Senior Health Specialist – GG  

Description

Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The WBG 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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org

Regional Context

The World Bank serves eight client countries in the South Asia Region (SAR) (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Clients range from large, rapidly growing, sophisticated middle-income countries to IDA countries, fragile, small island, and landlocked states. SAR is at a crucial stage of development. Rapid economic growth, driven by urbanization and demographic dividend, has brought down poverty rates, but severe forms of exclusion and disparities based on ethnicity, caste, and gender remain. Rapid growth has also come with congestion and pollution in cities. South Asia is affected by temperature changes and extreme weather events. Additional challenges are that South Asia is underperforming in exports, has large informal sectors, and has low female labor force participation. These challenges must be addressed to secure rapid growth in the coming decades. Private sector-led growth, focused on investments in infrastructure, energy, logistics, and cities, is essential to generate the jobs needed to employ South Asia’s sizeable youth population. At the same time, the region needs to continue building human capital so that South Asia’s population is well-equipped for the jobs of the future.  The World Bank in South Asia: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar

Human Development Practice Group (HD PG) 

The World Bank is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development, working with 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. Through the World Bank Regional Units, it is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries. 

Health, Nutrition & Population Global Practice 

The HNP GP contributes to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in which all people are effectively covered by essential health services, and nobody suffers undue financial hardship because of illnesses. The HNP GP works with and across multiple sectors, recognizing that HNP outcomes often depend on actions outside the HNP sector. The HNP GP supports country and regional efforts to (i) improve health outcomes, especially for the poor and most vulnerable; (ii) expand access to high-quality HNP services, interventions and technologies that give the most value for money; (iii) strengthen health systems for results; (iv) establish and improve health financing mechanisms that promote efficiency, equity and sustainability of investments; (v) strengthen health-relevant institutions within and outside the health sector; (vi) harness multisectoral policies and investments for better health outcomes; and (vii) develop and learn from rigorous impact evaluations. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health  

Country background

Pakistan has made limited and uneven progress in improving children’s and mothers’ nutritional and health outcomes. The 2017/18 PDHS indicates that declines in child mortality rates have been slow, with the under-5 mortality rate at 74 per 1,000 live births. The rates of change vis-à-vis child malnutrition indicators have also been nominal since 1965, with about 40 percent of children under-five years being stunted. Malnutrition is also prevalent among women of reproductive age, with 18 percent being underweight. The maternal mortality ratio is also higher than other countries in SAR. It was estimated to be 154 per 100,000 live births for 2020, and the total fertility rate remains high at 3.6. 

The suboptimal health and nutrition outcomes can be partly explained by limited and uneven utilization and inadequate quality of essential health and nutrition services. For example, coverage of selected health indicators for MCH services is improving, such as skilled birth attendance (69%) and full immunization rates (66%). Still, other indicators are stagnant, like the use of contraceptives (34%, with modern contraceptives only 24%). Significant inequity exists in health service access and utilization (e.g., ANC4+-23% in the lowest quintile vs 84% in the highest quintile PDHS2017/8). 

In Pakistan, the provincial governments finance and implement health and nutrition services, with the federal government primarily playing a coordinating and reporting role and additional direct responsibilities for the health sector in the federally administered territories. Consequently, the World Bank engages with both federal and provincial levels of government – the latter either individually or as part of a coordinated national partnership. 

The HNP portfolio in Pakistan includes four projects under implementation: the Punjab Family Planning Program, the National Health Support Program, the Balochistan Human Capital Investment Project, and the Sindh Integrated Health and Population Project. The HNP team also contributes to other lending (e.g., the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project and the Punjab Human Capital Investment Project) and analytical products.

Role & Responsibilities:

The HNP team for Pakistan includes staff in the Country Office in Islamabad, other Asian countries, and Washington, DC. To strengthen the team, the WBG is recruiting a GG-level Sr. Health Specialist with a strong nutrition background based in Islamabad. The Sr. Health Specialist will report to the HNP Practice Manager (based in Bangkok, Thailand) and will directly support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the HNP portfolio focusing on nutrition components in close collaboration with Bank task teams, interact with internal and external clients, including the government and partnerships. The Sr. Health Specialist will primarily focus on the Pakistan portfolio but could also support the activities of other countries. 

The Sr. Health Specialist will:

• Contribute to developing new HNP and multisectoral lending l, focusing on results and impact. 

• Lead internal coordination across sectors and project components and with external stakeholders for day-to-day operational support. Advise the government on technical and operational aspects of implementation with a nutrition focus.

• Lead and contribute to health and nutrition policy and technical dialogue with government counterparts at the national and sub-national levels and with other relevant stakeholders.

• Lead (or support) high-quality analytical and advisory service activities (ASAs), supporting the effective and practical dissemination of knowledge products.

• Review and contribute to sector-specific or cross-sectoral inputs for various operational products/outputs.

• Collaborate with and support the HD Program Leader, task teams, and CMU with relevant analysis, peer review, advice, and policy guidance related to all HNP issues for Pakistan.

• Initiate and contribute to technical assistance work to support relevant capacity-building activities, including workshops, seminars, etc.

• Support and contribute to stunting reduction by providing technical inputs to nutrition programming and towards achievement of concrete and sustainable results in maternal and child nutrition through World Bank operations and analytics.

Selection Criteria

The successful candidate will meet the following selection criteria:

• At least a Master’s in public health, nutrition, demographics, community medicine, health policy, health system administration, or equivalent discipline; in addition to a minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in health system strengthening, maternal and child nutrition, and health service delivery is required. Advanced degree (e.g. PhD) preferred.  

• Robust, proven operational experience in HNP is required with a strong understanding of relevant cross-sectoral areas and their interrelatedness. 

• Strong track record in leading the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of health and nutrition projects. Hands-on experience in implementing nutrition projects as part of the health sector or other sector investments is desirable.

• Track record of influencing complex policies and brokering informed consensus among institutions or stakeholders with divergent interests.

• Demonstrated ability to lead policy dialog with government officials and work collaboratively with development partners.

• Ability to build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts, development partners and civil society. 

• Ability to work well independently, handle multiple tasks, meet changing priorities, and be punctual in achieving high-quality deliverables.

• Demonstrated ability to coach and motivate team members, and function within and across teams in operational and analytical work.

• Excellent diplomatic interpersonal, problem-solving, and team skills with the ability to find balanced, pragmatic, and implementable solutions. 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, including the ability to clearly and concisely present complex issues to World Bank management, senior government representatives, and non-specialist audiences is essential.

• An advantage will be an understanding of World Bank policies and practices related to operations, advisory services and analytics, and the HNP sector.

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.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.

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