Job Description
| Job #: | req11687 |
| Organization: | World Bank |
| Sector: | Financial Sector |
| Grade: | EC2 |
| Term Duration: | 1 year 0 months |
| Recruitment Type: | Local Recruitment |
| Location: | Khartoum, Sudan |
| Required Language(s): | English and Arabic |
| Closing Date: | 03/05/2021 (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. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org.
The Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice combines expertise in the financial sector with expertise in private sector development to foster private-sector led growth and help create markets in client countries. FCI’s core lines of business are: (a) Financial Stability & Integrity; (b) Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure & Access; (c) Firm Capabilities & Innovation; (d) Long-Term Finance; (e) Climate & Risk Management; (f) Markets and Technology; and (g) Investment and Competition. For more information, please visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/fci
Eastern and Southern Africa: Home to about half a billion of Africa’s people, Eastern and Southern Africa is a geographically, culturally and economically diverse region of 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South. Children under 18 make up almost half of the total population. The subregion boasts of some of the world’s richest human and natural resources and, apart from South Africa, the countries are predominantly raw material exporters.
The subregion harbors some of Africa’s protracted conflicts, rendering many of its countries fragile, while significant gaps in education, health, and skills development continues to keep people from reaching their full potential. This creates a huge development challenge, impacts heavily on the lives and livelihoods of people, and hinders regional integration and trade. But it also creates an opportunity to work closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and young people to chart a brighter course for the future.
The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,207 staff, mostly based in 26 country offices, has been helping countries realize their considerable development potential by focusing on the following priorities:
- Creating Jobs and Transforming Economies: We are working with countries across Africa to stimulate job creation and economic transformation by leveraging all sources of finance, expertise, and solutions to promote investment.
- Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030 – a vision that, if realized, can boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year, and reduce poverty by 1 percentage point per year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.
- Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support is helping governments strengthen public policy processes, manage resources effectively, and reinforce fair and reliable delivery of public services.
- Investing in People: We are at the forefront of helping African countries accelerate human capital gains and empower women by improving their access to education and skills acquisition, sexual and reproductive health services, and employment opportunities. With the influx COVID-19, we are mobilizing financial support and timely analysis and advice to countries across the subregion deal with the pandemic.
- Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption: In the face of increasing climate-related risks, we are working with African countries to advance efforts to adopt renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and green infrastructure. A number of East African countries are currently facing a debilitating Desert Locust infestation, threatening the already precarious food security situation. The Bank has put together a program to help affected countries deal with the scourge.
- Addressing the Drivers of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence: Given the cross-border nature of conflicts in Africa, we are employing an approach that simultaneously focuses on the drivers of fragility while also supporting well-targeted regional initiatives to create opportunities for peace and shared prosperity.
- Building Partnerships and Working across the African Continent: We are scaling up our work on regional integration, taking a holistic view of the continent that covers both North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The World Bank is a dedicated partner for Eastern and Southern African countries, helping them deliver strong development outcomes for their people. A brighter future for Africa is a better future for the world.
This position is based in Khartoum with a primary focus on the Ethiopia Country Management Unit countries, and within this particularly on Sudan. The current political and economic transition underway in Sudan since the 2019 revolution represents a unique opportunity to restart Sudan’s economy. The Transitional Government of Sudan has embarked on bold economic reforms to stabilize the economy, reallocate public resources to the needs of the Sudanese people, and advance rapidly toward debt relief. The Government of Sudan recently cleared its arrears to the International Development Association (IDA), enabling its full re-engagement with the World Bank Group after nearly three decades, and paving the way for the country to access nearly $2 billion in IDA grants for poverty reduction and sustainable economic recovery. Arrears clearance is also a critical step towards comprehensive external debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative. The World Bank is in the process of implementing the FY21-22 Country Engagement Note for Sudan, within which there are actions around the financial sector and private sector development agenda. This position offers an opportunity to be an integral part of the Bank’s growing engagement in Sudan and represent FCI in a key role in this engagement.
Job Duties and Responsibilities:
To assist with its growing work program, FCI seeks to hire an experienced and highly motivated professional to join the team based in Khartoum. The person will be part of the Sudan Country Team and will be expected to represent FCI in-country.
Amongst other things, the candidate will be expected to:
- Contribute to FCI’s work program, including advisory, knowledge and financing/lending engagements and work closely with the TTLs/task team is supporting engagements
- Contribute to the policy and client dialogue on finance, competitiveness and innovation, while actively participating and contributing to multi-sectoral teams involved in policy-based operations.
- Work closely with the FCI Financial Sector Specialists (TTLs), Program Leaders, Country Economists and CMU to ensure the integration of relevant financial sector issues in country strategies, SCDs/CPFs and work programs and country policy dialogue and engagement.
- Support the implementation of ongoing financial sector activities/projects.
- In coordination with other Global Practices, participate in the preparation and dissemination of ASAs; foster coordination with the IFC
- Produce technical notes, briefings, presentations, etc. as requested by TTLs and Management.
- Provide analytical inputs on financial sector issues and monitor financial sector risks and developments in Sudan.
- Contribute to evaluating financial sector policies, regulations, and market institutions with a view to formulating reform recommendations for financial sector authorities.
- Maintain close liaison with key government counterparts involved in financial sector issues and manage multi-stakeholder relationships with financial institutions, industry associations, the private sector and other market participants.
- Develop effective coordination mechanisms with the Global Practices and donors.
- Business Development: cultivate strategic relationships with country clients and the CMU, including sourcing specialists and other staff resources necessary to deliver the program in coordination with the FCI leadership.
- Knowledge Management, and Teamwork: promote synergies across product teams, providing support through trouble shooting, anticipating problems and solving them. Facilitate learning across projects, regions and best practices.
Selection Criteria
This job requires a financial sector professional with strong technical and operational skills and good understanding of the financial sector agenda. The following qualifications will be considered:
- A PhD or a master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Management or a related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in the financial sector.
- The ideal candidate will have a combination of experience inside and outside the World Bank, and within the Bank have experience of lending projects and ASA/AAA activities.
- The ideal candidate should have strong proven track record, experience and technical expertise in the areas of finance, competitiveness and innovation, and have work experience in one or several of the following areas: financial regulation and supervision, banking reform and bank restructuring, financial infrastructure, financial inclusion, digital financial services, MSME and infrastructure finance, PPP financing. Experience of working in the Africa region financial sector and Sudan would be an added advantage.
- A sustained record of achieving significant results on the ground with experience in a range of Bank products, including different types of lending projects and technical assistance.
- Familiarity with Bank policies and procedures, especially lending guidelines, will be preferred.
- Should be a mature professional with a demonstrated ability to mentor and incentivize teams, inspire confidence in senior country officials, and work in a culturally diverse environment.
- Strong results focus, with a track record of leading teams to deliver high impact projects and activities. Knowledge and practical experience of Africa region/east African countries would be a positive.
- Proven ability to engage in policy reforms relating to the regulatory and supervisory framework for the financial sector.
- Possess strong internal and external client engagement skills and ability to collaborate and work across boundaries.
The candidate should meet WBG Core Competencies. For information about WBG Core Competencies, please visit: https://bit.ly/2kbIA7O
Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable for an additional one year, at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET Appointment of two years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their second-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.
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.
