Education Economist / Specialist at World Bank Group

The World Bank Group - Established in 1944, the WBG is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for development solutions. In fiscal year 2018, the WBG committed $67 billion in loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees to its members and private businesses, of which $24 billion was concessional finance to its poorest members. It is governed by 188-member countries and delivers services out of 120 offices with nearly 15,000 staff located globally.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Education Economist / Specialist

Job No: req20628
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Sector: Education
Grade: GF
Term Duration: 3 years 0 months
Recruitment Type:  Local Recruitment
Required Language(s): English

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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org

Western and Central Africa (AFW) Region

• In West and Central Africa, the World Bank is a leading partner with a growing portfolio of 387 projects totaling more than $44.1 billion in areas such as agriculture, trade and transport, energy, education, health, water and sanitation- all to support job creation, gender equality, poverty reduction, and better lives. Across the continent, the World Bank’s program has nearly doubled over the last 10 years.
• By 2030, about 87% of the world’s extreme poor are projected to live in Sub-Saharan Africa, so this is where our mission to end extreme poverty and to promote shared prosperity will be achieved.
• For more information, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/western-and-central-africa

The Human Development (HD) Practice Group (PG):

• Human development is at the core of the World Bank’s strategy to improve people’s lives and support sustainable development. The Human Development Practice Group spans three practices: education; health, nutrition and population; and social protection and jobs.

Education Global Practice 

• Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income and is the most important factor to ensure equality of opportunities. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education
• Education is central to achieving the WBG’s twin goals:  it is a reliable route out of poverty through large and consistent returns to income for individuals and as a driver for economic growth. It is also a prime vehicle for promoting shared prosperity.
• The main challenge in the education sector is to achieve “learning for all and learning for life”- that is, to ensure that all children and young people acquire the knowledge and skills they need for their lives and livelihoods. In the past two decades, the developing world has made great advances in education, most notably in enrolling and keeping children in school and in approaching gender equality.
• Despite these successes in expanding access to education, critical challenges remain: removing persistent educational barriers faced by the poorest people and those living in fragile and conflict-affected states, and improving the quality of education so that schooling leads to real learning.  In recent years, the WBG, and the broader education development community, have shifted their focus to include learning outcomes and to address learning poverty. 
• The Education Global Practice is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the practice, together with Regional Directors who oversee the human development program in the regions working with ten Practice Managers.

HAWE3 Unit and Nigeria CMU

• The Education GP team in the AFW Region is divided into two units (HAWE3 and HAWE2), each covering three CMUs. 
• HAWE3 covers nine countries mapped to three Country Management Units (CMUs): (i) Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, (ii) Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone; and (iii) Nigeria. The HAWE3 Unit is responsible for policy, analytical and operational work in the education sector in the AFW region. 
• Nigeria is central to the World Bank’s mission of eliminating global poverty. 
• A multi-ethnic and diverse federation of 36 autonomous states, Nigeria is already Africa’s largest country (over 200 million people) and Africa’s largest economy. With its abundance of resources, a young and entrepreneurial population, and a dynamic private sector, Nigeria has the potential to be a giant on the global stage. At the same time, with over 40% of its population (over 80 million people) in poverty, Nigeria has the second largest population of extreme poor in the world. On human development, Nigeria ranks amongst the lowest in the world (6th lowest on the Human Capital Index).
• Nigeria needs to significantly transform its human development system to provide foundational and technical skills to more than 3 million young Nigerians coming of working age every year.
• The World Bank has been engaged in the development of the education sector in Nigeria for over two decades.
• The Bank support to the Government of Nigeria (GoN) has ranged from basic education, secondary, technical and vocational skills to tertiary education.
• The Bank-GoN partnership in the sector has come in the form of policy dialogue, lending, analytical and advisory services.
• The Education engagement is aligned with the current WBG Country Partnership Framework (CPF, FY21-FY25) for Nigeria whose overall aim is to support the country create opportunities for gainful employment by creating an enabling environment where private firms can become more productive, by investing in human capital, and by enhancing resilience so that gains can be preserved. This is done through an integrated engagement through a mix of lending and analytical work, with focus on providing innovative technical solutions for impact at scale. 
• The current World Bank portfolio in the education sector includes multiple operations that aim to increase quality of and access to education and training, increase adolescent girls’ empowerment, and provide market-relevant skills for better job opportunities.
• Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) Program seeks to reduce the number of out-of-school children and improve literacy in basic education, as well as improving system accountability for results. The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) invests in both supply and demand-side interventions to improve secondary education opportunities among adolescent girls, especially from disadvantaged communities in targeted states, many of them in the north.
• The Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project aims to improve the quality and relevance of skills in both the formal and informal sector, strengthening the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) system, with focus on strong private sector engagement and support to the larger skills development in the country.
• The Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Impact (ACE Impact) Project is a regional project with the largest component for Nigeria supporting select Nigerian universities across the country and the National University Commission (NUC), with an objective to promote applied science, technology, and innovation to address regional challenges.
• The Edo Better Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST) is an Edo-state specific Program for Results operation that seeks to support the improvement of teaching and learning processes in basic education using innovative approaches including digital technologies.
• To complement this strong lending portfolio in the education sector, the World Bank actively engages in policy dialogue, advisory services, technical assistance, and knowledge generation in basic education, human capital empowerment for adolescent girls, and cross-cutting areas on governance, financing and digital skills.
• The World Bank has recently prepared an AFW Regional Education Strategy to support the region to address its key challenges – high learning poverty and out-of-school children, substantial disadvantages adolescent girls face in secondary education opportunities, and too many young people entering the labor market every year without the relevant skills.
• The Bank is also expected to support the Government (federal and state level) in adapting the regional strategy to a Nigeria-specific action plan to address the above challenges and achieve its own 2030 targets on the three indicators.
• In light of the above, the HAWE3 Unit is seeking a qualified Education Economist or Specialist to be based in Abuja, Nigeria. The selected candidate will report to the Practice Manager for HAWE3. S/he is expected to work in close collaboration with the other members of the education, the HD team and as needed with other global practices and the Nigeria CMU.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The selected candidate will work as a core member of the Nigeria Education team, both under close supervision of Task Team Leaders (TTLs) and independently with limited guidance.
• S/he will be required to consistently demonstrate first-rate abilities to simultaneously advance and complete various complex tasks, to pay attention to detail and quality, to balance priorities, to adapt to new solutions and ideas.
• S/he will participate in policy dialogue with the client on key issues in education and skills development and provide daily implementation support to the Federal and State governments on ongoing projects.
• S/he will contribute to design and preparation of new lending programs, both in education and multi-sectoral. S/he will also be responsible for contributing/leading analytical work to inform policy discussions.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities include:
Operations:

