E T Consultant Job #: req33691 Organization: World Bank Sector: Social Protection Grade: EC2 Term Duration:ย 1 year 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Harare,Zimbabwe Required Language(s): English, Shona Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 7/23/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank consists of two entities โ the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). It is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries. As the largest development bank in the world, the World Bank provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, and coordinates responses to regional and global challenges. For more information, please visitย www.worldbank.org.
Social Protection and Jobs Global Practiceย ย
Social Protection and Jobs are a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income and is a crucial factor to ensure equality of opportunities.ย
The World Bank supports social protection and jobs programs in developing countries as a central part of its mission to end extreme poverty and foster shared prosperity. The World Bank's 10-year Social Protection and Jobs Strategy's main objective is to help countries move from fragmented projects to harmonized social protection and labor systems. It focuses on making these systems more inclusive of the vulnerable and more attuned to building people's capacities and improving the productivity of their work. The strategy lays out ways to deepen the Bank's involvement, capacity, knowledge, and impact in Social Protection and Jobs (SPJ).
Zimbabweโs poverty has increased steadily in the past decade, with extreme poverty more than doubling between 2011 and 2020. Further, 38 percent of the population is vulnerable to poverty, meaning that a large portion of the population may fall into poverty is affected by shocks, particularly in rural areas. This, compounded with the lingering impacts of COVID, as well as inflation and drought, has led to increasing needs among the population. Zimbabweโs social protection system remains inadequate to meet these needs, leaving more than 50 percent of the food poor without support. It is highly fragmented and inefficient, with multiple small programs that face targeting challenges. The bulk of assistance in the country remains humanitarian.ย ย
The Bankโs social protection engagement in Zimbabwe at present primarily includes (i) the development and operationalization of a social registry; and (ii) shock-responsive analytics, policy dialogue, and action planning with the Government; and (iii) exploring possible alternative sources of financing to respond to Governmentโs request to join the East Africa Girlsโ Empowerment and Resilience (EAGER) regional MPA. The social registry, launched in late 2023, integrates social registry functionality with the capacity to host beneficiary data, and currently covers about 70,000 households. The Bank has mobilized donor support to operationalize the registry by streamlining server and hosting arrangements, fostering partnerships with ministries and development partners for linkages to other relevant databases, collecting household data, and building capacity at all levels. The recent drought makes advancing on the shock responsive social protection agenda critical, both in terms of supporting immediate response, potentially through a scale up of the existing Harmonized Social Cash Transfer program, as well as in the immediate to longer-term through institutional reforms and adaptive social protection delivery systems, in which the social registry will play a key role.ย ย ย For more information:ย https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/socialprotection
Job Duties and Responsibilities:
As part of the SPJ Zimbabwe team and under guidance from the Task Team Leader (TTL), the successful candidate will support the World Bank program in social protection in Zimbabwe with the following responsibilities:
1. Coordination and dialogue
o Serve as the primary point of contact in the Harare country office (CMU) for the SPJ program, prioritizing operational leadership to advance the Bank's social protection agenda.o Establish and maintain close relationships with key government ministries and development partners, ensuring effective coordination and collaboration.o Organize, coordinate, and participate in social protection missions in collaboration with the TTL and social protection team.o Represent the social protection Bank team in sectoral working groups and partner coordination meetings, in collaboration with the TTL and social protection team.o Work closely with the TTL and SPJ team to maintain strong communication lines with both the Ministry counterparts, the CMU and World Bank colleagues in other sectors in the Harare Country Office.o Contribute to internal briefings (Annual Meetings, Spring Meetings, etc.) and other internal reports and analyses as needed (CPIA, etc.).o Promote the use of the Social Registry to coordinate and implement social protection, education, health, and agriculture projects from different stakeholders.
2. Technical and Operational Support for SPJ Work Program Implementation
o Support the operationalization of the Social Registry, focusing on household enumeration, and building institutional capacity.o Contribute to reports, studies, and analytical activities that support Government priorities and that advance the Bankโs Trust-funded activities.o Monitor deadlines for key tasks and suggest actions to ensure the timely delivery of deliverables.o Collaborate with IT expert colleagues and government counterparts on the upgrading of needed Social Registry upgrades.
3. Strategic Development and Implementation
o Support the reporting requirements related to Trust Fund resources, ensuring alignment with the operational goals of the SPJ program.o In the event of arrears clearance, contribute to the preparation of new Bank-funded activities in the social protection sector, focusing on integrating MIS to streamline program implementation across various sectors.
4. Supporting other SPJ activities as required.
Selection Criteria
The ideal candidate for this consultancy should possess the following qualifications and expertise:
1. Operational and Strategic Leadership:
o Advanced degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, information systems, data science or a related field.o Minimum of 5 yearsโ experience working on social protection systems and programs, with a proven track record in leading stakeholder engagements with diplomacy and sensitivity.ย o Deep knowledge of social protection systems and programs in Zimbabwe, and a strong network among key stakeholders in the MPSLSW and other ministries and agencies.o Demonstrated ability to manage collaboration between multiple organizations and stakeholders, particularly in coordinating projects within social protection and with other sectors.ย o Knowledge of how management information systems assist with coordinating multi-stakeholder projects is essential.
2. Technical Knowledge:
o Previous experience developing and administering social protection information systems, and training stakeholders in the use of such systems.o Previous experience in working with statistics agencies on household surveys presents a significant advantage.
3. Teamwork and Communication:
o Well-organized, detail-oriented, able to prioritize and multi-task with minimal supervision.ย o Ability to work both independently and as part of a multi-cultural team.o Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and knowledge of local languages spoken in Zimbabwe.
WBG Culture Attributes:
1. Sense of Urgency โ Anticipating and quickly reacting to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful Risk Taking โ Taking informed and thoughtful risks and making courageous decisions to push boundaries for greater impact.
3. Empowerment and Accountability โ Engaging with others in an empowered and accountable manner for impactful results.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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Learn more about working at theย World Bankย andย IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.ย
Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three 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 third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.