Avis de recrutement d’un spécialiste principal de la santé / économiste, Bangui, RCA
| Job #: | req8564 |
| Organization: | World Bank |
| Sector: | Health/Nutrition/Population |
| Grade: | GG |
| Term Duration: | 2 years 0 months |
| Recruitment Type: | Local Recruitment |
| Location: | Bangui,Central African Republic |
| Required Language(s): | English, French |
| Preferred Language(s): | |
| Closing Date: | 10/8/2020 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC |
Description :
WORLD BANK GROUP CONTEXT :
The World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for development solutions – providing loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees to its members and private businesses. The vision of the World Bank Group (WBG) is the eradication of extreme poverty and the promotion of shared prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40 percent in each country. To achieve its vision, the WBG leverages the combined strength of its institutions and their ability to partner with the public and private sectors to deliver customized development solutions backed by finance, world class knowledge and convening services.
HEALTH, NUTRITION AND POPULATION GLOBAL PRACTICE CONTEXT :
The central contribution of the Health, Nutrition, Population (HNP) Global Practice to the World Bank’s twin goals is to enable the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in which all people are effectively covered by essential health services, and nobody suffers undue financial hardship because of illnesses. The HNP Global Practice includes staff members in Washington, DC and many country offices. The HNP Global Practice works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that HNP outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the HNP sector. The HNP Global Practice supports country and regional efforts to: (i) improve health outcomes, especially for the poor and most vulnerable; (ii) expand access to high-quality HNP services, interventions and technologies that give the most value for money; (iii) strengthen health systems for results; (iv) establish and improve health financing mechanisms that promote efficiency, equity and sustainability of investments; (v) strengthen heath-relevant institutions within and outside the health sector; (vi) harness multisectoral policies and investments for better health outcomes; and (vii) develop and learn from rigorous impact evaluations.
AFRICA REGION CONTEXT :
Africa has registered strong economic growth in recent years that has helped to reduce poverty levels in the continent. Yet, as Africa’s population expands, the region faces a critical challenge of creating the foundations for long-term inclusive growth. Many countries still contend with high levels of child and maternal mortality, malnutrition is far too common, and most health systems are not able to deal effectively with epidemics and the growing burden of chronic diseases. These challenges call for renewed commitments and accelerated progress toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC)—the principle that everyone receives needed health services without financial hardship, and to enable every girl and boy to fulfill her and his potential, which are portrayed in the WB’s Africa Human Capital plan. The Africa region sets ambitious targets to be achieved by 2023 on child survival, reducing stunting, learning, social protection, lowering adolescent fertility, reducing open defecation and an improved Human Capital Index score.
To accelerate progress toward Human capital development and UHC in Africa, the countries will require political leadership and a clear strategic vision to achieve their HC and UHC targets and to be able to eliminate preventable maternal and child deaths, strengthen resilience to public health emergencies, reduce financial hardship linked to illness, and strengthen the foundations for long-term economic growth.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC HNP COUNTRY CONTEXT :
CAR ranks the lowest in the world on the 2020 Human Capital Index. The country remains extremely fragile, at risk of conflict and violence, but the government has been stable and, slowly but surely, has started to expand basic service delivery outside the capital of Bangui. Maternal and child mortality are among the highest in the world: infant and child mortality rates stand at 85 and 117 deaths per 1000 live-births in 2018, and maternal deaths were estimated at 829 deaths per 100,000 live-birth. CAR has the third lowest literacy rate in the world at only 37% among population aged 15 and above (2018). Over half of women in CAR (60%) were married before their 18th birthday; 47% of women over 15 have been victims of sexual violence and 64% of them have suffered physical violence since the age of 15, and 80% have suffered domestic violence. The total fertility rate is 6.2 births per woman, which is the second to the highest in the world. The COVID-19 epidemic has further disrupted health service provision and redirected limited funds away from major health priorities. The decrease in service utilization due to COVID19 could result in an 11% increase in maternal mortality and a 12% increase in infant mortality over a year.
Revamping the health system for the delivery of essential healthcare services, establishing the medical and pharmaceutical supply chain and health information system, systematic disease surveillance, prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases and epidemics, working to protect women, girls and children against violence, and raising the human capital capacity of the country through integrated service delivery, are some key issues that require strategic and solid technical and operational support at the country level for the multiple World Bank-supported health and human capital projects in the country.
HNP PROGRAM OF THE WORLD BANK IN CAR :
The World Bank’s HNP engagement in CAR covers a broad range of aspects relating to Health Nutrition, Population and Human Capital. The HNP team is currently engaged in four projects which require implementation support and the provision of technical expertise: (i) the Health System Support Extension and Strengthening (SENI) project (US$53M), (ii) the Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement project (REDISSE4)(US$15M), (iii) the CAR COVID19 preparedness and response project (US$7.5M), and the multisectoral CAR Human Capital project (HCP) (US$50M) that is under the leadership of the HNP team. The SENI project provides core support to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to prioritize health system strengthening, performance-based financing and efforts to reduce gender-based violence. REDISSE4 project intends to develop and institutionalize a human and animal disease surveillance system in the country, while the COVID19 project focuses more on the immediate response of the pandemic. The Human Capital project takes a cross-cutting approach to empower women and girls as well as improve maternal and child survival through sensitization, community-based outreach and service delivery. The HNP team is also involved in analytical work either in the health sector or in cross-sectoral efforts like public expenditure reviews.
