Description
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The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region
The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprises 30 extremely diverse countries, with a population of nearly 500 million people. Although 10 of our clients have joined the EU and 7 of these have graduated, most continue to remain active recipients of knowledge and/or lending services. Weak growth, high inflation and a cost of living crisis precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, has meant that many countries are re-engaging with the Bank for additional support, including development financing. ECA has a strong lending pipeline as well as a large and growing portfolio of Reimbursable Advisory Services. Knowledge is critical to the Bankโs value proposition to client countries in the ECA region in both lending and advisory services.
A predominantly middle- and high-income region, ECA continues to be at the forefront in confronting the numerous development challenges that countries face in the evolving global economy. The region is at the vanguard of building regional connectivity while having to manage the changing structure of the labor market. At the same time, digital technologies are changing the nature of work, populations are aging, and large migration flows have generated social tensions that have contributed to increased political polarization. These emerging trends threaten to reverse the regionโs achievements in regional integration, poverty reduction and shared prosperity.ย ย The ECA region is also one of the most vulnerable to climate change. It has a large potential to strengthen climate change resilience and improve energy efficiency, thereby reducing its contribution to climate change. Other important challenges affecting parts of the region include frozen conflicts and domestic political instability.ย
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine which began February 24, 2022, has generated widespread resource destruction and an unprecedented refugee crisis. More than 6 million refugees from Ukraine โ mostly women, children and the elderly โ have crossed into Europe and Central Asia since the start of the conflict. The outbreak of war has accelerated an already existing process of economic contraction and pressure on livelihoods due to effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Poverty is estimated to have increased and the region is more vulnerable to changes in external demand and climate shocks related to agriculture and the energy transition.ย
The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region:ย https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca
The Sustainable Development (SD) Practice Group (PG) helps countries tackle their most complex challenges in the areas of Agriculture and Food, Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resources & Blue Economy, Environmental and Social Framework, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience & Land, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, and Water.
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND INCLUSION GLOBAL PRACTICE
The Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice (SSI GP) helps countries tackle deep rooted social problems stemming from fragility, climate change, exclusion, and the digital age with people centered solutions that build on local values and institutions. The Practice engages with citizens, communities and governments to deepen resilience, build inclusion, and empower vulnerable and marginalized groups to have influence and voice. It prioritizes participatory, multi-sectoral approaches that build on norms and informal institutions to address social challenges and to build more inclusive, empowered communities. The Practice also works across the Bankโs portfolio to implement the Environment and Social Framework (ESF) standards. The ESF offers an overarching platform for fostering inclusive approaches to ensure vulnerable groups benefit from Bank investments and mitigate against related risks.
The SSI GP has adopted a new strategy that aims to promote inclusive sustainable development anchored on three pillars:ย โข Social Inclusion: enhancing opportunities for equality and inclusion of all people irrespective of income level, geography, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation or other grounds of discrimination; Advancing inclusive laws, regulations, policies and institutions; and Investing in access to markets and services for hard to reach and marginalized groups living in lagging regions.ย โข Social Resilience: Strengthening social risk management for social sustainability; Enhancing social cohesion and opportunities in fragile communities; Strengthening social resilience to climate extremes and natural hazards; and Supporting emergency response and an inclusive recovery from COVID-19.ย โข Social Empowerment: supporting community empowerment for more effective service delivery; Fostering accountable governance including from the bottom up; and Promoting community-driven women empowerment and livelihood support programs.ย
Regional Management Unit Contextย
The SCASO team is responsible for: (i) undertaking social analysis during project preparation and implementation, to mainstream social development issues throughout the Bankโs work in the region; (ii) supporting clients manage project-level social risk and ensuring compliance with the Bankโs social safeguards policies on Involuntary Resettlement and Indigenous Peoples; (iii) undertaking Analytical and Advisory Activities (ASA) in the form of thematic studies on social development issues, country social analysis, and Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS); (iv) leading the preparation and supervision of lending operations, with a particular focus on promoting the inclusion of vulnerable groups (including youth, the elderly, Roma, women, internally displaced persons, refugees, etc.), and citizen engagement; (v) facilitating partnerships and dialogue with civil society through outreach and engagement with a broad range of actors, and (vi) supporting the implementation of the Environmental and Social Framework.ย To this end, the ECA Social Development Unit works closely with staff across all Country Management Units and Global Practices in ECA.
