Education Specialist

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.

The Human Development (HD) Practice Group (PG)

The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working, with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs, and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries. The Human Development Vice Presidency (HDVP) at the World Bank Group is made up of the Global Practices for education; health, nutrition, and population; and social protection and jobs; additionally, the HDVP houses the gender group.  As such, HD is central to the World Bank Group’s goals to end extreme poverty by 2030 and raise shared prosperity. 

Education Global Practice 

• Education is a human right, 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 the most important factor in ensuring equality of opportunities. For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction.
• The World Bank Group is the largest external financier of education in the developing world. The Bank works on education programs in more than 80 countries and is committed to helping countries reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4), which calls for access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.
• The mission of the Education Global Practice is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to quality education and lifelong learning. The Education GP helps clients address challenges through financing, knowledge services, and strategic partnerships.
• At the country level, the Education GP supports a systemic, equitable, and inclusive approach to improving access to and quality of education across all levels of schooling, from early childhood and basic education to workforce training and tertiary education; and across all contexts, from fragile settings to upper-middle-income economies. It supports investments and policy reforms to improve the delivery of education services, including through multisectoral approaches, public-private partnerships, and results-based financing.
• At the global level, the Education GP contributes to global public goods in education and taps into cutting-edge global knowledge and partnerships to ensure that the Bank’s regional and country projects, policy advice, and knowledge products reflect innovative solutions for the delivery of education services.
• The Education GP is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the practice, together with the Regional Directors who oversee the human development program in the regions, working with the nine practice managers for regional education units and the practice manager for the Global Engagement and Knowledge Unit (GEAK).

Global Engagement and Knowledge (GEAK) Unit

• At the global level, GEAK (a) contributes to global knowledge products and know-how across key strategic areas and priorities (including early childhood development, teachers, curriculum and learning materials, student assessment, skills development, management capacity and service delivery, education finance, and education technology) and help ensure that the EDU GP’s global, regional, and country-based products, operations, and analytical activities reflect this global knowledge; (b) facilitates global (cross-regional and cross-country) knowledge exchange through thematic groups; (c) support contributes to capacity development; and (d) develops and manages strategic partnerships (including the management of several Umbrella Trust Funds). 
• The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) Trust Fund. The ELP sits within the GEAK and supports early childhood work across the World Bank’s Human Development sectors, including education, social protection and jobs and health, nutrition, and population. It was established in 2015 as a multi-donor trust fund to support WBG teams and countries in developing programs, policies, and research to improve early childhood development (ECD) around the world.
• ELP works with governments, partners, and World Bank teams to increase demand for ECD and improve quality at the global and country level.  At the country level, ELP invites World Bank teams to apply through a competitive grants process for funding to support analytical work, evaluations, project preparation or project implementation.  These early seed investments improve the quality of ECD work and can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity, and generate global public goods. The ELP operating model leverages the World Bank’s strengths to deliver results for young children around the world. Funding and support from ELP has helped to incubate several distinct new work programs and initiatives, including Read@Home, Invest in Childcare, ECD Measurement and work on ECD in fragile and conflict settings.

The ELP model has evolved over the years and now includes four related streams of work:

• High-value global analytical work
• Catalytic country grants to build the ECD pipeline and improve portfolio quality
• Capacity building (internal and external) (including the ECD Policy Academy and Early Years Fellowship).
• Partnerships and communications

The selected candidate will be based in Washington DC and report to the Practice Manager for GEAK. S/he will work on the ECD work program, both independently and as part of other task teams working on ECD-related works.  

Duties and Accountabilities

The selected candidate is expected to work on a mix of policy, research, knowledge, and operational tasks.  As a member of the ECD team, the s/he will be responsible for a range of tasks, including but not limited to the following:

Early Childhood Policy Academy and other capacity building efforts, including Early Years Fellowship 

• Manage the delivery of the second cohort of Policymakers, including the process of engaging with World Bank Task Teams and client delegations.
• Ensure smooth delivery and logistics, including online delivery platforms, language resources and translation, management of external vendors, etc.
• Manage team to deliver Early Childhood Policy Academy work, including: manage consultants, liaise with and bring in technical experts (internal and external) as needed,   develop and provide feedback on program planning and outputs
• Coordinate the professional development program for the third cohort of the Early Years Fellows and any future cohorts, which includes both virtual and face-to-face engagements as well as internal professional development opportunities related to the World Bank and external opportunities.  Support program implementation, including regular check-ins with Fellows and serving as the focal point for Supervisors.
• Lead the development of self-paced courses for the Early Childhood Policy Academy
• Develop communications products on Early Childhood Policy Academy and other capacity building efforts, including documenting successes and lessons learned, contribute to donor reporting, and develop case studies and blogs.

ELP Catalytic Country Grants Program and ELP Program Management 

• Support the management of the ELP grants portfolio, including monitoring, engaging with task teams, and reporting and capturing impact.
• Support Advisory Group and donor engagement, including new fundraising efforts and partnership formation.
• Support the launch and management of new thematic funding rounds as needed, including application review process and establishment of new child grants.

Support to specific early childhood work programs (likely Invest in Childcare and Read@Home 

• Contribute to developing global public goods and tools for task teams.
• Participate as a core team member of Invest in Childcare and Read@Home
• Provide advice and just-in-time technical assistance to task teams, as needed on childcare and Read@Home
• Serve as liaison between capacity building efforts (ECE Policy Academy and Early Years Fellowship) and the Invest in Childcare team.

Other ECD-related Analytical and Operational Tasks, including support to regional ECD work 

• Prepare just-in-time reports and contribute to writing projects and technical briefs related to the ECD program to support the Education GP, as required.
• Provide technical and operational support for World Bank education team teams on ECD- related analytical and operational work.
• Participate in review meetings and represent the ECD team in relevant Bank-wide initiatives and other duties and tasks as specified by the Practice Manager and ECD Thematic co-leads.
• Engage with key external ECD stakeholders, including global and regional ECD networks and potential future funders for the ELP TF.

Selection Criteria

• Education: a minimum qualification of a Master’s Degree in education, child development, international development or related fields.
• Experience: a minimum of 8 years of relevant international experience, including specific experience working on ECD.
• Knowledge: Strong, holistic understanding of ECD from both the theoretical and practical side, with demonstrated ability to operationalize knowledge of child development.
• Proven experience in design and implementation of professional development activities, including curricular design, training facilitation, and/or adult learning.
• Proven experience in monitoring and evaluation design and implementation.
• Demonstrated project management experience, including managing a competitive grants process.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English and at least one other language.
• Familiarity with World Bank operations, including preparation and implementation support for projects.
• Knowledge in Bank operational policies and systems and Trust Fund policies.
• Ability to work as part of a team and independently to produce high-quality outputs under tight time constraints.
• Experience working with the World Bank and/or working or living in LMIC.
• Ability to juggle numerous competing demands and priorities, respond quickly to management requests and set priorities for self and others.
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and independently, seeking guidance on complex projects/issues from senior staff.
• Outstanding interpersonal and organizational skills, client-orientation, diplomatic skills, mature judgment, ability to collaborate with others in a multi-cultural environment, capacity to manage multiple tasks, identify and respond to needs as they arise, and remain flexible and self-motivated in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment.
• Willingness to travel.

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=27958&site=1