Operations Officer,
Brussels, Belgium
The World Bank
Closing date: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
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Operations Officer
| Job #: | req442 |
| Organization: | World Bank |
| Sector: | Operations |
| Grade: | GF |
| Term Duration: | 3 years 0 months |
| Recruitment Type: | Local Recruitment |
| Location: | Brussels, Belgium |
| Required Language(s): | English |
| Preferred Language(s): | French |
| Closing Date: | 9/19/2018 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC |
Description ABOUT THE WORLD BANK GROUP
Established in 1944, the World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for development solutions. In fiscal year 2013, the WBG committed $52.6 billion in loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees to its members and private businesses, of which $16.3 billion was concessional finance to its poorest members. It is governed by 188-member countries and delivers services out of 120 offices with nearly 15,000 staff located globally.
The WBG consists of five specialized institutions: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The World Bank is organized into six client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, several corporate functions, and is introducing fourteen Global Practices as well as five Cross-Cutting Solution Areas to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients
Regional Context:
The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprises 30 extremely diverse countries, with a population of nearly 500 million people. Three of our clients are IDA only and another 2 are IDA blend countries. The remaining 25 are IBRD eligible. Although 10 of our clients have joined the EU and 7 of these have graduated, most continue to remain active recipients of knowledge and/or lending services. ECA has a strong lending pipeline as well as a large and growing portfolio of Reimbursable Advisory Services. Knowledge is critical to the Bank’s value proposition to client countries in the ECA region in both lending and advisory services.
A predominantly middle- and high-income region, ECA continues to be at the forefront in confronting the numerous challenges as well addressing challenges facing in the evolving global economy. The region is at the vanguard of building regional connectivity while having to manage the changing structure of the labor market. At the same time, digital technologies are changing the nature of work, populations are aging, and large migration flows have generated social tensions that have contributed to increased political polarization. These emerging trends threaten to reverse the region’s achievements in regional integration, poverty reduction and shared prosperity. Many parts of the region continue to struggle with multiple structural weaknesses, including high public debt burdens, tight fiscal space, low investment, lack of contestable markets, and financial sector vulnerabilities.
The ECA region is also one of the most vulnerable to climate change. It has a large potential to strengthen climate change resilience and improve energy efficiency, thereby reducing its contribution to climate change. Other important challenges affecting parts of the region include frozen conflicts and domestic political instability.
In view of these challenges, the ECA regional strategy is to help countries (i) create Solid Foundations for higher productivity and resilience— macroeconomic and financial stability, effective governance and institutions, enabling the environment for the private sector-led growth, and capacity to address global public goods, especially climate change; (ii) build an environment for Productive Individuals to overcome vulnerability and achieve middle-class status—investing in maternal and child health, investing in safety nets to protect households during times of adversity, improving labor productivity and labor force participation to achieve higher incomes, fostering inclusion and engaged citizenry for shared prosperity; and (iii) Enabling Markets to achieve sustained and inclusive growth—support private sector growth, promote entrepreneurship, competition and innovation, facilitate access to new markets, foster regional economic integration, and participate in global value chains.
Unit Context:
ECCEU (or the EU CMU) is the Country Management Unit for World Bank operations in the European Union Member States. The EU CMU maintains and fosters all operational relationships with the EU member states – but with a varying level of intensity, depending on existing and potential operational programs in the respective client countries. The Regional Director oversees the program from the Brussels office, and the CMU has additional offices headed by Country Managers in Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), Warsaw (Poland) and Zagreb (Croatia), as well as a Program Manager position for Southern Europe based in Brussels; the Country Program Coordinator is based in Washington DC. Four Program Leaders based in Brussels coordinate the substantive operational program of the CMU.
The World Bank’s most active operational engagements in the EU are in Central and Eastern Europe, where the World Bank’s program has increased significantly in the past five years. Besides lending, a major, and growing, part of the program is Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) as well as Trust Funded advisory services. The key objective of many RAS services is to support better absorption of EU funds; but other RAS and Trust Fund engagements focus on key country economic challenges – ranging from work on the incidence of tax policies, to designing long-term care policies in the face of demographic pressures.
The Operations Officer will be based in Brussels and formally report to ECCEU Regional Director based there, and work in close coordination with the Country Program Coordinator based in Washington, the Senior Operations Officer based in Brussels, and Operations teams in country offices.
Roles & Responsibilities:
The primary objective of this position will be to assist in the development and delivery of the overall work program of the World Bank in the European Union Countries.
Country Program Management:
Under the overall guidance of the Regional Director, the Operations Officer will play a supporting role in program management, including: working with Government and European Commission counterparts and Bank teams to help identify specific opportunities for Bank engagement; prepare the ground for expert teams, advise them on the Country Management Unit context, and follow up on their activities; monitor portfolio and program delivery with a particular view to timeliness and quality; resolve cross-cutting and systemic issues, and promote synergies and foster collaboration across the program.
RAS (Reimbursable Advisory Services) and Trust Funds systematization and monitoring:
The Operations Officer will help to monitor and standardize programs funded by external partners, especially the European Commission – either RAS or Trust Funded activity. S/he will maintain frequent contacts with key counterparts in Brussels, provide strategic and tactical advice to task teams on the context, help ensure a proper “fit” of Bank responses to clients’ demands, and ensure substantive follow up as needed. S/he may contribute substantively to some tasks as relevant. S/he will ensure compliance with and coordination between internal procedures for trust fund management and reporting and help maintain a sound monitoring system for these tasks (in close coordination with country office Operational teams) and ensure an adequate flow of information to all relevant team members.
Business Planning and Operations:
Under the overall guidance of the Regional Director and Country Program Coordinator, the Operations Officer will provide input to the yearly business planning and budgeting process. S/he will assist the CMU and Resource Management Officer to oversee budget execution and deliverables, and provide input to Work Program Agreements. S/he will support the Regional Director in selected tasks associated with the CMU Management (e.g., organization of strategic retreats).
Reporting and Brief Preparation:
Under the supervision of the Regional Director and Country Program Coordinator, and in close cooperation with the CMU team in the Headquarters, the Operations Officer will prepare a range of key reports and management briefs on the Bank program in the European Union. In preparation of the related background information, s/he will carry out substantive research and analytical tasks on operational, country and sector issues, review/interpret information/data, and identify issues and solutions. S/he will also play a leading role in the preparation of select high-level visits to Brussels.
Selection Criteria Suitability to undertake the responsibilities mentioned at the required level:
Competencies
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