Senior Social Development Specialist

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Description

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The SD practice group helps countries tackle their most complex challenges in the areas of Agriculture; Climate Change; Water; Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy (ENB); Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI); and Urban, Resilience and Land Development.
Duties and Accountabilities:
The Senior Social Development Specialist will provide high-quality operational support to task teams and client counterparts including:
Key tasks will include:

• Develop technical solutions and lead/manage the preparation and implementation of complex community and local development operations in fragile, conflict and violence context. 
• Lead and participate in project teams to develop operational designs and mechanisms including social risk management. 
• Advises task teams and counterparts on technical options for social development programs and operations, on the full range of social development topics, including social cohesion, citizen engagement, social inclusion, gender and youth, social dimensions of climate change with a particular focus on fragile regions.
• Helps the unit develop, pilot and scale Locally Led Climate Action operational approaches to enhance effectiveness and impact of Community and Local Development operations. 
• Plays a key role in implementing the Unit’s sector strategy, through advising the Practice Manager, engaging clients and supporting colleagues. 
• Supports Senior and Lead Specialists in handling complex technical, institutional and program implementation issues regarding social development at the operational level and leads the related dialogue with counterparts.
• Contributes to develop new areas of focus and operational business around social development issues, including on decentralization/community development, social dimensions of climate change, social cohesion, social inclusion, gender, youth, violence prevention in the context of fragile regions.
• Contributes to sector policy; makes recommendations on strategies and policy options for member governments.
• Participates in cross-practice teams responsible for the preparation of policy notes, Systematic Country Diagnostics, Country Partnership Frameworks, sector studies, and research and policy development activities on the full range of social development topics.
• Works independently under the general direction of the Practice Manager, seeking guidance on complex projects/issues from lead specialists; guides and mentors more junior staff.
• Leads missions and supervises Bank-financed projects as a technical expert and/or Task Team Leader; interacts with clients at the operational and policy level.
• Supervises the work of consultants and technical specialists to ensure consistency and conformity to Bank operational policies. 
• Contributes to the Unit’s analytical work; generate “think pieces” and “best practice” papers; leads the development and implementation of proposals for analytical and advisory work.
• Employs appropriate methodologies for handling simple and complex procurement tasks and/or issues.
• Contributes to knowledge sharing, dissemination and awareness raising activities with both Bank staff and clients.
• Supports and actively participate to the Bank-wide professional community of staff engaged in social development by participating in thematic groups, exchanging best practices, and drafting technical notes.

Selection Criteria:

• This is a challenging position suited for a candidate with strong operational and analytical skills who has practical experience handling complex/sensitive social development issues and can integrate social development considerations in an FCV operational context. The successful candidate should have extensive demonstrated experience in complex project settings, addressing complex operational dialogue and innovations. In addition, the specialist is expected to have social risk management experience throughout the project life cycle – from design through implementation to closure.
• Advanced university degree (Masters or PhD) in relevant social science (e.g., Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, and Political Science) or related fields.
• Demonstrated skills and experience (at least 8 years) in the following areas is required: community and local development and fragility conflict and violence context; Additionally, skills and experience in one or more of the following is desirable: climate change, social inclusion, citizen engagement, gender, youth, social risk management.
• Demonstrated skills and direct work experience with at least one or more of the following: community development, public consultations; participatory budgeting; participatory rural and urban appraisal; participatory research methods (including observation, surveys); participatory monitoring and evaluation; grievance redress mechanisms; or youth mobilization.
• Experience working in fragile and conflict-affected environments is required
• Experience in applying emerging and disruptive technologies and innovations to development engagements is highly desirable.
• Project leadership and management experience with World Bank IDA and/or IBRD lending operations or comparable project management experience with other large-scale development institutions is highly desirable. 
• Proven capacity to translate analytical work into policy advice and operational, actionable, recommendations.
• Proven capacity to work with a wide range of stakeholders, international organizations, development agencies, government counterparts, beneficiaries of Bank projects, and civil society organizations.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams and multicultural environments.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills in French and English

Source: https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?id=26008&site=1

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