Senior Gender Specialist (Energy)

Job #: req24058

Organization: World Bank

Sector: Energy

Grade: GG

Term Duration: 4 years 0 months

Recruitment Type: International Recruitment

Location: Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s): French and/or Spanish

Closing Date: 9/11/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. Visit www.worldbank.org.

The Infrastructure Practice Group

Globally, 840 million people live more than 2 kilometers from all-weather roads, 1 billion people lack electricity, and 4 billion people lack Internet access. Access to basic infrastructure services is critical for creating economic opportunities for the poor. The Infrastructure (INF) Practice Group is charged with developing sustainable solutions to help close infrastructure gaps in developing and emerging economies. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/infrastructure INF Vice Presidential Unit (VPU) currently consists of four global practices (GPs): Energy & Extractives (EEX), Transport, Digital Development (DD) and Infrastructure Finance, PPPs and Guarantees (IPG).

Energy and Extractives Global Practice (EEX)

Energy is at the heart of development. Energy makes possible the investments, innovations and new industries that are the engines of jobs, inclusive growth and shared prosperity for entire economies. Universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable and modern energy – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 — is essential to reach other SDGs and is at the center of efforts to tackle climate change. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/energy

There are around 300 staff professionally mapped to the Energy and Extractives Global Practice, of which about 90 mapped to EEX global units. Remaining staff is within regional energy units. EEX has an annual lending program in the order of US$5-7 billion a year, an active portfolio of some $40 billion, and a rich program of Advisory and Analytical Work. Regional energy units oversee and develop lending and nonlending energy operations in different subsectors including renewable energy, energy efficiency, utility performance, grid and off-grid access, regulatory and policy reforms. The EEX GP focuses on: providing affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to meet the needs of fast-growing economies and to ensure universal access to modern energy services for people in client countries; and, strengthening policy and institutional frameworks to promote transparent and equitable growth of the extractives sectors for public benefit. There is a strong emphasis on private sector resource mobilization and catalyzing financing from commercial and other sources of development and climate finance.

There are three global units for EEX: (a) the Infrastructure Energy Extractives Industry Unit (IEEXI) oversees and contributes to lending and non-lending activities in mining and hydrocarbon development with particular emphasis on transparency, governance, capacity building, and gender opportunities together with the regional units; and takes the leadership on global extractives initiatives; (b) the Infrastructure Energy Global Programs (IEEES) oversees mobilization and deployment of trust funds (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the climate funds); and (c) the Infrastructure Energy Global Knowledge & Expertise (IEEGK).

Energy Global Programs Unit (IEEES)

The Energy Global Programs Unit harbors the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the Energy Climate Finance Team. The ESMAP is a donor-funded global knowledge and technical assistance program, administered by the World Bank. It provides analytical and advisory services to low- and middleincome countries to increase their know-how and institutional capacity to achieve environmentally sustainable energy solutions for poverty reduction and economic growth. Supporting over a hundred activities in countries around the world at any given time, ESMAP is an integral part of the Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank.

The Energy Climate Finance Team coordinates and manages the demand of the Energy and Extractives Global Practice for climate funds, including the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs, such as the Clean Technology Fund), Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and others.

Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)

ESMAP is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank that provides grants for country, regional and global engagements in energy sector issues including to inform new World Bank operations.

The ESMAP’s Business Plan FY21-24 focuses on supporting client countries on two overarching objectives: (i) Achieving universal access of energy by 2030 (SDG7) and (ii) achieving decarbonization across the energy sector in support of international commitment on climate change. The Business Plan is structured around four pillars (clean cooking, electricity access, renewable energy and accelerating decarbonization), and two cross-cutting or foundational programs (Foundations for the Energy Transition and the Energy Data and Analytics Hub). ESMAP provides a combination of self-managed analytical work in order to further scale-up the energy access and transition agendas, monitoring of grants to regional operational units to support regional and country-specific analyses and capacity building, and operational support for country-specific projects in the six Bank regions.

The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank Energy & Extractives Global Practice is seeking a highly motivated senior energy-gender specialist to lead the implementation of the gender support to ESMAP activities as well as provide strong technical energy-gender specific support to the regions. The Energy-Gender Program is a cross- cutting program of ESMAP and it provided technical support to all 29 windows of the current ESMAP business plan.

The Gender-Energy Program supports a comprehensive effort of the World Bank Group and client countries and regions in designing and implementing energy sector reforms, primarily focusing on promoting gender equality, towards establishing competitive and transparent national and regional electricity trading markets, increasing the role of women in being beneficiaries from sustainable energy resources, but also contributing to the provision of energy with increased proportion of women in the work space.

