Senior Port Economist

 

Description

 

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank consists of two entities – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). It is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries. As the largest development bank in the world, the World Bank provides loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, and coordinates responses to regional and global challenges. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org.

Infrastructure Practice Group

Globally, 840 million people live more than 2 kilometers from all-weather roads, 1 billion people lack electricity, and 3 billion people lack Internet access. Access to basic infrastructure services is critical for creating economic opportunities for the poor. The Infrastructure (INF) Practice Group within the World Bank is charged with developing sustainable solutions to help close infrastructure gaps in developing and emerging economies. The INF Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) currently consists of four global practices (GPs): Energy & Extractives (EEX), Transport, Digital Development (DD) and Infrastructure Finance, PPPs and Guarantees (IPG).

The Transport Global Knowledge Unit

The Transport Global Knowledge and Expertise Unit (ITRGK) was established in 2020 to serve as the global unit for the World Bank’s Transport Global Practice (GP) with a view to bring global knowledge, good practices and lessons learned in the design of country and regional transport operations and policies. The Global Unit systematically engages with international partners to both develop partnerships for frontier-knowledge generation but also position the Bank in key global dialogues about transport interventions vis-à-vis climate action, food security, private capital mobilization, adoption of emerging technologies, fragility, and inclusion to services, development opportunities and markets.

In addition to supporting the Regional Transport Units in one of the highest lending practices in the World Bank, ITRGK also takes leadership on key corporate priorities, and implementation of the knowledge compact for the Transport Global Practice.

ITRGK comprises global leads for the WB-wide transport knowledge groups, several technical staff specialized in each of the transport sub-sectors (urban transport, logistics, railways, maritime, air transport,) as well as specialists in cross-cutting transport policy topics such as economics, funding and financing, regulation, and digitalization. The global leads and experts are engaged in both global work and providing cross-support to regional transport operations. The unit houses the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), Global Facility to Decarbonize Transport (GFDT, Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All).

The work of ITRGK is organized around five buckets as follows.

• Climate and Clean Air. ITRGK supports knowledge and operations to accelerate transport decarbonization to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. An important co-benefit of achieving this objective is improving air quality. ITRGK supports a comprehensive approach to transport decarbonization following the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach. ITRGK also seeks to develop in-house modeling capabilities to support climate corporate mandates (climate co-benefit tracking, project alignment with Paris Agreement, GHG accounting) and the Climate Change and Development Reports (CCDRs).

• Resilience, Adaptation and Fragility. ITRGK supports activities, knowledge, and policies to improve asset management practices and increase the adaptative and resilient capacity of transport systems to withstand exogenous shocks such as climate-related and natural disasters, pandemics, and minimize disruptions to economies and adverse impacts on people and their well-being. ITRGK promotes sound technology-supported and data-driven asset management practices to create resilient economies and efficient, reliable and financially sound supply chains. 

• Logistics, Food Security and Regional Integration. ITRGK support knowledge and operations to enhance countries integration to regional and global value chains and integration of lagging and landlocked regions through effective and reliable connectivity infrastructure and efficient logistics. The agenda includes support to regional operational teams to improve connectivity and logistics networks, enhance the impact of transport corridors on promoting growth through competitiveness and stimulating wider economic development, and more broadly, supporting the multimodal agenda including the expansion and improvement of railways, airports, ports, waterways and highways and roads.

• Inclusion. ITRGK promotes inclusive and sustainable mobility and interventions to overcome barriers to enable access to jobs, markets, health care, schools, services, and other opportunities. Among the goals of inclusive and sustainable mobility is to connect all people and communities to economic and social opportunities, considering the needs of different groups, including the poor, those in vulnerable situations, women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, across geographical locations. Limited access to transport in rural and urban areas are key barriers to eradicating poverty while promoting property and sustainable economic development. ITRGK support the tracking of the rural and transport access indicators as part of the World Bank Group’s Corporate Score Card.

• Road Safety. The Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) provides knowledge and technical support to aimed at achieving sustainable reduction in crash-related fatalities and serious injuries. The GRSF produces knowledge products, appraisal tools, and offers continuous training and support to regional staff to implement the Transport GP’s strategy for road safety.

Along with the thematic program activities grouped on the above five buckets, ITRGK also has robust work program for mobilizing private capital and climate finance, in transport promoting transformative technologies in transport, and conducting economic research and policy analysis on transport.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

ITRGK is looking for a Senior Port Specialist, with demonstrated experience in developing countries, to be based in Washington, DC. The Senior Maritime and Trade Logistics Economist will report to the ITRGK Global Practice Manager.

Under the guidance of the Global Practice Manager, the selected candidate will lead global engagement in maritime and trade logistics, support regional teams, and co-lead the knowledge group on regional connectivity and logistics.

