- 17118 3
- Statistician
- Poverty Reduction
- Professional & Technical
- GF
- Bangui, Central African Republ
- Local Hire
- English [Essential]; French [Essential]
- 06-Jul-2017
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The Central African Republic (CAR) is a large landlocked, scarcely populated country with a population of approximately five million. The country has ample natural resources, is barely urbanized, belongs to the poorest countries in the world and has known political instability ever since Independence in 1960. The latest episode of insecurity started late 2012. It led to three years of violence, destruction of property and great human suffering and left an estimated one fifth of the population displaced. In May 2015 the “Bangui Forum” was organized. It discussed the country’s peace-building program and paved the way for elections.
In 2014 the World Bank supported an early crisis response with a US$100 million package in emergency operations. This support was provided through the restructuring of the existing portfolio and the frontloading of IDA-17 lending, and was presented in an update to the Board of Executive Directors on January 21, 2014. A Country Engagement Note (CEN) was presented to the Board of Executive Directors in July 2015, presenting the need for a continuation of the crisis response and the next steps for recovery and development over an 18-month period. This strategy comprises two phases: (i) support to stabilization in order to assist international efforts to break the cycle of violence and maintain confidence in the fragile transition; and (ii) preliminary support to recovery and development. Following the successful elections and a donor roundtable in Brussels in November 2016, the World Bank is providing US$250M in additional support from the Turn Around Facility to help break the cycle of violence.
The conflict has left the statistical and health systems in poor shape, but under the Turn Around Facility Package the world Bank is scaling up its support to the health and statistics sectors. It does so through two projects that follow a Performance Based Approach. In the health sector, this includes a Performance Based Financing (PBF) program that currently covers approximately half the country and is expected to be scaled up nationally in the coming years. For statistics, a new project is being launched to fill critical data gaps and to modernize and professionalize the national statistical institute. The selected candidate will facilitate the implementation of these two projects. In addition, the selected candidate will prepare and lead other (monitoring and analytical) tasks aimed at improving the quality of the World Bank’s project portfolio.
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 term appointment.
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 term appointment.
The precise work program of the selected candidate will be discussed with the World Bank’s Lead Economist and the Task Team Leaders for the statistics and health programs for the Central African Republic and GP Managers in charge of poverty reduction and health. It is expected that there will be two main areas of work:
– Supervision of PBF projects in health and statistics: The candidate will facilitate the supervision of two projects that follow the principles of Performance Based Financing. The candidate will oversee the implementation of these programs and for the health program provide country-based support to the Ministry of Health, PBF Technical Unity and Project Implementation Unit with a particular focus on health statistics and data management associated with the program. For the statistics program, the candidate will provide technical support to the National Statistical Institute (ICASEES) and facilitate coordination with other line ministries and international donors involved in data production. This includes, monitoring of results, preparing work programs and carrying out an active dialogue with units responsible for project implementations. The candidate will participate in supervision missions, evaluate documents for no-objection and carry out regular quality control.
– Iterative Beneficiary Monitoring: The candidate will work with other project teams of the World Bank to design and implement Iterative Beneficiary Monitoring. This includes design of cost-effective data collection tools (typically surveys), ensuring high quality data gathering, preparing analytic reports and discussing results with clients, project managers and Bank management.
Strong quantitative skills are a requirement for the work of the statistician / economist, along with a good understanding of Bank operations and Performance Based Management. An ability to supervise survey data collection and analyze survey results is a strong advantage. An ability to work with and contribute to broader World Bank country teams and clients to identify and address key bottlenecks for project implementation is important.
The work areas outlined above requires close collaboration with Head Quarter staff, especially in the Poverty and Equity, as well as the Health teams. Within the Central African Republic close collaboration with project teams and parent ministries is envisaged.
– Personal commitment to managing for results.
– Minimum of Master’s in Statistics or Economics, with at least 5 years of relevant professional experience.
– Familiarity with World Bank operations and Performance Based Management.
– Ability to work independently as well as in teams.
– Extensive experience in the design, supervision and analysis of household and health facility surveys.
– Ability to coordinate training events.
– Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with Bank staff, Governments, and Government Institutions.
– Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work directly with multi-disciplinary teams.
– Ability to communicate well difficult conclusions verbally and in writing.
– Ability to work independently, to take initiative and to work to agreed deadlines and within budgets.
– Ability to speak and work in English as well as in French.
Required Competencies
– General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills – Possesses a demonstrated track record of working with economic and survey data and analytical tools and models to conduct economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; demonstrates knowledge and skill on data collection and management; understands underlying economic and statistical concepts. Has excellent skills with econometric software as well as other data maniputation and visualization ssoftware. Is familiar with the current debates, issues, and approaches in the global thinking on data production and dissemination along with poverty measurement.
– Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena – Understands the uses of micro-level data for policy. Able to apply best practices in data production and dissemination and distill operationally relevant recommendations/lesson for clients.
– Policy Dialogue Skills – Identifies and assesses issues relevant to data and policy and communicates findings/knowledge in both written and oral form. Plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders as part of Bank teams. Coordinates the use of data among partner international agencies and with national statistical systems for assessing global or regional trends and for monitoring short-term international developments.
– Integrative Skills – Works to develop an integrated view across all facets of policy-relevant sectors linked to data.
– Applied Microeconomic Skills and Experience – Demonstrates in-depth knowledge and skill in one or more areas: welfare measurement, data and statistical systems; and welfare analysis. Has hands-on experience in microeconometrics and statistical modeling with large micro datasets.
– Written and Verbal Communication – Delivers information effectively in support of team or workgroup.
– Lead and Innovate – Develops innovative solutions with others.
– Deliver Results for Clients – Proactively addresses clients’ stated and unstated needs.
– Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries – Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly receives diverse perspectives.
– Create, Apply and Share Knowledge – Applies knowledge across WBG to strengthen solutions for internal and/or external clients.
– Make Smart Decisions – Interprets a wide range of information and pushes to move forward.
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.