• Actively participate in the supervision of select projects under implementation, with focus on assigned component/sub-component/task under the project(s) 
• Monitor project implementation and disbursement progress vis-a-vis approved annual work plan and its activities
• Provide close technical support to PIUs, government counterparts and their partners on project implementation
• Follow up with the counterparts regularly to check on progress made against agreed intermediate actions and milestones 
• Support monitoring of results framework with project-specific data on relevant indicators (intermediate results, outcomes) and their trends, as part of evaluation of progress towards the achievement of project development objectives
• Contribute to preparation of Mission Aide Memoires, meeting minutes, just-in-time technical notes and implementation status reports (ISRs)
• Actively support the preparation of new education operations/activities, which includes participating in all stages of the project cycle: identification, preparation, appraisal, negotiations, and board approval. The selected candidate will contribute towards drafting of concept notes, Project Appraisal Documents, safeguard plans and other required documents. 

Analytical Work, Technical Assistance and Client Capacity:

• Contribute to the design, preparation, and dissemination of advisory services and analytical (ASA) products in the education sector (e.g. sector assessment, policy notes, impact evaluation, public expenditure reviews, country systems diagnostics, case studies, etc.)
• Undertake ASA activities on topics related to out-of-school children and learning poverty, opportunities for adolescent girls, job-relevant skills for youth including the at-risk youth, and cross-cutting areas such as digital technologies, financing and governance
• Contribute/responsible for management and analysis of data on education institutions/schools, households and children
• Contribute or lead on writing of technical and policy notes/reports, and preparation of power point presentations.
• Facilitate dissemination of ASA findings through workshops/events with counterparts and relevant stakeholders.
• Provide technical advice and support building client capacity to use findings of policy research/analytical work for developing new policies and programs, and undertaking sector strategic directions/reforms.

Selection Criteria

• The World Bank office in Nigeria is seeking an experienced, versatile, and highly motivated candidate to work on a large and growing portfolio as part of the education team based in Abuja, Nigeria.
• The ideal candidate will combine excellent technical capabilities, a capacity to translate analytical findings into policy and into innovative Bank operations to help clients shift policies in new directions or to pilot new approaches; and operational skills to provide effective implementation support for the Bank’s growing portfolio.

The candidate should have:
Education:

•  An Advanced Degree (at least a Masters’ Degree) in Education, Economics, Public Policy, Finance, Management, Business Administration or relevant discipline. 

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of work experience in relevant social sectors in government or non-government organization or in academic or in policy research or business/management consulting.
• Knowledge of education and other social sector issues and policies in Nigeria.
• Experience on project monitoring and tracking progress for multiple activities and goals.
• Demonstrated track record of production or contribution to education/human development sector related project and/or research studies.

Skills:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Strong conceptual skills and ability to translate abstract concepts into practical recommendations.
• Ability to write concisely and clearly.
• Solid presentation skills, including the ability to prepare visually compelling presentations using software.
• Strong analytical and data management skills, including knowledge of software applications for data analysis such as MS Excel.
• Experience with STATA and/or R use will be a plus.

Teamwork:

•  Demonstrated ability to working as part of a team and independently in diverse teams, seeking guidance when needed on complex issues from senior staff.
•  Excellent interpersonal skills with proven ability to work effectively and collaboratively across and within practice boundaries, inspire commitment to excellence and teamwork, and to liaise tactfully as a member of a multicultural team. 

Client Engagement, Results-Driven, Multi-tasking:

• Demonstrated capacity to interact effectively with a range of stakeholders within and outside of your organization.
• Strong client orientation and potential/proven ability to work with government agencies at federal, state and local level.
• Good track record in sharing information with colleagues, clients and managers.
• Ability to juggle multiple competing demands and priorities, respond quickly to management requests, and manage time flexibly and effectively.
• Strong results orientation, persistence, patience, positive attitude, enthusiasm, and commitment to impacting lives of children and youth of Nigeria.

Application Closing Date
15th January, 2023 (11:59pm UTC).

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online