Specifically, ITGRK is seeking for a candidate with practical experience and strong interest in port development and privatization, maritime transport, trade logistics, digitalization and cybersecurity and/or decarbonization/greening the sector, to contribute to a dynamic and emerging research and data agenda specifically in support of programs such as the Global Advisory Services and Analytics (ASA) and Investment Lending on improving the economic performance agenda of ports, the digitalization agenda of ports, and the green agenda of ports in developing countries, as part of the Regional Connectivity and Logistics Global Solutions Group (GSG). The staff member will report, under the guidance of the respective task team leader(s), to the Practice Manager and work closely with other Transport Global Practice team members and consultants, as well as collaborating across boundaries to deliver joint projects with other units and/or external partners.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The candidate will co-lead ITRGK’s regional connectivity and logistics team, working closely with other units across the World Bank.

The responsibilities of the Port Specialist will include contributing to the ITRGK program of activities on port development and trade logistics in developing countries, with a special focus on improving economic port performance, port digitalization, trade logistics, and social and environmental practices in ports. These activities range from leading the development of project deliverables; to supervising and guiding the collection, organization, and analysis of data; reviewing draft assessments and providing internal quality assurance; drafting own research documents and external communication such talking points, management briefs or blogposts; to advancing business development for lending projects in developing countries. All tasks are to be undertaken in a highly collaborative team environment.

Specifically, the Senior Maritime and Trade Logistics Economist will be responsible amongst others for:

1.Lead or co-lead global ASA focusing on improving the economic performance agenda of ports, trade logistics, the digitalization agenda of ports, and the green agenda (i.e., climate change, environmental, social, and other relevant considerations) of ports;
2.Lead or co-lead national dialogues with stakeholders in developing countries on sustainable port development, trade logistics, and climate-smart and resilient supply chains;
3.Identify, develop, and seize business opportunities to enhance the World Bank’s lending portfolio in the field of maritime transport, with a special focus on ports, and trade logistics;
4.Develop and lead or co-lead relevant research programs in the field of global freight and logistics, with a special focus on maritime transport, by identifying, scoping out, and defining suitable research and/or investment activities;
5.Supervise and guide the collection, compilation, and processing of data and information for empirical analysis and support the production of relevant research papers by undertaking literature reviews, developing conceptual and theoretical frameworks, discussing the significance of empirical results, and providing clear policy interpretations of research findings;
6.Develop customized presentations, talking points, briefs, short notes, etc. for management, and develop relevant operational documents including project concept notes, project appraisal documents, or funding proposals;
7.Give in-person or virtual presentations on behalf of the World Bank on ports, maritime transport, and supply chains, trade logistics and actively participate in technical meetings to discuss and identify suitable solutions and approaches on a wide range of economic issues;
8.Co-shape the agenda and delivery strategy of internal and external knowledge-dissemination events such as conferences, workshops, and seminars to promote technical discussion of ITRGK work and to expose ITRGK to recent cutting-edge research in academia.

 

Selection Criteria

The position calls for highly motivated individuals who are able to work seamlessly with teams and independently completes tasks assigned to them. The successful candidates shall hold a master’s degree in a relevant discipline.  The candidates’ background and experience must show a strong specialization in port economics, trade logistics and/or maritime transport with practical experience in trade logistics, economic port performance, digitalization, and/or green ports. Professional experience in working with intergovernmental organizations and/or developing countries and proficiency in French and/or Spanish are a plus.

Other specific skills include:

• At least a master’s degree in the field of economics, engineering, or transport studies; academic teaching and research experience will be a big plus; a PhD would be desirable.
• At least fifteen years of relevant professional experience with significant exposure to logistics, shipping, and/or ports in the context of international development.
• Practical experience of having worked in an international context, ideally incl. with developing countries and international governmental organizations such as the World Bank.
• Outstanding expertise and vast experience in port economics/trade logistics/maritime sector.
• Very good understanding of efficiency challenges and opportunities ports; digitalization trends and solutions; and environmental and social sustainability, in particular as it relates to the wider field of freight, logistics and supply chain management.
• Solid understanding of the landscape of key stakeholders in freight and logistics, with a wide network of relevant professionals in the related governmental and industry bodies.
• Proven experience with complex project management (incl. proven ability to manage a wide range of diverse stakeholders, large amounts of complex information, constant in-flow of additional correspondence and competing demands).
• Proven experience with economic and policy research on freight, logistics, and supply chain management (incl. proven ability to coordinate, analyze and manage substantial amounts of information and to curate it for different audiences).
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, in particular ability to think analytically about research, policy, or investment problems and effectively conduct dialogue with and relate to clients and stakeholders.
• Proficient language skills in French and/or Spanish are a big plus.

Technical Competencies

The successful candidate will have the following areas of technical expertise:

• General Maritime and Trade Logistics Knowledge – Possesses specialized technical knowledge in the maritime transport and trade logistics field and ability to translate this knowledge for the practical benefit of clients.
• Knowledge and Experience in the Development Arena – Translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies; interacts with clients at the policy level.
• Policy Dialogue Skills – Anticipates needs and requests in the field and conducts independent policy discussions with representatives of the government and non-government partners.
• Integrative Skills – Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas how they are interrelated; able to undertake cross-sectoral work in lending and non-lending operations.
• Transport Policy, Strategy, and Institutions – Solid understanding of transport policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations as they relate to Maritime and Trade Logistics.

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.

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