We need the best and brightest talent focused on Sub-Saharan African countries in order to harness the potential and innovation happening across the continent. Africa is a continent on the move, with a young population and a growing market of nearly 1.2bn people. We are committed to making the Africa regional teams into leading innovation hubs.

Yet, these vast opportunities are tempered by persistent gaps in education, health, and skills, constraining Africa to only reaching forty percent of its estimated potential. This is further exacerbated by conflict, food insecurity, rapid population growth, and the disruptive forces of climate change, threatening to curtail or even reverse the progress that has been achieved over the past decades.

In West and Central Africa, the World Bank is a leading partner with a growing portfolio of 387 projects totaling more than $44.1 billion in areas such as agriculture, trade and transport, energy, education, health, water and sanitation, all to support job creation, gender equality, poverty reduction, and better lives. Across the continent, the World Bank program has nearly doubled over the last 10 years. By 2030, it is estimated that about 87% of the world’s extreme poor are projected to live in Sub-Saharan Africa, so this is where our mission to end extreme poverty and to promote shared prosperity will be achieved.

Western and Central Africa (AFW) Region:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/western-and-central-africa

Overview of Unit

The World Bank Transport Practice in the Africa Region has a large and diverse portfolio of about 54 projects under implementation, with an aggregate value of about US$ 8.9 billion. This portfolio is increasing by 10 projects per year, with a slightly smaller number closing over the same period. The record replenishment for IDA20, together with the greater focus on fragile states, gender equality, transformational projects, greater private sector participation, and climate change, is leading to a further increase in both the diversity and scale of the portfolio. IDA 21 starting in July 2025 is likely to bring similar amounts of resources. The Transport Practice is split between four geographical Units covering: (a) Francophone and Lusophone West Africa and The Gambia, (b) East Africa, (c) Southern Africa, and (d) Central Africa, and English speaking West Africa except The Gambia.

In the Francophone and Lusophone West Africa and Gambia Transport Unit (IAWT4), the World Bank serves 13 client countries, ranging from lower middle-income countries such as Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire with high demand for Transport infrastructure and services, to fragile and low-income IDA countries such as Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Areas of particular interest for the Transport sector in these countries include i) Rural Transport for agricultural productivity; ii) Urban Mobility to improve the efficiency of urban areas, including the improvement of accessibility to jobs and social services for the poorer segments of the population; iii) regional integration , transit and trade facilitation and reduction of logistics costs; iv) investments in ports, railway, and air transport, for improving connectivity within and across countries; iv) PPPs to bring in efficiencies in the provision of Transport and Logistics infrastructure and services; and v) Road Safety interventions to reduce the high number of traffic fatalities in the client countries.

About the Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP)

The Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) is an international partnership to facilitate policy development and related capacity building in the transport sector in Africa. It comprises 43 countries in Northern, Eastern, Southern, West and Central Africa, eight Regional Economic Communities, public and private sector organizations, and international development agencies and organizations. Since its inception in 1987, SSATP plays a key role as a convener and leader in transport policy advocacy, serving as continental platform for sector policy dialogue, knowledge exchange and capacity building. SSATP’s mission is fully aligned with continental, specifically the Africa Union Commission’s (AUC) continental vision-Agenda 2063, the G20’s Quality Infrastructure Principles, and the European Commission’s Green Deal.

SSATP operates in five-year cycles and responding to the emerging transport policy issues pertaining to each period.   SSATP is currently in the process of implementing its Fourth Development Plan (DP4, 2021-2026), The development objective of the DP4 is to prepare knowledge products and undertake capacity building activities to facilitate the decarbonization of the transport sector in Africa by focusing on three priority thematic areas: (i) Regional Connectivity and Economic Integration (RCEI), (ii) Sustainable Urban Mobility and Accessibility (SUMA), and (ii) Road Safety (RS). A fourth thematic area, Resilient Road Asset Management (RRAM), is included in DP4 under an arrangement by which the SSATP team provides technical oversight to  a large contract with a firm directly funded by the European Commission. SSATP activities cover the whole Africa region. i. Its staff are located mostly in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and Paris, France and mapped to the West/Central  AfricaTransport Global Practice.

SSATP is financed by development partners’ contributions to a trust fund administered by the World Bank. The following partners are supporting the SSATP Fourth Development Plan (DP4) for the period 2021-2026: the European Commission, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the African Development Bank. Further information about SSATP is available on the SSATP website at: www.ssatp.org

We are looking for a dynamic Program Manager passionate about transport policies in Africa, who will be able to link analytical results to actionable policy recommendations and use the SSATP’s vast network to build consensus on the best ways to maximize the continent’s transport sector potential.

Duties and Responsibilities

The position will report to the practice manager, IAWT4, where the program management of the SSATP is located.

The Program Manager for the SSATP is accountable for performing the responsibilities, modeling the behaviors and maintaining the technical competencies of the program in his capacity. Accountability means being answerable for managing quality, risks, results, and compliance with Bank policies and procedures.

The program manager will  lead the key activities of the program which include  (i) identification of a yearly work program that is well aligned with the SSATP Development Plan's strategic objectives; (ii) Lead the overall policy dialogue and advocacy on transport sector decarbonization and digitalization; (iii) provide guidance to the SSATP Pillar Leads and keep the implementation of the activities under each pillar focused on strategic objectives.  analytics, technical assistance in a few countries, capacity building through high level training, support to continental professional associations in Urban mobility and road safety.

The program manager will need to report on activities to the executive committee which is chaired by the African Union and includes UNECA, the European Commission, SECO, AfDB, a representative of Regional economic communities and a representative of member countries (currently Benin).

More specifically, the program manager will be responsible for:

Technical Management Responsibilities

People/ Talent Management responsibilities

• Leads, supervises and motivates the team with a focus on client orientation, development outcomes, strong coordination with other partners and within the Bank with the global unit of the transport practice. Good at problem solving and takes responsibility for achieving and communicating these outcomes with operational staff, technical staff, and country management. 

Resource Management Responsibilities

• Ensures that deployment of Bank's resources is consistent with Resource Management rules, policies and internal controls requirements.

• Sets priorities and allocates budget within and across pillars, in line with iDP4 priorities and a view to maximizing the impact and value-added of the Program.