Senior Education Specialist

Job #: req12894

Organization: World Bank

Sector: Education

Grade: GG

Term Duration: 2 years 0 months

Recruitment Type: International Recruitment

Location: Washington, DC,United States; Paris, France

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s): French, Spanish, Arabic or Portuguese

Closing Date: 9/13/2021 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Are you an advocate for education? You can make a difference in the lives of children in the world’s poorest countries by joining the Global Partnership for Education Secretariat (GPE).

Who we are

GPE is a shared commitment to ending the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better world. With nearly 20 years’ experience helping partner countries to get more children of all genders in school and learning, we convene teachers, civil society, donors, United Nations agencies, development banks, businesses and philanthropists behind partner country leadership to finance and support solutions, so that no child is left behind.

What we do

GPE convenes partners and mobilizes funds to help governments in 76 lower-income countries build and finance strong and sustainable education systems that deliver quality learning to more children, especially those who are marginalized by poverty, gender, disability, or displacement. GPE focuses on driving transformation at scale to get the most vulnerable children of all genders in school, improve teaching and learning, and build resilient education systems capable of withstanding shocks and adapting to new challenges. GPE’s approach achieves lasting impact by convening partners behind country leadership. We support government efforts to advance teaching and learning for the 21st century, mobilize more and better financing, and scale up proven solutions for the hardest-to-reach children.

GPE recently approved a new strategy and operating model, GPE 2025, which is grounded in a “system transformation” approach and seeks to support and sustain education reforms with the potential for impact at scale. Within this framework, it was agreed to work with country partners to catalyze progress in four system transformation enabling factors: Equity, efficiency, and the volume of domestic financing of education; Gender responsive sector planning, policy, and monitoring; Use of data and evidence; and Sector coordination.

Raise Your Hand

GPE has called on world leaders to “Raise Your Hand” and pledge at least US$5 billion to help GPE transform education in up to 87 countries, which are home to more than 1 billion children. Over the next five years, this funding will help ensure that 175 million children can learn and enroll 88 million more children in school. In the longer term, this investment could add $164 billion to economies in the developing world, lift 18 million people out of poverty, and protect two million girls from early marriage.

Location

With over 100 staff, the GPE secretariat is hosted by the World Bank and has headquarters in Washington D.C and Paris plus an office in Brussels. The selected applicant may be based in the Washington, DC, USA office or the Paris, France office. This is an international recruitment subject to compensation on the local pay scale for the selected duty station, and global mobility benefits may apply as per World Bank Group policy.

Country Engagement and Policy Team (CEP)

This Team acts as our primary relationship coordinator with country partners. We support national evidence-informed policy dialogue at country level, including on the development and implementation of inclusive Education Sector Plans, Partnership Compacts, Joint Sector Reviews, etc. to accelerate transformative progress in policy priorities. The CEP Team is comprised of three regional teams, the Education, Policy and Learning team and the Strategy and Coordination team. The regional teams comprise a group of Senior Education Specialists (‘Country Team Leads – CTLs), who each lead on the relationship with and support to a portfolio of countries with Education Specialists, and other Secretariat’s teams/staff (Grant Operation officers, Thematic Leads, etc.)

Duties and Accountabilities

The successful applicants will report to the Chief Technical Officer and CEP manager, but will be located within a regional team and supervised by the relevant Regional manager. Successful candidates will lead all aspects of the GPE Secretariat’s engagement with assigned countries. They will ensure coordination and management of teams of education and operation specialists, to provide the required support to assigned countries, including guiding and mentoring other staff. They will also ensure that the Secretariat’s support and messaging are consistent, as well as adapted to country context and needs.

