Le Groupe de la Banque mondiale recherche un Économiste (H/F), Brazzaville, République du Congo
Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.
Western and Central Africa (AFW) Region
We need the best and brightest talent focused on Sub-Saharan African countries in order to harness the potential and innovation happening across the continent. Africa is a continent on the move, with a young population and a growing market of nearly 1.2bn people. We are committed to making the Africa regional teams leading innovation hubs.
Yet, these vast opportunities are tempered by persistent gaps in education, health, and skills, which have Africa only reaching forty percent of its estimated human capital potential. Moreover, conflict, food insecurity, population growth, and the disruptive forces of climate change threaten to curtail or even reverse the progress that has been made over the past decades.
In West and Central Africa, the World Bank is a leading partner with a growing portfolio of 350 projects totaling more than US$38 billion in areas such as agriculture, trade and transport, energy, education, health, water and sanitation – all to support job creation, gender equality, poverty reduction, and better lives. Across the continent, the World Bank’s program has nearly doubled over the last 10 years. By 2030, about 87% of the world’s extreme poor are projected to live in Sub-Saharan Africa, so this is where our mission to end extreme poverty and to promote shared prosperity will be achieved.
Are you ready to make an impact? We are looking for dedicated professionals to join our innovative and diverse team to improve people’s lives and help countries build back better after COVID.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/western-and-central-africa
Republic of Congo
The Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), located in Central Africa, covers 342,000 km2. Its population of 5.7 million people is largely young, with 47% being under age 18. More than half of the population lives in its two main cities — Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. The country is one of the least densely populated in Africa, with 14.8 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Covered mainly by tropical forests, the Republic of Congo also has one of the largest areas of tropical peatlands, a fragile ecosystem that removes carbon from the atmosphere and stores it, thus helping to slow global warming. The oil sector accounts for about half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 80% of its exports, making it the third largest producer in Sub Saharan Africa. The country also has a wealth of mineral resources that remain largely untapped.
The Congolese economy entered a deep recession in 2015, with its reliance on volatile oil revenue and weaknesses in governance leading it into debt distress. The COVID-19 pandemic further undercut economic activity with GDP contracting by 6.3 percent and public debt peaking at 104 percent of GDP in 2020. While the country remains in “debt distress” due to the ongoing restructuring and audit of domestic arrears as well as the recurrent accumulation of temporary external arrears, it returned to debt sustainability in 2021, and the economy, led by the non-oil sector, finally recorded positive growth.
The protracted recession caused a sharp increase in poverty and contributed to lagging development of human capital in Congo. GDP per capita contracted by a cumulative 32 percent during 2014-2022, reversing previous progress in poverty reduction. The international poverty rate (at US$2.15 a day in 2017 purchasing power parity, PPP) is estimated to have reached 46 percent in 2020 (from 35.4 percent in 2011). Furthermore, human capital development lags that of peer countries: the World Bank Human Capital Index value for Congo increased only slightly from 0.41 to 0.42 during 2010 to 2020, leaving the country well below the average for lower-middle income countries of 0.48 in 2020 and only slightly above the 0.40 overall average for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The weak performance of health, education, and social assistance is attributable to funding shortfalls as well as institutional and sector management challenges.
The dynamics of social exclusion and drivers of fragility in the Republic of Congo are multidimensional and further exacerbate poverty and inequality. They go beyond the spatial disparities between urban and rural areas, and they are exemplified in the divide between population groups, with women, youth, persons with disabilities, and indigenous people (IP) being the most vulnerable.
Reform momentum has picked up in recent years despite higher oil prices helping to ease fiscal constraints, anchored by the three-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) ECF program approved in January 2022, with the fourth review successfully completed in December 2023, and policy and institutional reforms supported under the DPF series.
The World Bank’s 2020-2024 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) with the Republic of Congo was extended by a year until 2025 following a Performance and Learning Review (PLR) conducted in the fall of 2021 and approved by the Board of Directors on April 7, 2022.
The CPF, which is aligned with the government’s objectives, aims at helping the country improve economic management, create a business environment conducive to economic diversification, strengthen its human capital, and improve the delivery of basic public services, in particular health, education, and social protection services.
As of January 24, 2024, the WB active portfolio in Congo is comprised of 13 active projects: 11 national projects and two regional projects for a total commitment of $785.54 million.
The Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice
The Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment (MTI) Global Practice leads the World Bank Group’s dialogue and engagement with clients on macroeconomics, fiscal policy, trade, competition and investment. MTI links the macroeconomic dialogue with programs focused on expanding the role of the private sector in economic development. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/mti-gp
In the Republic of Congo, the MTI team provides economic analysis on a range of macroeconomic, fiscal, trade, and investment issues; supports bank management with regular economic monitoring and macroeconomic modeling/forecasting; maintains local databases for economic and social statistics for use by Bank staff based in the countries and Washington D.C; and supports the wider country teams working on Congo. The MTI team works closely with the Country Management Unit (CMU) on a range of macroeconomic issues through advisory services and analytics.
MTI has a large and exciting program in Congo. The MTI team leads development policy operations and delivers regular analytic work such as economic updates, country economic memorandum, and public finance reviews. It provides technical assistance on a range of issues and areas including debt management, modernization of tax and customs administrations, trade policy, and other topics. The team has a strong high-level policy dialogue and technical engagement with key economic management agencies across government, and other stakeholders in the private sector, academia, civil society, the media, and the donor community.
The macro-fiscal policy reform agenda is central to addressing Congo’s key development challenges in the areas of economic diversification, debt management, domestic revenue mobilization. This creates a high internal and external demand for the work of the team, which is delivered in close collaboration with the CMU and colleagues in other practices, and through intensive and flexible engagement with the government and other stakeholders.
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.
Roles & Responsibilities:
The Economist will be an integral part of Congo MTI Team, which comprises a Lead Economist, an internationally recruited (IRS) Senior Country Economist and consultants. He/she will also be part of Congo Country Engagement Team comprising colleagues from the different practice groups and other senior global practice staff and which seeks to foster cross-cutting solutions supporting the implementation of the Country Partnership Framework. Each core engagement utilizes different Bank instruments (Advisory Services and Analytics or ASAs, policy dialogue, lending).
Responsibilities:
As part of the MTI Congo team, specific responsibilities of the Economist include the following:
- Co-lead the delivery of the annual economic update for Congo.
- Lead the biannual Macro-Poverty Outlook for Congo, working closely with the Extended Term Consultant to update the underlying Macro Fiscal Model (MFMod) for Congo.
- Maintain, update, and develop macroeconomic databases, including by closely supervising Consultants.
- Lead or contribute to management briefings and MTI inputs for other teams (e.g., macro context paragraphs in project documents).
- Work on continual improvements to the team’s set of analytics for Congo’s economy (e.g., GDP and BOP forecasting, nowcasting, and macro consistency template).
- Support and participate in the policy dialogue on macroeconomic, fiscal, and monetary policy and economic growth issues with the country authorities; focus areas will evolve with policy developments and dialogue.
- Support macro, fiscal and debt ASAs including Public Expenditure Reviews (PER)/Public Finance Reviews (PFR) and Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).
- Support Development Policy Operations, or other types of lending operations focused on economic and fiscal reforms.
- Other country economist functions as required (e.g., coordinating the annual CPIA exercise).
Selection Criteria
- Minimum of a master’s degree in economics, with five years of relevant experience. A PhD would be an asset.
- Strong analytical skills in macroeconomic and fiscal management, and ability to conduct policy-relevant research.
- Experience in economic modeling, database management, and use of statistical software packages such as Stata, Matlad or R.
- In depth understanding of Congo’s economy and the broader Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) region. A strong grasp of the economic issues facing Congo, built from experience working on Congo’s economy in a different capacity.
- Familiarity with other economies in the CEMAC region, and the regional issues related to a common monetary policy and regional central bank will be a plus.
- Integrative capacity including the ability to situate sectoral issues within a broader development framework.
- Strong communication and presentation skills, in English and French, including the ability to speak persuasively and to present ideas clearly and concisely with senior policy officials and a wide variety of audiences.
- Very strong client-orientation and diplomatic skills combined with candor and courage of opinion.
- Ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments and adjust to a variety of evolving tasks to meet often tight deadlines.
- A high degree of self-motivation, positive attitude, and drive.
- Strong commitment to teamwork and knowledge sharing, with a willingness and ability to be part of a highly collaborative team.
For information about WBG Core Competencies, please visit: https://bit.ly/2kbIA7O.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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