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Home > Jobs > Employment Opportuni... > Professional/Technical

The Human Development (HD) Network is the professional alliance of staff throughout the Bank who work in Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP); Education and Social Protection and Labor.  The main HD Network objectives are to: build and apply global knowledge; renew and strengthen staff skills, enhance strategic thinking and improve the quality of products and services in these sectors.  The mission of the Human Development Anchor’s HNP Unit (HDNHE) is to assist clients to improve health, nutrition, and population outcomes of poor people and protect people from the impoverishing effects of illness, malnutrition, and high fertility. 

HDNHE is responsible for providing technical leadership and operational support to implement the Bank’s “Strategy for Health, Nutrition and Population Results.” The strategy has five components – renewed Bank focus on HNP results; increased support to country efforts to strengthen health systems; ensuring synergy between health systems strengthening and priority disease interventions; improving Bank capacity on inter-sectoral approaches; and improving engagement with partners on collaboration and division of labor. By renewing the Bank’s focus on results, the HNP strategy seeks to strengthen the delivery, financing and monitoring systems in Bank programs and in partner countries, and tighten the link between financing and achieving results on the ground.  It calls for the Bank to concentrate on its comparative advantages in health systems strengthening and in building a synergy between efforts in health systems strengthening and priority disease programs. HDNHE plays a key role in engaging the Bank’s regional operational units in the implementation of the Bank’s strategy and corporate priorities as they relate to the HNP sector. 

Since the approval of the Strategy, there has been an acceleration of new initiatives and major developments in the international health architecture, and there is increasing demand for the Bank’s engagement and leadership for these new ventures.  In addition to our work and involvement with global health initiatives and partnerships – such as the International Health Partnership (IHP+), Global Fund, Global, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, Providing for Health Initiative, Health Results Innovation Grant and Roll Back Malaria – we are exploring new and innovative mechanisms, including increased collaboration with the private sector, to enhance focus on the neglected MDGs: MDG 1b (Malnutrition), MDG 4 (Child Mortality), and MDG 5 (Maternal Mortality).  Globally and regionally, the Bank is working in an increasingly crowded and competitive HNP architecture and the HNP sector now faces a major challenge to reaffirm the Bank’s critical role in achieving tangible and sustainable improvements in our client countries and in developing productive relationships with our partners. HDNHE plays a key role in engaging other Bank units, including operational and corporate units, in developing the Bank’s position and strengthening its engagement with the international community.

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 2 year renewable term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities

HDNHE is seeking a Senior Economist to initiate and conduct operationally-relevant analytical activities as well as work to support governments and regional staff in all aspects of health systems strengthening and health economics including the areas of multi-sectorality, health financing, human resources, results-based financing, and monitoring and evaluation. The Senior Economist will be an integral part of the HDNHE team and will contribute to economic analysis underpinning policy development and operations in the region. S/he will participate in operational missions as requested by regions, particularly in response to the Strategy’s focus on health systems strengthening. The incumbent will report to the Sector Manager, HDNHE. 

Specific responsibilities include: 

Knowledge generation and innovation:  HDNHE plays a leading role in developing the analytic underpinnings of health systems strengthening.  The Senior Economist is expected to play an active role in knowledge generation by (i) leading and/or contributing to specific innovative analytical and research tasks for which the unit is responsible; (ii) helping coordinate and being an active contributor to network-wide knowledge generation initiatives, particularly the work on health systems strengthening; and (iii) collaborating with other HD units, DEC and the broader research community to ensure that issues critical to HDNHE get addressed in operational and research programs. 

Knowledge and quality management: The Senior Economist is expected to play an active role in knowledge and quality management by (i) contributing to the corporate review and coordination functions performed by HDNVP; (ii) working closely with other units on the quality assurance of economic and sector work in the HD network anchor, supporting HNP economists as needed; (iii) providing support to the Regions to ensure better overall quality lending and analytic outputs; and (iv) contributing to and/or leading as needed the unit’s training and communication efforts to support the Network’s knowledge and learning agenda;

Corporate strategy: HDNHE provides technical and strategic support to the Vice-President and management team in HDN as well as to the regional HNP departments.  The Senior Economist is expected to support and serve by  (i) contributing as needed to the preparation of strategic documents: and (ii) supporting the Sector Manager in the efforts to nurture a community of practice for HNP economists including by proactively engaging in the review of and advice to teams working on important analytical issues across HNP.

Corporate support tasks will be jointly agreed with the SM and are expected to account for 10-20% of total level of effort. In the areas of knowledge generation and management, which will account for 80-90% of the total level of effort, the successful applicant will be expected to develop proposals for a work program in the areas of health systems strengthening, especially health financing and delivery, that are congruent with the priorities of the unit and seeking the advice of the lead economists/specialists and approval of the Sector Manager. HDNHE encourages all its members to provide cross support and work closely with the Regions, DEC and WBI.

Selection Criteria

•	A strong personal commitment to The World Bank’s mission and to our vision and HNP Strategy for carrying out that mission.  
•	An advanced degree in economics, health economics, or development economics and at least 8 years of relevant work experience.  
•	Recognized contributions in the field of economics, health economics, or development economics as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications.  
•	Excellent knowledge of econometric techniques relevant for health systems analysis, including the use of Stata and other statistical packages
•	A track record of intellectual leadership, of being able to translate research findings into policy and vice-versa, and an ability to effectively transfer knowledge to a broad and mixed audience
•	Teamwork:  Success working in teams both as a team member and as a team leader, with a conviction that this combination of roles is desirable and will continue throughout your career.
•	Demonstrated ability to work in teams with members of different disciplines, and on cross-sectoral issues  that affect health outcomes
•	Strong diplomatic skills and success working in teams both as a team member as well as a team leader and mentor for junior staff. 
•	Excellent writing and oral communications skills.
                     Experience with World Bank operations preferred and policy dialogue.
	
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.

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