Environmental Specialist

Established in 1944, the World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It uses financial resources and experience to help our client countries to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve quality of life. To ensure that countries can access the best global expertise and help generate innovative knowledge, the World Bank Group is constantly seeking to improve the way it works. Key priorities include delivering measurable results, promoting openness and transparency in development, and improving access to development information and data. Innovation and partnership bond the five institutions of the World Bank Group (WBG): the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). 

• The World Bank is organized into seven client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, several corporate functions and thirteen Global Practices to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients.
• The Environment and Natural Resources and Blue Economy (ENB) Global Practice (GP): Sustainable management of the environment and natural resources, including support to the blue economy, is led by ENB, critical to achieving the World Bank Group (WBG) mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet. Natural resources and biodiversity often constitute the social safety net of the poor, supporting food security, and often their only source of livelihood. The World Bank promotes green, clean, and resilient development where natural resources–from forests to fisheries, freshwater, oceans, coastal zones and ecosystems–are managed to support livelihoods, strong economies, and a world better prepared for shocks and global challenges. The ENB GP has been established to deliver on the opportunities, benefits and outcomes offered by enhanced management of the environment and natural resources. One specific ENB GP responsibility is to support effective environmental risk management, and to ensure good environmental management across the Bank’s work in part through the implementation of the Bank’s environmental policies and its Environmental and Social Framework.
• The ENB GP team is also leading analytical work, policy dialogue, and lending operations in a range of areas such as pollution and waste management, air quality improvement, integrated coastal zone management,  biodiversity as well as forest and fisheries management.
• In 2016, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) that applies to all Investment Policy Financing (IPF) projects initiated after October 1, 2018. The ESF aims to protect people and the environment from potential adverse impacts that could arise from Bank-financed projects.
• The ESF responds to development demands and challenges that have arisen over time.  It brings the World Bank’s environmental and social (E&S) protections into closer harmony with those of other development institutions, and makes important advances in areas such as transparency, non-discrimination, social inclusion, public participation, and accountability – including expanded roles for grievance redress mechanisms. The framework helps to ensure social inclusion, and explicitly references human rights in the overarching vision statement.
• The ENB GP in South Asia is seeking to recruit an Environmental Specialist for its Islamabad Office with expertise and solid experience on environmental and social risk assessment and management of various types of projects including assessment and management of risks and impacts of large infrastructure.  The primary responsibilities for the position are listed below.
• The Environmental Specialist will report to the ENB Practice Manager responsible for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan , based in Washington DC and, as a member of the Pakistan ENB team, will work closely with the Regional Safeguards Coordinator for SAR, to provide support on safeguards/ESF and technical assistance to World Bank-financed operations.

Duties and Accountabilities:

As a member of the ENB Team in Pakistan and Washington DC collaborate closely with the Social Sustainability and Inclusion GP in Pakistan, Task Teams, other Global Practices and the Pakistan Country Management Unit to provide advisory and hands on support to projects as well as in conducting due diligence of projects to ensure World Bank ESF requirements are met.

• Support clients and Task Teams on the assessment and management of environmental risks and impacts of the development projects in accordance to the WB safeguards and the ESF.
• Provide timely advise and inputs on environmental issues in various projects at different stages of project cycle and in various ESF-related documentation.
• Assist clients and teams for a timely and proper disclosure of the ES instruments.
• Monitor, assess and manage environmental risks and impacts during project implementation to ensure timely, efficient, and effective implementation of environmental management measures and work with clients to improve environmental performance and address non-compliances.
• Assist in planning and implementing client capacity building initiatives by supporting preparation of capacity development plans and delivery of training in line with the client capacity support and development plan for Pakistan.
• Contribute to the further development of country specific ESS related guidance and technical support materials, such as guidelines, knowledge materials as applicable, including developing methodologies and training materials for task teams and borrowers.
• Support environmental analytics such as Overview Assessment to assess the country ES framework and gap assessments.
• Support dissemination of lessons learned and best practices from specific Bank projects/activities for research, knowledge and learning purposes.
• Support other World Bank-financed operations such as Programs for Results and Development Policy Financing to ensure that environmental requirements, including conduct of Environmental and Social Systems Assessment and Environmental Analysis, respectively, are carried out in a timely manner and meeting WB quality standards.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s degree in environmental science or engineering, or other relevant disciplines.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience of proven, relevant experience as environmental assessment and management professional. Experience on occupational health and safety in developing countries would be an advantage.
• Sound knowledge of World Bank’s safeguards policies, the ESF, and/or IFC Performance Standards/MIGA Environmental and Social policies or similar standards as well as its stakeholders, especially the challenges and opportunities for borrowing countries is needed.
• Field experience in both assessing project site vulnerabilities/risks, as well as supervising/ inspecting/monitoring projects during implementation to mitigate and monitor environmental impacts is required.
• Excellent inter-personal and team leadership skills and ability to easily interact with people of different backgrounds and seniority inside and outside the World Bank, including clients and partners.
• Experience in collaborating with a broad range of stakeholders, including project-affected parties, government officials, non-governmental organizations/civil society, as well as project investors and their staff.
• Track record of working as a member of multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams, with experience in motivating and leading group efforts and network effectively across boundaries.
• Excellent writing and communication skills in both English and Urdu are required. Knowledge of other languages will be an advantage.
• A drive for results while working with limited supervision and under tight timelines.

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=28248&site=1