The World Bank is looking for Water Resources Management Specialist, Bamako, Mali
ABOUT 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 2017, the World Bank Group committed more than $61 billion in loans, grants, equity investments, and guarantees to its members and private businesses. Overall, the Board approved $42.1 billion in financial assistance in fiscal 2017 through 383 operations, comprising $22.6 billion in IBRD lending and $19.5 billion in IDA support.
The institution is governed by 189 member countries and delivers services out of 120 offices with more than 10,000 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 fourteen Global Practices (GPs) as well as five Global Themes to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients.
GLOBAL PRACTICES & GLOBAL THEMES
The 14 GPs are: Agriculture; Education; Energy and Extractives; Environment and Natural Resources; Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation; Governance; Health, Nutrition and Population; Macro, Trade and Investment; Poverty; Social Protection and Labor; Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience; Transport and Digital Development; and Water. The 5 Global Themes are: Climate Change; Fragility, Conflict and Violence; Gender; Knowledge Management; and Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships. The Global Practices and the Global Themes, in concert with the WBG’s six client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, design solutions that address clients’ most pressing developmental challenges, and ultimately, enable the WBG to achieve its twin goals by 2030: (1) End extreme poverty by decreasing the percentage of people living on less than $1.90 a day to no more than 3%; and (2) Promote shared prosperity by fostering the income growth of the bottom 40% for every country.
GLOBAL PRACTICE CONTEXT
Water resources are under unprecedented and increasing pressures, driven by greater climate variability, population and economic growth, land use changes, and declining quantities and qualities of both ground and surface waters. With cross cutting impacts on agriculture, education, energy, health, gender equity, and livelihood, water is an essential resource for all life on the planet and is at the center of economic and social development. Successful water management requires accurate knowledge of the resource available, its dynamics, and an assessment of competing demands for its usage. Making best use of available supplies requires complex and sensitive economic, environmental and socio-political trade-offs. Planning for a more uncertain and more constrained water environment in the future only makes the situation more complex.
The world will not be able to meet the great development challenges of the 21st century – human development, livable cities, climate change, food security, energy security, and universal access to services – unless we ensure a water-secure world for all. To achieve this goal the Global Practice will need to work on both water resource management and service delivery issues but in a context where we focus on water in the context of the broader economy.
The WBG is in a unique position to help governments take such an integrated and strategic approach to solve water supply, sanitation, water resource, hydropower, and irrigation problems through partnership, finance and knowledge. The Water GP places Water Resource Management (hydrology, economics, storage, groundwater use, rivers and deltas), Service Delivery (to households, businesses and farmers), and an understanding of water in the context of the broader economy at the center of its efforts to help countries address the challenge of managing water. The Water GP seeks to ensure that water issues are effectively addressed in all related sub-sectors, such as agriculture (ensuring sustainable water availability for irrigation; managing the trade-offs around the agricultural use of water), disaster risk management (floods and droughts), energy (hydropower; energy cooling systems), management of rivers and deltas, and water supply & sanitation (rural and urban; utility performance; wastewater management; targeting the poor). In each sub sector an integrated approach is adopted which considers investment and operations in the context of governance, institutions and policies. Finally, we recognize that any focus on water will need to address and take into account the complex dynamics of climate change, superimposed on the natural short and long-term variability and climatic uncertainty.
The Water Global Practice is organized with: (a) region-facing Practice Managers (PMs) covering Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia; (b) a Practice Manager for Global Programs; (c) a Practice Manager for Strategy and Operations (Knowledge and Communications), and (c) five cross-cutting Global Solutions Groups (GSGs): (i) institutions and governance for service delivery of irrigation and urban and rural water and sanitation, (ii) water resource management, including addressing large hydraulic infrastructure and trans-boundary issues; (iii) analytical work on linkages of water to the economy and poverty outcomes; and (iv) operations analysis and support to feedback lessons from implementation into new program design.
UNIT/REGION CONTEXT
Within the Africa Region, the hiring unit is responsible for ensuring the translation of the World Bank’s Africa Regional Strategy and the Water Global Practice’s Water Security Strategy into practical results relevant to the Francophone countries of West and Central Africa. Specifically, the unit supports the definition and achievement of these results through analytical, policy and investment activities. Given the generally semi-arid conditions in most of the countries, combined with rapid population growth, increased economic demands and the impacts of climate change, improved knowledge and ability to manage water resources has emerged as a priority issue for virtually all client countries. At the same time, the majority of the major sources of freshwater – rivers and aquifers – are shared amongst multiple countries and are under growing pressure – particularly for energy, agriculture and navigation development. While there is increased awareness of the importance of improved national and transboundary water management, relevant institutions require significant strengthening in terms of technical capacity, authority, incentives and financial sustainability.
The hiring unit has an active portfolio of national and transboundary basin-level projects under preparation and implementation. In all cases, these require intensive engagement with government counterparts and other stakeholders to ensure local ownership, capacity and sustained focus on implementation for results. As a result, the World Bank is locally recruiting one water resources management specialist based in Bamako, Mali.
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.
The Water Resources Management Specialists will work as part of the country and task teams with specific focus on:
• Working closely with client institutions to support effective implementation of WB supported programs.
• Maintaining effective relationships with relevant governmental, non-governmental, donor and other stakeholders.
• Staying informed on the status of the water sector and its institutions, as well as relevant donor, private sector and NGO initiatives.
• Participating in and eventually leading task teams for production of analytical studies and preparation and implementation support to investment and policy oriented projects
• Identifying and sharing with client, relevant expertise and examples within and outside the World Bank.
• Identifying and supporting water sector linkages to the Bank’s country strategy and the work of other sectoral teams.
• At least a Master’s degree in water resources, hydrology, engineering, economics, agricultural economics, irrigation or a related discipline with a focus on Water Resources Management;
• Recognized technical, operational and/or policy-oriented expertise, and at least 5 years of relevant work experience. This experience may include work in governments, academia, private companies, consultant firms, and multilateral institutions;
• In depth knowledge in one or more WRM subtopics such as: water quality dynamics, hydrometeorological monitoring, irrigation, exposure and vulnerability to floods and droughts, hydrological modeling, sediment transport, reservoir operations, sustainability assessments, eco-hydrology, and/or assessment and management of risk resulting from climate variability and change and other non-climate uncertainties;
• A sustained record of achieving high-quality development outcomes and substantive results over an extended period in positions of increasing responsibility;
• Prior work experience and results on the ground in more than one country and hands-on experience with Government counterpart agencies.
• Ability to identify long-range goals and objectives, develop strategic approaches, and conceptualize technical projects.
• Ability to think innovatively and strategically in dealing with technical and/or policy issues while maintaining a strong client focus;
• Demonstrated effectiveness in conducting high-level dialogue with stakeholders, including senior government officials, civil society, private sector, donor community, and professional and research organizations;
• Capacity to lead, work in multidisciplinary teams, share information and responsibilities, inspire to technical excellence, and resolve conflicts;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in French and English, including demonstrated ability of publishing technical and/or policy work and making effective presentations to diverse audiences;