Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. 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, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. 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. Visit www.worldbank.org.
Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group:
The Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group (EFI) is one of the World Bank Group’s four Practice Groups. EFI’s mandate is “Growth, Finance, and Institutions for all.” Our approach is to leverage public and private sector expertise, together with International Finance Corporation (IFC), to support a data-driven reform agenda. EFI supports clients in advancing evidence-based structural reforms to build the foundations for inclusive and sustainable growth.
EFI is composed of four Global Practices (GPs):
Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment (MTI) – consists of country economists and trade, financial and private development specialists that support structural reforms.
Governance GP – consists of public sector, financial management and procurement specialists to support institutional and governance reforms and provide fiduciary support to all Bank operations.
Poverty and Equity GP – consists of micro, labor, and development economists to build the evidence base, provide advice and operational support to ensure country policies and WBG interventions are inclusive.
The Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) GP is comprised of two directorates: The Finance directorate, and the Trade, Investment and Competitiveness (TIC) directorate. The GP aims to support client countries to create an enabling environment in which financial stability, efficiency and firm-level solutions are provided in an integrated way to crowd in the private sector, support the creation of markets, and accelerate equitable growth.
The Finance Directorate provides analytical and advisory support to the international community to enact reforms that lead to deep, inclusive, efficient, and resilient financial systems. The Directorate is comprised of thematic teams focused on (i) Financial Stability and Integrity, (ii) Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure, (iii) Long term finance and (iv) Crisis and disaster risk finance.
The Financial Stability & Integrity unit (EFNFS) in the FCI Global Practice works on a range of areas, including financial stability, bank regulation and supervision, bank resolution and crisis management, corporate governance, financial integrity, and asset recovery. Within EFNFS, the Stability team assists national authorities to improve the prudential policy, legal, regulatory, supervisory, and institutional framework needed to achieve and sustain financial sector stability, engages with standard setters bringing in the perspectives of emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), and produces analytical work. The (global) stability team provides technical inputs (including as technical project leads) to region-led advisory/analytical operations and lending operations and conducts country-level diagnostics and knowledge work on: regulation and supervision of deposit taking institutions, bank resolution and crisis management, deposit insurance, fintech aspects related to financial stability (including related to financial market integrity). It also manages the financial sector assessment programs (FSAPs), coordinates the World Bank engagement with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and is the lead technical provider for assessments of compliance with the Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision (BCPs).
Advisory work on climate- and nature-related financial risks and opportunities
Financial institutions are increasingly impacted by climate- and nature-related risks, presenting both investment opportunities and economic adjustment costs related to reaching global, regional, or national climate and nature-related goals, including the Paris Agreement and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Governments and regulators are reinforcing the financial sector’s role in managing climate and nature-related risks and promoting capital for green development. Bodies such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS) provide guidance for better risk management. Despite progress, there is a need to enhance financial regulators’ capacity to integrate climate and nature considerations, especially in developing countries, which are often highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and nature loss.
The Financial Stability & Integrity unit supports EMDE countries in bolstering the stability of financial sectors concerning climate and nature risks, while at the same time improving the ability of financial sectors to mobilize capital for climate and nature objectives. The team offers technical assistance (TA) globally on assessing climate and nature risks and integrating them into financial sector regulation. Additionally, the team provides diagnostics on climate and nature risks, including recommendations for fostering green finance, often as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) in coordination with the IMF. Technical tools, such as climate exposure analysis and stress testing, are designed to support TA. The team collaborates extensively with regional and other global World Bank and IFC teams, as well as international networks such as the NGFS, FSB, and financial sector standard setters.
Role & Responsibilities:
The World Bank seeks to recruit an extended term consultant (ETC) to support the work on climate- and nature risk analyses for EMDE financial sectors.
The selected candidate is expected to provide quantitative support for climate- and nature financial risk assessments and stress-testing. Specifically, the role of the selected candidate will include but is not limited to:
• Supporting country specific analyses that will help client countries in assessing climate and nature risks for financial sectors (with a focus on banks). The ETC is expected to be able to independently produce and support the client with high quality end products, such as climate- and nature risk assessments, stress tests and methodology descriptions.
• Supporting the development and application of globally applicable analytical frameworks, methodologies (e.g. macro- and microeconomic approaches) and datasets for measuring and assessing climate- and nature risks and opportunities for financial sectors aligned with emerging international standards and adapted to an EMDE context.
• Supporting climate and nature diagnostics and assessments as part of the FSAP program and the World Bank’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDR). Work will include mission support, where the ETC is expected to be able to (quantitatively and qualitatively) assess risks stemming from climate- and nature-related sources and provide guidance to financial sector regulators and supervisors on how to manage these risks, while also being able to provide guidance to authorities on the development and deepening of green finance.
• Preparing and reviewing reports on climate and nature risks and opportunities and supporting senior management through policy briefings.