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 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development . Background The World Bank's engagement across the Southern African countries on Private sector development has expanded significantly, spanning country-level operations and a growing regional agenda. In South Africa, this includes the Growth and Jobs report, the Critical Minerals work program and the City Business Optimization program. Across the rest of SACU, it covers the green industrialization project in Namibia, DPOs in Botswana and Eswatini, and the new Jobs4All IPF in Eswatini. At the regional level, the Regional Jobs and Transformation PASA II and the new PASA for the RISE initiative provide platforms for deeper engagement on trade, regional integration, growth and jobs. Critical minerals are emerging as a common thread across this portfolio. South Africa's Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy prioritizes local beneficiation and regional value chains, while Botswana and Namibia are expanding copper and lithium production respectively and seeking to capture more value domestically. Because SACU members share a customs union, common external tariff and closely linked infrastructure, there is a strong case for a regional approach: pooling processing capacity, coordinating investment and trade policy, and leveraging South Africa's industrial base alongside the resource endowments of its neighbors. This work also connects directly to the growth and jobs agenda, as value addition in critical minerals depends on the same energy, logistics and regulatory reforms identified as binding constraints to growth across the region. To support this agenda, we are seeking an economist based in South Africa to work across all SACU countries. The role will contribute to analytics, policy dialogue and operational support, helping to build coherence between country programs and the regional agenda, and ensuring that insights from South Africa's more advanced policy framework inform work in neighboring countries. Being based in Pretoria will allow close engagement with government counterparts, the private sector and development partners.

Duties and Accountabilities

Reporting to the EAEF2 Practice Manager, and under the supervision of the FCI PSD country lead in Pretoria, the candidate will primarily focus on analytical support to delivery FCI work program on private sector development and competitiveness. The Private Sector Specialist (PSS)/ET will thus be proficient in World Bank advisory services and analytics (ASAs) projects. The PSS/ET will also have the technical breadth to contribute to the knowledge generation and policy dialogue on a broad array of private sector sub-themes. This is particularly important relating to firms and innovation, competition, contestable markets and business environment, investment promotion and global value chain linkages, and trade integration and facilitation in key manufacturing and services sectors. The PSS/ET will have demonstrated prior experience interacting with high level officials in government, the donor community, and the private sector. As a member of the South Africa FCI team, the ET/ PSS will contribute to the FCI program working closely with the CMU team of South Africa and colleagues in FCI GP, other GPs. Specifically, the candidate will be expected to:

• Policy dialogue : Contribute to the policy dialogue on private sector development and support the implementation of ongoing FCI analytical and advisory services work with a focus on strong country outcomes. This would be done in close coordination with FCI team colleagues, IFC, other Global Practices, and the CMU, and with guidance from the Practice manager.
• Client relations : Help the FCI team to maintain strong strategic relationships with country clientsin the region and the CMU and contribute to building the FCI engagement further in line with the sectoral and country priorities.
• Support to lending operations: Support the World Bank FCI team on preparation and implementation of lending operations: prepare workplans, prepare missions, support the client on the implementation of the activities and applications of World Bank standards, prepare the implementation and support mission reports, mobilize relevant technical assistance to respond to client’s concerns and address any implementation issues. Those tasks will be done under the supervision of the task team leaders for the relevant lending operations.
• Analytical support : Support the development and implementation of high-quality analytical and advisory services, in coordination with the FCI experts. Manage a variety of written products and communications, including components of major reports, as well as other technical working papers for wider circulation. These may be delivered as stand-alone or as inputs to larger World Bank Group products such as global or regional flagship publications, other regional studies, country reports and sector strategies. Support preparation and delivery of policy dissemination events with policy makers, stakeholders and private sector. Where applicable, develop technical assistance projects to follow on the analytics and support lending.
• Support to Trust Fund implementation : Support implementation of Donor-funded programs and support coordination of implementation activities with donors and country stakeholder. Support the partnership with the donor community and facilitate/participate in formal and informal meetings with key development partners, civil society and other stakeholders.
• Communication : Produce technical notes, briefings, presentations, etc. as requested by FCI colleagues and management. Provide written contributions for internal and external communications.
• Knowledge Management, and Teamwork : Promote synergies across product teams, providing support through trouble shooting, anticipating problems and solving them. Facilitate learning across projects, regions and best practices. Develop effective coordination mechanisms internally with the various Global Practices and externally with development partners and with IFC and contribute on behalf of FCI to activities/projects led by other GPs/units.