP outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the HNP sector. Accordingly, a capacity to work across GP boundaries, forge coalitions and influence multi-practice solutions are essential for achieving the major objectives of improving HNP outcomes.
Global Financing Facility Context
The global community has made considerable progress over the past 25 years in improving the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents. Rates of preventable death have dropped significantly in many countries and improvements have been seen across a range of key measures of health and well-being. But the progress has not been enough: too many women, children, and adolescents have been left behind, dying and suffering from preventable conditions, in considerable part because of a large financing gap, estimated at US$33 billion annually.
The Global Financing Facility (GFF) embodies the world’s commitment to ensuring that all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Launched in 2015, the GFF is squarely focused on prioritizing and scaling up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition in the world’s most vulnerable countries through targeted strengthening of service delivery systems—to save lives and as a critical step toward achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The GFF has pioneered a country-driven, collaborative model for global health linked to sustainable financing and results. At the core of GFF’s model is the development and implementation of a government-led, prioritized and costed national investment case that lays out the pathway to scaling up universal access to a basic package of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition services along with critical health financing and system reforms to accelerate progress toward UHC. By facilitating multistakeholder country platforms, the GFF supports its partner governments to mobilize and align both domestic and external funding behind national investment case priorities.
The GFF approach also enables other global health partners to achieve more by working better together and by empowering countries to lead. The GFF responds to developing countries’ long-lasting call for global partners to align once and for all behind their national health plans and priorities—fostering a permanent shift in the global health and development assistance paradigm.
The GFF partnership is led by the GFF Director; the day-to-day management of the GFF team is the responsibility of the GFF Practice Manager. The GFF secretariat, which is based at the World Bank and is situated in the HNP Global Practice, works to deliver on the GFF objectives. This includes working with countries to develop quality investment cases, managing the GFF Trust Fund, technical assistance to regional teams, and support to the GFF Investors Group, the governance mechanism for the GFF.
Position introduction:
The position advertised will work within the GFF’s Workstream on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health, Nutrition and Gender (RMNCAHNG), which supports countries as they strengthen their primary health systems to ensure equitable access to quality RMNCAH-N services.
The overall objectives for this position are to:
• Lead efforts to define the GFF’s value add and strategy on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N) commodity security and access, and how that can be integrated with GFF support to health financing reforms, systems strengthening and the results agenda.
• Drive impact on RMNCAH-N commodity access by shaping investments with partner countries and collaborating across the World Bank Group and beyond to maximize return from GFF’s grant funding.
Duties & Responsibilities:
• Lead the development, socialization and validation of the GFF’s approach to Commodities and Supply Chain work that improves access to RMNCAH-N commodities and is consistent with GFF’s core principles of country-leadership. Integrate the approach with other GFF workstreams to contribute to a coherent secretariat-wide strategy for 2026-30.
• Lead the engagement with World Bank task teams and partner governments to support analytical work and project preparation that will advance RMNCAH-N commodity security, patient-centric access and health system stewardship reforms. This work will include developing and scaling new funding mechanisms through which the GFF can support partner countries, such as Challenge Funds and Innovative Financing approaches to maximize leverage of GFF grant financing and incentivize domestic resource mobilization.
• Support GFF’s efforts on donor alignment at country level and leverage linkages with global fora to influence prioritization and resource mobilization for issues impacting country partners RMNCAH-N commodity access, including commodity financing, demand generation, private sector engagement and health system strengthening.
• Represent the GFF in global discussions on supply chain management and advocate for country-leadership and capacity building at country level. This will include engagement with the Funders Forum for Supply Chain, the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, the Supply Chain Leaders Forum and other working groups and fora relevant to RMNCAH-N commodities.
• Network across the World Bank Group and externally to shape collaborations tha complement and leverage GFF’s unique mandate and positioning in the global health architecture. Manage day to day relationships, including reporting as required, with donor and technical partners.
• Define and oversee the work of Short-Term, Extended-Term and firms of consultants hired to deliver technical assistance to partner countries and develop global technical guidance.
Selection Criteria
• Advanced degree in health economics, engineering, logistics, supply chain or other relevant discipline or equivalent work experience.
• At least 8 years’ experience implementing commodity security and managing supply chains at country level, or commodity security and SCM advisory in global public health with clear experience and understanding of critical health financing principles relevant to supply chains.
• Knowledge of commodities security and SCM leading practices in both the public and private sectors.
• A firm understanding of primary health care, including SRHR and FP, in the context of broader health systems and health system reforms.
• Experience working across sectoral, practice and disciplinary boundaries and with multiple stakeholders – both public and private – in building collaborative alliances for results.
• Track record of successful partner engagement and collaborating within teams and across organizations to deliver high quality products.
• Experience and knowledge of the World Bank’s operations and business processes is highly desirable.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; Ability to speak French and Portuguese an advantage.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.
Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.