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 VPU Context: The World Bank’s Pacific department (EAPF1) covers nine countries (Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu) and is home to more fragile and conflict-affected states than any other region outside of Africa. Over the past few years, the Bank has substantially scaled-up its program and field presence in the Pacific, with a focus on initiatives that address the challenges of fragility, isolation, size and limited capacity, and create a foothold for wider development engagement with emphasis on country-specific strategies along three axes; (i) encouraging regional/global integration; (ii) building resilience against external shocks; and (iii) promoting economic reform and private sector development. The World Bank in the Pacific Islands: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/pacificislands. The central contribution of the Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice to the WBG’s twin goals is to strengthen systems, governance, and policies for health and to foster and support progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in which all people are effectively covered by essential health services, and nobody suffers undue financial hardship as a result. To achieve this, the HNP practice deploys an array of analytical and advisory services, strategic partnerships with other global institutions and financing agencies, and an active lending portfolio. Our $34 billion global health portfolio includes over 240 projects that help countries take a comprehensive approach to improving health outcomes, especially for poor and vulnerable people, by strengthening primary care and key public health functions. The HNP Global Practice includes staff members in Washington, DC and country offices. The HNP Global Practice works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that HNP outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the HNP sector. Accordingly, a capacity to work across GP boundaries, forge coalitions and influence multi-practice solutions is essential for achieving the major objectives of improving HNP outcomes. The East Asia and Pacific region remains one of the fastest growing and most dynamic regions in the world. Over the past two decades, most countries in the region have achieved strong and stable growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and transformed economies across the region. Many East Asia and Pacific countries have risen to upper-middle income status and have set the goal of reaching high-income status in the near to medium term. Because of their growing economies, vast population, and carbon intensity, EAP countries are critical to addressing global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity, air pollution, and pandemics. EAP is likely to remain an engine of global growth and clients have increasing expectations of collaboration and support from multilateral development banks. Despite significant progress, developing EAP faces challenges. With aging, rising chronic diseases, and increasing health expenditure, the demand for health care is shifting in favor of comprehensive health care encompassing prevention, and to treatment and continuous care at affordable costs. The World Bank (WB) is seeking to hire a Senior Health Specialist Extended Term Consultant (ETC) with strong project management and communication skills to support the WB health portfolio in Samoa. The primary objective is to support the implementation of the ongoing Samoa Health System Strengthening Program for Results (PforR), contribute to the preparation of the proposed follow-on health operation, and contribute to selected analytical and advisory activities under the EAP and Pacific PASA work programs. The ETC will ensure effective coordination, technical assistance, and operational support to strengthen Samoa’s health system, with a focus on noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention and management, pandemic preparedness, and institutional capacity building. Duties and accountabilities: The Senior Health Specialist will provide technical leadership, strategic advice and operational oversight for the Samoa health portfolio, working with task team leaders and relevant specialists. Principal duties and responsibilities are: 1. PforR implementation, results monitoring and completion: provide senior technical advice on implementation priorities and corrective actions; assess progress against workplans, agreed actions, disbursement-linked results and Program Action Plan measures; lead the technical review of results reports and verification evidence, identifying gaps and recommending follow-up; contribute substantive analysis to Implementation Status and Results Reports and management updates; advise task team leaders on risks requiring escalation; and guide technical inputs to completion documentation, lessons and transition planning. 2. Strategic engagement and operational coordination: lead substantive engagement with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, other Government agencies and development partners on implementation challenges and reform priorities; facilitate agreement on actions, responsibilities and follow-up; shape technical discussions, missions and field visits, ensuring clear recommendations and decision-ready briefing materials; coordinate with DFAT, New Zealand MFAT, ADB, WHO, FAO and other partners, including on Pandemic Fund-related inputs; and promote alignment and complementarity across partner-supported activities. 3. Technical leadership and multidisciplinary oversight: provide technical leadership and policy advice on NCD prevention and management, district and primary health care, referral and continuity of care, clinical supervision, digital health and Tamanu operationalization, monitoring and evaluation, and institutional strengthening. Assess technical options, implementation feasibility and service-delivery implications; guide technical assistance and review the quality of outputs. Work with Government counterparts and fiduciary, environmental and social specialists to identify and address risks involving financial management, procurement, budget execution, environmental and social actions, complaints and grievance arrangements, and health-care waste management, without substituting for specialist accountabilities or approval responsibilities. 4. Preparation of the proposed health operation: lead assigned technical workstreams for preparation of the proposed follow-on health operation, in coordination with task team leaders; advise on reform priorities, project design, results frameworks and implementation arrangements; synthesize assessments into technically sound, feasible options and substantive inputs to operational documents; and assess readiness, sustainability and risks relating to NCD management, laboratory and surveillance capacity, pandemic preparedness, digital health, workforce, infrastructure, recurrent costs, institutional capacity, and environmental and social requirements. 5. Analytical leadership and policy advice: lead assigned analytical and advisory workstreams under the EAP and Pacific PASA programs; frame policy-relevant questions and analytical approaches; guide concept notes, terms of reference, data analysis and evidence reviews; provide technical direction to consultants and review outputs for quality and relevance; and translate findings into actionable policy and operational recommendations, communicating trade-offs and implications to Government counterparts and task teams. 6. PASA work-program planning and quality assurance: advise activity leads on priorities, sequencing and links to portfolio and pipeline needs; oversee delivery of assigned workstreams against agreed milestones and quality standards; review consultant inputs and deliverables; identify risks, dependencies and resource constraints and recommend adjustments; and coordinate with activity leads and the wider EAP and Pacific HNP team, using concise progress updates and trackers to support decisions and timely delivery. 7. Knowledge exchange, capacity building and other support: identify priority capacity gaps and guide targeted technical support, workshops, consultations and peer-to-peer exchanges; facilitate learning and policy dialogue among Government counterparts, partners and task teams; develop and review guidance notes, briefing materials and knowledge products; synthesize Samoa lessons for regional use and adapt relevant Pacific and EAP experience to Samoa; and undertake other assignments commensurate with the senior role and relevant to the Samoa health portfolio.