Key responsibilities include the following:
Country engagement and leadership

Support evidence-informed and inclusive sector policy dialogue in assigned countries to drive education system transformation by:

• Communicating effectively the key messages of GPE 2025 and processes of the Operating Model to country stakeholders.
• Leading relationship management with country partners, including ministries, civil society, development partners and knowledge institutions.
• Supporting the country political and technical leadership for system transformation and helping to sustain dialogue for change.
• Monitoring sector policy framework implementation and supporting government-led and inclusive policy dialogue, sector learning, adaptation and course correction through sector monitoring and reporting.
• Facilitating country level dialogue on GPE funding model requirements and supporting assigned countries in accessing GPE grants and other strategic resources ( Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KiX) , Education Out Loud (EoL) and Strategic Capabilities).
• Supporting evidence dissemination and uptake fostering informed decision-making practices and knowledge sharing, as well as promoting peer-learning among partners.
• Championing a cross-cutting gender lens in all operations and program and support diversity and inclusion in all team initiatives.

Strategic and technical leadership

• Under supervision of the Chief Technical Officer/Regional Manager, lead country teams through effective integration of education specialist and monitoring officer and where appropriate technical support from other teams within the Secretariat in the support to assigned countries.
• Ensure an inclusive team approach and provide guidance and mentorship to other staff as and when required.
• Contribute to knowledge, analysis and dialogue around the country level work through regional teams.
• Contribute to Secretariat’s quality assurance process and monitoring of GPE grants.
• Provide technical and strategic advice to the Secretariat management on country level issues as and when required.
• Participate in global and strategic dialogues, engagement and share experiences of country level engagement.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s degree in education, economics, public policy, social sciences, international development or a relevant related field.
• A minimum of 8 years directly relevant work experience in education, and demonstrated experience and knowledge of education policy (financing system planning, education in fragile contexts, gender equality in education, learning, inclusive education, teacher development, or other areas relevant to GPE work).
• Demonstrated leadership in managing education programs and projects in the global south; knowledge and experience of education in fragile and conflict affected states is an advantage.
• Demonstrated strong analytical and technical skills, including an understanding of core education data sets/ indicators, tools for data analysis, and the use of evidence for education policy.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven track record on ability to work in a team and intercultural environment with minimal supervision.
• Written and verbal communication: Delivers information optimally in English, and also in French for candidates willing to work in francophone Africa.
• Working proficiency in Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese are also of value.
• Ready to travel, as required by the different tasks.

Competencies

In addition to the above, the applicants are expected to demonstrate the following competencies.

• Policy Dialogue Skills: Possess political judgment, diplomatic sense, and negotiating skills; apply cross-country development knowledge to discussions with countries and their partners; anticipate needs and requests at country levels and offer relevant tools to countries;
• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena: Understand policy making process and own roles, as CTLs, in that process; as appropriate, distill operationally relevant recommendations/lessons to country partners to support a government led policy dialog; understand political economy issues as well as governance issues; find relevant information/data and examine similar policy questions in multiple regions;
• Excellent communication (oral and written) skills: to convey complex technical ideas to non-specialist audiences, and to promote and support substantive policy dialog among the Local education groups;
• Client orientation: Take personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to country partners’ queries, requests or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success;
• Drive for results: Take personal ownership and accountability to deliver on time and achieve agreed-upon results, and have the personal organization skills to do so;
• Knowledge, learning, and communication: Actively seek knowledge needed to complete assignments and also share knowledge with others, communicate and present information in a clear and organized manner;
• Business judgment and analytical decision making: Analyze facts and data to support sound, logical decisions regarding own and others’ work;
• Collaborate within Teams and Across Boundaries, broadly across the organization: to contribute productively to teams’ work and outputs, and bring different ideas into the forefront;
• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge from across and outside the organization to strengthen internal and/or external client solutions;
• Integrative Skills: Demonstrate strong integrative thinking and ability to support project teams in developing an integrated point of view around development challenges;
• Knowledge of the Institutional Environment – Experience with the global education and development community, including working effectively to advance multi-stakeholder education partnerships.

In your cover letter, please indicate your first choice in terms of the region that you want to work with as well as your main area of expertise in education.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

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