Extended term (ET) Consultant - World Bank

Job# :req3988

Organization: World Bank

Sector:Economics

Grade: EC1Term

Duration:1 year 0 months

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.

The WBG consists of five specialized institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The World Bank is organized into six client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, several corporate functions and thirteen Global Practices to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients.

Background & General Description :

DECIE is a unit of the World Bank’s Development Research Group, which houses DIME, a crosscutting program of the World Bank. DIME’s purpose is to increase the use of impact evaluation (IE) in the design and implementation of public policy and to develop institutional capacity and motivation for evidence-based policy.

DECIE’s work focuses on three areas:

Evaluating programs at scale to answer policy-relevant questions;
Building capacity to strengthen country institutions for evidence-based policymaking;
Building theory on mechanisms in strategic development areas based on high-quality evidence.

DECIE aims to overcome the challenge to identify true cause-and-effect relations in policy programs. By linking researchers to policymakers and feeding results back into policies, DECIE fosters systematic use of evidence, which informs adoption, mid-course corrections, and scale-up of policies. Through workshops and clinics with operational staff and government clients, joint research teams, active field coordination, as well as research products such as seminars, papers, and policy briefs, DECIE builds capacity while forming a wider community of practice.

DECIE accompanies impact evaluations during their entire life-cycle. It starts with assessing demand, identifying research questions, as well as supporting project implementation, high quality data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results.

With a portfolio of more than 170 impact evaluations, DECIE operates across all sectors in about 50 countries spanning the globe. The IEs test a variety of delivery and behavioral mechanisms, to understand why policy succeeds or fails and how to improve policy design and implementation to obtain better results. By working proactively in collaboration with clients, DIME employs experimental methods to infer causality whenever possible (79% of the portfolio). 17% of DIME IEs utilize non-experimental methods, while 4% use a combination of the two. More information can be found at http://www.worldbank.org/dime.

Roles & Responsibility :

DECIE seeks to recruit an ETC to support DIME’s portfolio of impact evaluations (IEs) in Rwanda, and provide programmatic support across the DIME-EU partnership. Over the last several years, DIME has been working with projects that are being implemented through an SPIU under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MINAGRI) and has a research portfolio that spans several completed and ongoing IEs in Rwanda. Through support from the European Union (EU), has expanded the scope of the ongoing evaluations and take on a programmatic approach to the use of evidence in decision-making within MINAGRI, and in the government at-large.

The DIME-EU partnership is aimed at scaling up the use of evidence in decision-making at the highest level of policy-making within MINAGRI. Towards this end, the ETC will work on the research design, implementation, data collection and analysis for ongoing as well as new IEs across the DIME-EU program, and support in-country capacity development within MINAGRI. The ETC will work closely with the current team in Kigali – including the already-placed ETC, and will closely support the field coordinators and/or project associates working on the various IEs in the portfolio. S/he will work in close partnership with the relevant World Bank networks and Regional departments as well as with Government counterparts to build capacity for evidence-based policy-making.

For this position, DIME seeks an individual to manage the program of IEs in the field, supporting individual team-members in delivering the IEs that they are tasked with. The role will also require frequent coordination with donors (including, but not limited to the EU) and government partners (including but not limited to those in MINAGRI). The role will aim to coordinate the entire program of IEs on the ground and provide support to each of the field teams and related field coordinators.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The ETC will work to support the portfolio of ongoing IEs in Rwanda, as well as new IEs that are added to the portfolio in the coming months. In addition, the ETC will support the design and delivery of a select number of evaluations in particular. Under this umbrella, the ETC’s broad tasks include:

IE Coordination:

Engage with local partners in developing new IEs.
Work with the PIs (Principal Investigators) and government team to operationalize the evaluation design;
Work closely with the implementation team to ensure that interventions being rolled out are consistent with the design of the evaluation. This will include frequent field visits.
Manage data collection in the field and support the team in working with survey firms, as necessary. This will include close supervision of incoming data and the related preparation.
Ensure good communication and coordination among members of the Impact Evaluation, Government, and Bank project teams – making the link between the research team and the field
Conduct data analysis work individually and in teams under supervision of the PI(s)
Support all the IEs in the DIME portfolio in Rwanda, including those that s/he may not be directly involved in coordinating. This will involve mentoring other field-based STCs part of the DIME program.

We seek a candidate with substantial experience in coordinating IEs on the ground – specifically in Rwanda, working with government partners; as well as working independently and in a team on data analysis. Since most of DIME’s data collection is done with ODK/SurveyCTO, and most analysis is conducted in STATA, proficient knowledge of both of these packages is strongly desired for this role. Additionally, since the position involves managing the portfolio of IEs in Rwanda, prior work experience in Rwanda, and work with government and World Bank teams in the country is a plus.

Tasks:

The ETC will be expected to work on and assist in the coordination of a number of evaluations and other activities related to the DIME-EU Partnership:

Work closely with PIs and other members of the DC-based research team to push forward existing IEs in-country. This will include a specific emphasis on the ongoing IEs on irrigation and new work related to land-markets.
Play an active role in searching for new IE opportunities within the Agriculture sector in Rwanda through close interaction with the policy research and implementation community in the country
Work with field coordinators and/or project associates on the day-to-day implementation of IEs on tasks related to survey planning, survey programming, data monitoring, data cleaning, etc.
Help on-board new field coordinators and/or project associates that join the team to work on specific and/or new IEs, as necessary
Liaise closely with the technical team at MINAGRI with the aim of building capacity within the Monitoring and Evaluation team both in the Ministry at-large and within specific SPIUs
Work towards developing dissemination workshops on a frequent and ongoing basis to showcase the results of ongoing IE work in Rwanda and upcoming plans for IEs in the country

Selection Criteria

We seek candidates with experience in empirical field research in developing countries – with prior experience in Rwanda; strong technical skills in the area of impact evaluation and micro-econometrics; and the interest and ability to communicate technical knowledge and expertise in a policy environment. The ideal candidate should also be a strong team player with the confidence to interact at all levels of an organization and should have:

A Masters degree in economics or related social science
A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in development projects, household survey data collection, impact evaluation (design and implementation) and analytical work;
Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English is required – proficiency in kinyarwanda is desirable;
Previous experience in working with Government counterparts is required;
Proficiency with Stata;
Hands-on experience in overseeing implementation of impact evaluations in the field;
Experience in household survey design and implementation, including CAPI, in the context of development countries is essential;
Knowledge of the World Bank’s operations and business processes is a plus.

Competencies:

Strong analytical and conceptual skills – In-depth understanding and experience of impact evaluation as an analytical and policymaking tool;
Evaluation Approaches and Methods – Understands and applies the approaches, methods, and tools of development evaluation. Assists in developing, the strongest feasible design to answer the evaluation questions and respond to the evaluation’s purpose;
Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena – Understands policy making process; distills operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients;
Policy Dialogue Skills – Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders;
Deliver Results for Clients – Proactively addresses clients’ stated and unstated needs;
Strong interpersonal skills – Behavioral competencies that facilitate dialogue with country partners and country teams, including listening skills, training and capacity development skills, and ability to adapt advice to the local institutional realities;
Commitment to teamwork, knowledge-sharing, and ability to influence across organizational boundaries. Creates a team climate of practical and innovative action, facilitating collaboration between stakeholders

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.

The World Bank Group values diversity and encourages all qualified candidates who are nationals of World Bank Group member countries to apply, regardless of gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. Sub-Saharan African nationals, Caribbean nationals, and female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

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Extended term (ET) Consultant – World Bank

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