CMU Context:
The Eastern Europe Country Management Unit (CMU) covers Bank financing of operations in Ukraine and Moldova over USD 7.9 billion in IBRD/TF commitments for FY23. The Ukraine portfolio consists of over some 40 operations covered mostly by the ESF. Since the Russian invasion, the Belarus portfolio has been suspended and the Ukraine portfolio has undergone a significant transformation to focus on priority emergency operations to sustain delivery of health, energy, emergency housing, social welfare, agriculture and other essential services. Analytics relevant to the overall portfolio involve guidance on management of war hazard risks, social impacts of land reform, social impacts of internal displacement and large-scale movements of refugees, exclusion and vulnerability of Roma and other minorities, and planning for recovering, reconstruction and peace building. Issues associated with transparency and engagement of citizens and vulnerable groups in project designs, decisions and benefits remain critical. There is need to assess country regulatory systems for gaps in management of E&S risk in conflict and post-conflict financing, strengthen Borrower agency capacity through pathways from training to recruitment, and utilize third-party monitoring for Bank due diligence and to verify E&S performance.
Duties and Accountabilitiesย
The Extended Term Consultant (ETC), based in Kyiv, will serve provide direct, high quality technical and strategic support to the CMU, Bank clients and Bank teams regarding social sustainability, social risk management and stakeholder engagement, compliance with the Bankโs Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) and maximizing the social impact of Bank financed projects. Main responsibilities include:
โข Provide, Crisis management and technical expertise regarding social development and social risk management for the entire CMU portfolio in close collaboration with the Social Practice Manager (PM), the Regional Safeguards Coordinator (RSC) and the SSI CMU Coordinator. In addition to supporting compliance with the ESF, this includes leading the general social development engagement with the CMU governments regarding improving overall social risk management and building national capacity and expertise through Environment & Social (E&S) country systems.โข Actively participate as the main responsible social specialist or as part of the core project team for projects and provide high quality technical support to task teams, Borrowers and clients regarding the identification, preparation and implementation of social risk management measures, ESF compliance and other efforts to enhance the social sustainability of projects.โข Proactively track the social requirements for projects and programs and communicate upcoming deadlines and issues to task teams.ย Thereafter work with clients on practical measures to mitigate and manage social risks.ย ย โข Provide technical review and advice to clients on preparing and implementing social risk assessments and management plans (e.g. social assessments, stakeholder engagement plans, resettlement action plans,ย labor management procedures).ย ย โข Provide technical cross-support as required to other teams and colleagues across the CMU to share knowledge and experience, manage challenging cases of social risk management including responding to complaints, and support overall compliance with the World Bank ESF.โข Provide guidance for management regarding project related complaints and work to resolve them directly with the task team, Regional Safeguards Advisor (RSA), Grievance Redress Service (GRS), Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS) and the PM and RSC.โข Actively participate in regular coordination/review meetings with RSCs, RSAs, Global Leads and Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas (CCSAs) as needed and coordinate CMU level review meetings.โข Coordinate capacity building for Project Implementation Units (PIUs), project teams, consultants and lead social risk management Brown-Bag Lunches (BBLs) on key topics especially related to ECA SSI specific issues.โข Build capacity with clients on issues related to social risk management and broader social issues, including clientsโ monitoring and evaluation of social development activities and outcomes.โข Contribute to the development of learning products/activities such as Technical Assistance, internal learning events, guidance notes, peer learning events.โข Keep abreast of relevant social regulatory, policy and institutional developments and updates in the CMU countries, and inform task teams and management about these issues.โข Travel to field sites, where possible.ย
Selection Criteria
โข Advanced university degree (Masters or PhD) in relevant social science (e.g., Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Gender, Law, Development Studies, and Political Science) or related fields.ย โข Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in social development topics, including social safeguards and social risk management, social inclusion, gender and ethnic minorities.ย โข Knowledge and experience in addressing issues covered by the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) and social safeguards policies, particularly social assessment, social risk management, involuntary resettlement, labor and working conditions, community health and safety, gender-based violence, stakeholder engagement and information disclosure and/or similar policies in other international finance institutions in complex and challenging settings, and across sectors. Experience with grievance redress mechanisms.โข Experience with involuntary resettlement and integration of relevant planning instruments such as Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs) in overall project planning and implementation.ย โข Operational (task management) and analytical skills and demonstrated ability to translate analytical work into policy advice and actionable, practical recommendations.ย โข Experience in engaging in policy dialogue with government, development partners in at least one relevant social development areas.โข Experience with managing donor-funded projects/programs a plus.โข Excellent oral and written communications skills in English essential. Knowledge of Russian is desirable.ย ย
In addition, the successful candidate is expected to exhibit the following core competencies:
โข Social Development Implications on Policy, Institutions, and Operations: solid understanding of the implications of social development on policy, institutions, and operations.โข Analytical Tools for Social Sustainability: Robust experience conducting social development analyses, producing meaningful results, and applying the tools in operations.โข Participation and Consultation: Solid experience conducting social development consultative and participatory approaches and applying the approaches in operations.โข Knowledge and experience in development arena - understands policy making process; distills operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients.โข Policy Dialogue Skills - Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders.โข Deliver Results for Clients: Proactively addresses clientโs stated and unstated needs.โข Collaborate within teams and across boundaries: Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly received diverse perspectives.ย โข Lead and Innovate: Develops innovative solutions.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
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