E T Consultant

At the World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group (WBG), you’ll join a diverse, global community working across cultures, disciplines, and borders to address the world’s most pressing development challenges. With 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the decade ahead, the challenge of job creation has never been greater. Through partnerships across 145 countries and more than 182 offices worldwide, we work with governments, private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to invest in people, strengthen markets, and deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that generate more and better jobs and improve lives. For more information, visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/who-we-are/ibrd The South Asia Region The South Asia Region (SAR) comprises six countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) that range in size from India (with a population of over 1 billion) to Maldives (with 0.3 million people). The region has experienced a long period of robust economic growth, averaging 6% a year over the past 20 years. This strong growth has translated into reducing extreme poverty and strong improvements in human development. At the same time, the region remains home to one-third of the world’s poorest, and persistent structural challenges threaten to undermine sustained growth, hindering the region’s ability to create jobs and respond to climate shocks. The South Asia Region: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar Digital and AI Vice Presidency Digital technologies offer a unique opportunity to transform development through digital solutions. The Digital and AI Vice Presidency and its global and regional teams will support client countries in building the foundational and cross-cutting elements of digital transformation through:

• Building broadband connectivity infrastructure, last mile access and data platforms (including last mile connectivity and data infrastructure)
• Strengthening digital public infrastructure (DPI), including digital ID, data sharing, verifiable credentials, and digitalizing government services that improve accountability and transparency
• Protecting institutions, businesses, and citizens through cybersecurity and data protection privacy
• Developing ICT sectors and supporting digital entrepreneurship, skills, and jobs
• Enabling AI-ready economies by supporting governments in building the policy, regulatory, data, and infrastructure foundations needed to harness AI responsibly and at scale
• Supporting the Vice presidencies of People, Prosperity, Planet, and Infrastructure in the digitalization efforts of their clients, and in leveraging digital solutions, including building client sectoral digital capacity, defining and implementing sectoral specific AI strategies, and designing AI-powered solutions
• Coordinating the operationalization of the WBG Digital Strategy as well as cross-GP efforts of achieving the new Corporate Scorecard digital indicators. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/digital The Opportunity The World Bank Group’s (WBG) engagement on digital development is rapidly growing in the South Asia region (SAR) in response to increased client demand for knowledge, technical assistance, and financing. The overall SAR Digital agenda aims to enhance the speed, scale, and impact of the WBG’s support to enable countries to make the most of digital opportunities and address emerging challenges in an effective and agile manner. In Sri Lanka, the digitalization of public services and strengthening the country’s digital public infrastructure have been identified as a priority for enhanced governance and accountability. The country’s IT sector is also an important driver of growth, economic diversification, and job creation. The World Bank is supporting the Government of Sri Lanka to deliver on its ambitious digital transformation agenda through technical assistance and through an active lending operation, the Sri Lanka Digital Transformation Project (P508317). The Digital and AI SAR Unit (DSADU) is looking for a Senior Digital Specialist under an Extended Term Consultant (ETC) contract to be based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The ETC will report to the South Asia Regional Practice Manager for Digital AI and work as a team with the Task Team Leader(s) for the Sri Lanka Digital Transformation Project (based in Colombo and Washington DC), as well as with WBG colleagues from other VPUs engaged and with DSADU team members based globally. More specifically, the roles and responsibilities are to:
• Support client engagement and project implementation and supervision in Sri Lanka, with a focus on enhancing procurement readiness and accelerating the delivery of key project-financed activities.
• Contribute to the drafting and finalization of analytical documents, Terms of Reference, procurement-related inputs, and other ad-hoc operation-related documents in close interaction with the World Bank TTLs and the Project Implementation Unit.
• Advise clients on strategies, best practices, and design of programs to enable digital transformation and boost the digital economy. This may include participating in technical assistance activities and providing just-in-time technical and strategic expertise on the design of the overall policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks for the digital and AI agenda, strengthening government capacity on digital transformation, and advancing adoption of digital platforms across government.
• Liaise and provide guidance to colleagues working in other sectors (including agriculture, health, education, tourism, financial services, etc.) on how to leverage digital technologies and AI to improve public service delivery and efficiency in the respective sectors and to stimulate digital innovation, entrepreneurship and investment in those sectors by private sector actors.
• Support the conceptualization and initial deployment of relevant pilots and emerging solutions under the @A Billion digital strategy and WBG corporate priority initiatives in Sri Lanka, including Digital-Agriculture engagements under AgriConnect and strengthening cybersecurity readiness across the financial and digital sector under the AI-Accelerated Cyber Risk Initiative.
• Support policy dialogue with senior government officials and coordination on digital transformation across relevant government agencies and development partners.
• Organize in-country and regional knowledge and convening activities, including high-level events, side-events, and peer-learning exchanges, including coordination with regional partners.
• Represent the Digital and AI Unit at digital transformation and AI-related fora and events in Sri Lanka and serve as liaison with select external partners.