Trade Specialist at the World Bank

The World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group, is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Our mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.

The World Bank Country Office in Nigeria is looking for a highly organized, energized and experienced professional, capable of operating effectively in a very demanding and fast-paced environment to serve as a Research Economist in the Macro and Fiscal Management (MFM) Global Practice on a Short-Term Consultancy contract spanning one year (150 working days) and subject to extension. Nigeria has the biggest portfolio for the World Bank Group in the Africa region. In this context, the MFM Global Practice has an expanding and critical work program in helping the WBG meet development needs of the country, particularly in a dynamic and fragile environment.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Trade Specialist

Job #: 152500
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job Type: Professional & Technical
Grade: GF
Recruitment Type: Local Hire

Background / General Descriptions

• Trade and Competitiveness (T&C) brings together more than 500 leading technical experts in the field of trade, investment, innovation, and private sector development, with extensive policy expertise, sector-specific knowledge, and practical experience in implementation. With half of its staff global specialists, and the other half serving in the regions, T&C has a wide footprint across the globe. Offering an integrated package of solutions-including policy advice, technical assistance, financing, and capacity building-the practice brings global knowledge to designing and implementing of projects tailored to the specific needs of client countries, whether fast-growing emerging economies, middle income countries, or fragile or conflict-affected states.
• T&C also collaborates with other Global Practices (GPs) and Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas to deliver integrated solutions to trade and competitiveness challenges, like addressing infrastructure deficits, improving macro-economic frameworks, or boosting skills. The Global Practice also contributes to global policy and dialogue on trade and competitiveness issues, as well as regional integration initiatives.
• T&C in West and Central Africa has a strong portfolio of activities (both lending and non-lending) dealing with all aspects of the T&C agenda. There is particularly strong demand for competitive industries work from both a spatial and sectoral perspective. Work on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship in informal firms and SMEs is also emerging as an important priority. There is also significant work to strengthen trade regimes and the general business climate. Our client countries range from small island nations focused on tourism to very large and complex countries like Nigeria. They include Africa's richest country and range to some of the most poor and fragile countries in the world. These countries all require our help.
• With its strong fundamentals, including consistent and strong growth since 1999, Nigeria qualifies as one of the continent's potential economic powerhouses. Nigeria is the most populous country of the continent (171 million in 2012) and is now the largest economy in Africa. Ranking the 13rd in the world, Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and also holds the second highest proven reserves in the continent after Libya. After decades of military rule, the country has successfully engaged on the path of democracy since 1999, and since then has enjoyed consistent and strong growth. In 2015, Nigeria had a successful political transition and the new Cabinet was announced in November 2015. However, given the high dependency of Nigeria on oil revenues, the recent sharp decline in oil prices brought the country challenges in the form of external imbalance, sharp falls Government revenues and slower economic growth.
• The Nigeria Country Program Strategy is structured around three strategic clusters: (a) promoting diversified growth and job creation by reforming the power sector, enhancing agricultural productivity, and increasing access to finance; (b) improving the quality and efficiency of social service delivery at the state level to promote social inclusion; and (c) strengthening governance and public sector management, with gender equity and conflict sensitivity as essential elements of governance.
• The World Bank Group support to structural reform agendas for diversified growth and jobs focuses specifically on: (a) increasing installed power generation and transmission capacity and improving the efficiency and governance of electricity delivery; (b) boosting agricultural productivity, improving farmers' linkages with agro-processors, and scaling up resilience to current and future climate variability; and (c) increasing the supply of long-term financing for the housing sector, expanding financing opportunities for SMEs, and strengthening the ability of Development Finance Institutions to mobilize private finance for key sectors of the economy.
• Trade and Competitiveness (T&C) plays a key role in delivering the Country Program Strategy, by supervising the operations under the T&C Global Practice and more importantly working across Global Practices to achieve the twin goals of the World Bank Group.

Duties and Accountabilities

• The position will provide operational and analytical support to Trade and Competitiveness team working on Nigeria.
• he candidate will need to demonstrate a deep technical knowledge of one of competitive industries, trade or innovation and entrepreneurship as detailed below:
• Spatial Solutions. Support teams working on these projects with market, spatial, economic and institutional analytic support
• Value Chains. Support teams working on these projects with relevant sector knowledge, analytics and public private dialogue capabilities
• Regional trade and Global Value Chains. Support teams develop regional solutions with trade facilitation and trade policy in the context of Regional Trade and Global Value Chains
• Innovation and entrepreneurship Support teams working on the SME agenda - encouraging entrepreneurs and innovation at the firm level. This would also include building the demand side of the skills agenda.
• The candidate will provide implementation support to the Growth and Employment Project, which aims at increasing growth and employment in participating firms in Nigeria, which is implementing in collaboration with the UK Department for International Development.
• The candidate will also participate to Advisory Services and Analytics, in coordination with other GPs, notably Agriculture and Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management.
• The Abuja T&C team also manages two large Trust Funds to support regional integration (Improved Business and Investment Climate in West Africa and Improved and Facilitated Trade in West Africa).

This involves the following:

• Project management (project preparation and project supervision): For tasks where project management responsibility is assigned in whole or part to T&C: carry out necessary project preparation and supervision activities, this includes technical inputs on T&C issues, as well as close attention to financial management, procurement and safeguards (social and environmental).
• Advisory Services and Analytics: Contribute to advisory and analytical work undertaken by T&C, such as impact assessments, surveys, stakeholder analysis and other technical analyses, as required.
• General technical support to the World Bank Abuja office: Provide technical T&C inputs to the country level strategic policy dialogue (including Systematic Country Diagnostic and Country Partnership Framework), cross-support to relevant components in operations managed by other GPs (investment operations or development policy grants) and in multi-sectoral advisory and analytical work (e.g. World Bank support to the North East).
• Dialogue Coordination. Maintain close liaison with key Government counterparts in Trade and Competitiveness issues.
• Donor Coordination: Maintain close liaison with the development partners including United Kingdom Department For International Development (DFID), USAID, United Nations and African Development Bank, and consult with them for seeking inputs on Trade and Competitiveness issues.

Selection Criteria

• The T &C Sector Specialist will have at least 5 years' working experience on competitive industries topics.
• Master's Degree in Business, Planning, Engineering, Economics, Finance, or equivalent (candidates with multiple disciplines will have an advantage);
• Operational knowledge of project cycle, from preparation to completion;
• Proven ability in developing high quality technical and analytical work in Trade and Competitiveness.
• Ability to work well with clients, strong interpersonal and team skills;
• Excellent presentation skills (in developing power point based reports and presentations)and public speaking;
• Experience in working in several developing economies is an advantage;
• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Plays a strong role in teams in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Is active in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.
• The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.
• Language Requirement: English

Application Closing Date
10th December, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, S/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 3 year term appointment.