Senior Environmental Economist

The Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice (ENB GP) is located within the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Practice Group. We provide expertise, technical assistance and financing to help low- and middle-income countries manage land, sea and freshwater natural resources in a sustainable way to help create jobs, improve livelihoods, enhance ecosystem services, decrease pollution and increase resilience to climate change! Over 360 ENB staff working across the globe help set developing countries on a clean, green growth trajectory for resilient economies and healthy communities.

ENB has five key business lines consisting of lending and non-lending services in (1) Forests, Landscapes and Biodiversity; (2) Blue Economy; (3) Pollution Management, Environmental Health and Circular Economy; (4) Environmental Economics, Policies and Institutions; and (5) Environmental Risk Management. 

ENB has three broad and distinct functions:

• Provide clients with lending and non-lending services aimed to support the GP’s key business lines
• Support effective environmental risk management and sustainability by managing risk at the project level and creating opportunities to advance sustainable development, in part through the implementation of the World Bank’s environmental risk management policies; and
• Work closely with other sectors to mainstream environmental considerations into their policies, strategies, and operations.
• The SEAE1 unit, covers three country units (China & Mongolia, Indonesia & Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea & Pacific Islands). We are one of two ENB units in the East Asia and Pacific Region (EAP) and comprise around 40 staff, with 70 percent based in Country Offices. The rest of the team is based in Washington DC. This locally recruited position would be based in the Sydney, Australia office, working as part of the Papua New Guinea and Pacific Island ENB team.

Country Context

The World Bank member countries of the Pacific Region are the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Five of these countries are considered to be fragile states. The World Bank’s existing portfolio in the Pacific is about 95 projects with a value of US$3.0 billion. New lending is about 14 projects in FY24 with a value of US$428 million. The portfolio is heavily focused on infrastructure development, particularly ports, roads, hydropower, solar power, coastal reinforcement; human resource development, particularly health and education; and natural resource management in such areas as fisheries, forestry and climate change. This candidate would work on the natural resources management and climate agendas. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• The World Bank Group (WBG) is seeking to recruit a Senior Environmental Economist to support the growing environment, natural resources and blue economy engagement in the Pacific. The position would report to the ENB Practice Manager, based in Washington, working closely with the Country ENB Focal Point based in Sydney, in close collaboration with the Pacific ENB team.
• You will work on project, analytical studies and advisory services in a range of Pacific nations. You will support government counterparts on activities, policies, and capacity development to understand the value of and management options for fisheries and coastal/aquatic habitat management, strengthened coastal resilience, aquatic pollution control, and to better manage marine resources such as mangroves.
• Your program would focus primarily on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, but you would provide some economics support to environment and natural resource programs across other countries in East Asia and the Pacific. The work program will be primarily be focused on economic analysis and policy advisory work, with some project operational responsibilities.

Analytical Work Program

• You would be a World Bank thought leader on environment and natural resource economics. In addition to remaining current on the latest developments in the field, you would apply economics tools to help solve real-world challenges in the areas of Natural Capital Accounting, forestry and land management, biodiversity conservation, and restoration of degraded landscapes, fisheries management and blue economy, pollution management, and climate change. We need the selected candidate to lead/co-lead studies and/or components of studies on selected economics issues key to solving practical problems in the areas listed above. You would also help communicate these findings verbally and in writing, including policy dialogue with key counterparts.

Technical Advisory Work

• The role involves providing technical advice on economics-related challenges of concern to government clients at all levels. This will include technical review of analytical work carried out by other teams in the Bank, economics advice to lending operations managed by the World Bank, particularly on fisheries and blue economy development, forestry and land management, protected areas management, landscapes restoration and conservation, pollution management and the economic impacts/tools for climate change and ecosystem loss, including carbon pricing.

Operational Work Program

• You would be contributing to and/or leading projects, and related policy dialog with key partners, coordinating with other partners, based on strong sectoral analysis. Areas of focus could include fisheries management, climate change, forestry and land restoration, biodiversity conservation/protected areas management, tourism and broader blue economy, working across a range of lending instruments.

Knowledge Management

• The selected candidate will be actively involved with relevant internal and external communities of practice and partner groups, including NGOs, academia, civil society, the private sector as well as specialized international organizations. Active participation in knowledge sharing for a would be a key element of the position.
• Coordinate and carry out other tasks as requested by the relevant Manager such as for example, contribute to the organization of training or knowledge sharing events.

Selection Criteria

• MSc. or Ph.D. in Economics, Applied Economics, Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Finance or related field is the minimum requirement. There is a strong preference for candidates holding a PhD.
• Minimum of 8 years of full-time relevant professional experience post-Master’s Degree on research or applied work as an economist on environmental issues (time in a Ph.D. program counts toward this professional experience).
• Rigorous quantitative training in economics, econometrics or quantitative economic modeling is required.
• Candidates with microeconomics training focus on environmental management problems or macroeconomics and fiscal management training focused on environment and natural resources policy are encouraged to apply.
• Demonstrated experience in successfully engaging with developing country governments on policy options is required.
• Excellent in English communication skills is required (writing, speaking, listening and reading).
• Proven collaboration skills and successful experience working with multi-disciplinary teams.
• A strong sense of teamwork and ability to work independently with limited supervision.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Willingness to travel extensively, including to remote rural areas.
• Applicants must have the right to live and work in Australia

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=27980&site=1