In this context, the World Bank HNP team of the West and Central Africa unit is looking for a dynamic and versatile Senior Health Specialist / Economist to support the Bank’s HNP engagement. Based in the Bangui WB office, the successful candidate will work in close collaboration with the Task Team Leaders of the various projects, other health team members, as well as colleagues in other sectors and the Country Management team.
DUTIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES :
The World Bank is hiring a Senior Health Specialist/Economist in the country office in CAR. The Senior Health Specialist / Economist will have the following key responsibilities in CAR, inter alia :
- Support and potentially co-lead the implementation of the Bank’s HNP operational portfolio, as well as the preparation of selected operations. This will involve(i) contributing to technical discussions on issues related inter alia to maternal and child health, disease surveillance, nutrition, health system strengthening, and strategies to address gender-based violence; (ii) working closely with the projects’ implementation units, relevant government agencies and development partners and (iii) monitoring of the Bank portfolio and supporting activities on a day-to-day basis ;
- Contribute to selected analytical work related to the health and human capital portfolio ;
- Lead or co-lead and/or assist the country office and CAR health task team in policy dialogue at the country level, communications and interactions with government counterparts, country stakeholders, project team, as well as development partners ;
- Review or prepare sector-specific or cross-sectoral inputs for various operational products/outputs (e.g. sector/country briefings, background reports, policy documents, portfolio performance reviews, etc.) ;
- Help organize and participate in missions of the health team ;
- Respond to ad hoc information requests from internal and external parties; and,
- Carry out any other activity as required as part of the multiple projects and requirements of co-managing the health portfolio.
The work will be substantive in nature, requiring frequent interactions with senior external and internal counterparts and WB task team.
The Senior Health Specialist / Economist will report to the Practice Manager (Health Nutrition and Population) for HAWH2. For day-to-day operational work, the Senior Health Specialist will work closely with the Task Team Leader(s) (TTLs) for the Health and Human capital portfolio and must maintain close communication with the TTLs. The Senior Health Specialist will be subject to all World Bank regulations and guidelines applicable to staff in the Country Office which is their duty station.
Selection Criteria :
- Graduate degrees (Masters’ degree required, PhD or equivalent would be an asset) in public health, health system administration or management, health economics or health policy epidemiology, or professional degree (medicine, nursing). Candidates without a core qualification in at least one of these domains need not apply. Candidates with a core competency in public health, health economics or health policy will have an advantage. Combined degrees will also provide an added advantage ;
- Minimum of 8 years of relevant and progressive experience in planning, programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health, health system strengthening, health financing, or health service delivery projects in CAR or other developing countries. • Experience in two or more of these areas is advantageous ;
- In-depth technical expertise and experience in at least two of the following domains is expected: health financing, health system strengthening, performance-based-financing, community-based service delivery, the prevention and management of gender-based violence, community-based interventions ;
- A proven track-record of leading policy dialogue or service delivery innovations, making substantive contributions to analytic work, and of working across sector boundaries ;
- A proven track record of high standards/accountability for work products, meeting deadlines, an ability to prioritize tasks within his/her work program and strategies for working collectively with others on the team to deliver products of the highest caliber ;
- Demonstrated ability to interact with clients at the policy and technical level, to organize and manage policy development initiatives and evaluation work in collaboration with other development agencies and financing partners in health ;
- Knowledge of and experience with the health sector in CAR – including institutional set up, health policies and programs, challenges, and priorities is an advantage ;
- Prior experience in an international development institution (multi- or bi-national, NGO or private) is required ;
- Fluency in French and English (excellent oral and written communication skills) is essential, with ability to prepare documents on complex subjects, speak and write persuasively, and present ideas clearly and concisely. Must possess good communication skills ;
- Experience and familiarity in working in fragile and emergency context in the health sector would be an advantage. Pro-activeness, balanced with creativity, with the ability to adapt to transient contexts ;
- Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills and ability to adapt and respond to work requests on short notice.
In addition to the above, the selected candidate is expected to demonstrate the following WBG core competencies :
- Integrative Skills — Understands core issues and knows where to get additional expertise when needed ;
- Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena — Understands policy making process and role of the health sector in that process.Can find relevant information and examine similar policy questions in multiple regions and to distill operationally relevant recommendations and lessons from this analysis for clients ;
- Policy Dialogue Skills — Identifies and assesses policy issues and communicates findings/points of view verbally and through economic reports and papers.Plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders as part of Bank teams ;
- 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 — Shows strong collaboration to work part of the team, and stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches from others.
Poverty has no borders, neither does excellence. We succeed because of our differences and we continuously search for qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds from around the globe.