To advance gender-responsive approaches and responses in the energy sector, the ESMAP team is looking for a senior, experienced energy specialist with proven track record of solid energy skills, gender, and development to support the advancing of energy in ESMAP’s analytical work as well as support to operations, to champion innovative gender integrated energy solutions. The selected candidate, to be based in Washington, DC, is expected to contribute substantially to energy sector teams working on energy solutions and gender, in both analytics and operations.

Duties and Accountabilities :

The selected candidate will undertake the following responsibilities.

A. Knowledge, Innovative Gender- Based Research and Evidence-Based Analytics

As part of ESMAP cross-cutting theme on energy and gender to support developing innovative solutions in the role of gender into energy operations. Lead the gender dialogue within ESMAP and its innovative approach to addressing gender gains in energy interventions, assist the manager with fund raising activities for gender. The selected candidate therefore will

i) Contribute to analytical efforts on energy and gender through research and writing a variety of knowledge pieces. ii) Contribute to efforts that seek to secure funding resources (TFs) to support the design of gender informed energy operations and expand the knowledge on energy and gender iii) Support the implementation of tested capacity-building trainings on gender sensitization and genderbased violence prevention to energy related stakeholders. iv) Participate in the development of global and regional learning events on energy and gender v) Contribute to the development of global and regional learning materials on energy and gender (policy briefs, videos, blogs, guidance notes) and, when possible, in collaboration with other Global Practices or Crosscutting Solution Areas of the World Bank vi) Be responsible for preparing, monitoring, and maintaining project budgets, implementation plans, status updates, and various reports.

B. Gender Based Energy Designs

Support ESMAP and energy task teams in the design of gender responsive solutions for energy projects under preparation, reviewing and carrying out gender analysis to identify gender gaps that could be addressed through the operations, identify measures and initiatives to address such gaps, and propose indicators to monitor success of the interventions. The selected candidate will

i) Review project documents and discuss with the Task Team Leader to understand their views on the challenges to address gender gap/s through projects under preparation and possible ways of structuring the interventions. ii) Review and draw from existing gender/social analysis (e.g., Country Partnership Framework and the Systematic Country Diagnostics) and others (e.g., social assessments) to identify possible entry points to gender-centric solutions. Review and comment country and regional Gender Action Plans, as appropriate. iii) Identify realistic and implementable solution/s that are acceptable to the stakeholders and that address relevant gender gaps in the four pillars of the WB Gender Strategy: Endowments, Jobs, Assets, or Voice/Agency. Consider various demographic and socio-economic characteristics in the analysis and design of interventions, e.g., race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity together with income level, geographic location, and migratory status as they often lead to multiple overlapping layers of discrimination for women (and men). iv) Advise teams on important cross-cutting topics (consultations, social assessments, data and M&E, and safeguards risks and management) to guarantee that they are gender tagged. In this effort, elaborate a specific menu of PDO/intermediate indicators that can be considered by teams in the preparation of energy sector projects.

C. Cross-support to regional/country operations

The selected candidate is expected to spend up to 50% of his/her time providing cross-support to regional/country analytical and investment projects to enhance their design and implementation.

Selection Criteria

•  Master’s degree in Economics, Engineering, Public Policy, Business Administration, or equivalent areas relevant to energy sector development.
•  Demonstrated strong understanding of the electricity sector.
•  Experience working in at least two World Bank client countries and/or regions designing and implementing energy sector reforms, primarily focusing on energy operations with a proven track record on implementing gender into operational interventions.
•  At least 8 years of relevant working experience in the World Bank, other international or development institutions, consultancy companies, and/or government agencies with a demonstrated track record of successful engagement with relevant developmental programs and projects; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
•  Excellent communication skills and demonstrated ability to lead high-level dialogue.
•  Demonstrated capacity to lead teams but also act as an effective team member.
•  Experience working with large global teams, to produce high-quality results and outputs with minimal supervision is required.
•  High level of motivation, ability to work independently, and taking initiative.
•  Excellent interpersonal skills and proven ability to build strong partnerships with clients, different stakeholders, and colleagues across units and departmental boundaries in a multicultural environment with virtual teams located in different countries.
•  Experience in results-based financing and catalyzing the uptake of new approaches and technologies is preferred.
•  Experience in managing the World Bank lending operations and knowledge products is preferred.

Poverty has no borders. Neither does excellence. This is why we continually search for qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds from around the globe. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce.

Note: World Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment will retain this status. All others will be offered a 4-year term appointment.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.