Senior Institutional Development Specialist (Water)

Terms of Reference

Senior Institutional Development Specialist (Water) for dr congo

* If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year renewable term appointment.

Background / General description

WORLD BANK’S GLOBAL WATER PRACTICE

1. The world will not be able to meet the great development challenges of the 21st century - human development, livable cities, climate change, food security, and energy security - without improving how countries manage their water resources. Even today, 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, of which 1 billion people practice open defecation.  Poor sanitation, including inadequate wastewater collection and treatment, impacts health, education, the environment, and industries such as tourism.  At least 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water.  The lack of access to safe water and sanitation results in significant economic losses in many countries.   

2. The World Bank Group (WBG) is in a unique position to help governments take an integrated and strategic approach to solve water supply, sanitation, water resource, hydropower and irrigation problems through finance and knowledge.  The Water Global Practice (GP) places Water Resource Management (hydrology, economics, storage, groundwater use, etc.) at the center of its efforts to help countries adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.  The Water GP seeks to ensure that water issues are effectively addressed in all related sub-sectors, such as agriculture (ensuring sustainable water availability for irrigation), disaster risk management, energy (hydropower), and water supply & sanitation (rural and urban, assisting utilities on efficiency and financial sustainability; targeting the poor).  In each sub sector an integrated approach is adopted which considers investment alongside issues such as governance, institutions and policies. The World Bank is the largest external source of financing for water supply and sanitation projects, and also has a large and growing portfolio in irrigation and water resource management.

3. The World Bank Global Water Practice comprises of about 350 staff working across the full range of the water sector agenda including rural and urban sanitation, provision of water services, integrated water resource management as well as irrigation.   The Global Water Practice is headed by a Senior Director and a Director, with six regional Practice Managers as well as two additional managers, including a Senior Manager heading the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).  In addition to these managers, the Global Water Practice Leadership team also includes four Global Solutions Leads that work across all regional programs as well as the WSP to provide technical leadership in specific areas. One of the GSGs focuses on Water Service Delivery (WSS).

4. The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) is a multi-donor trust funded program comprising of approximately 130 mainly field based staff within the Global Water Practice that focuses specifically on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene for the poor.  

5. The water and sanitation sector in DRC suffered a great setback during the country’s long political crisis through the 1990s and early 2000s.  Sector investment dried up, sector institutions all but collapsed, infrastructure was not maintained.  Since then, the sector has started to recover, albeit slowly.  Basic water supply and sanitation needs are still immense. Access to improved drinking water sources has increased in rural areas, but decreased in urban areas, overall amounting to a slight increase in access from 43% to 47% nationally.  Access to improved sanitation also suggests some progress in rural areas, but stagnation in urban areas, overall summing to an improvement nationally, albeit from a low level (23% to 31%). Related nutrition and health outcomes are also very poor with stunting rates among under-fives at over 40% and under five mortality as high as 146 per 1000 (UNICEF, 2012), among the ten worst countries in the world.  In addition, a new Water Law has been signed (December 2015) which provides, among other things, for the decentralization of REGIDESO, the national utility, to provinces.  This transition represents significant challenges for decentralized institutions and institutional arrangements between provincial governments and the newly created utilities.

6. The WSP now seeks an experienced Senior Institutional Development Specialist to provide technical leadership for the WSP work program in DRC and play a key role in the larger Water Global Practice portfolio sector dialogue with country clients and development partners as the only Water Global Practice staff in DRC. WSP’s work program includes a combination of sector analytical work, technical assistance and support to World Bank investment in DRC.

7. The Senior Institutional Development Specialist (Water) will report to the Practice Manager for Africa, and will work closely with World Bank operational staff in the Water GP, Poverty GP and the Country Management Unit.  This position is designed to take advantage of the synergies that can be achieved through seamlessly linking across the operational and WSP teams.  The assignment will involve extensive field visits around the country.

Duties and Accountabilities

The Senior Institutional Development Specialist (Water)will:

* Lead the implementation of WSP’s work program for DRC: Assume overall responsibility for developing, managing and delivering DRCs work program,  including developing a Technical Assistance project (also known as an Advisory Services and Analytics product line) managing and  supervising the country budget, procurement of consultants, tracking progress and expenditure, reporting and ensuring product quality assurance. Specific duties are likely to include:

• Support to the government decentralization process in the water sector including building capacity for coordination, planning, monitoring and regulation at provincial levels in accordance with the new Water Law (2015);
• Facilitating the expansion of Autonomous Water Systems (AWS) model by government and development partners;
• Facilitating the expansion of delegated management models of stand posts in poor settlements within the state owned utility service area in close collaboration with World Bank Operations; 
• Contributing to the WASH Country Poverty Diagnostic and using results to shape sector priorities in DRC;
• Contribute to results monitoring and reporting progress of ASA (Advisory Services and Analytics) to Bank management, donors and partners;

* Sector Coordination: Support all donors in the sector coordination group, including regular interactions with government authorities, the water sector agencies, the civil society and all relevant stakeholders to facilitate WSS policy dialogue;

* Collaboration with World Bank Operations:  Provide leadership for all water sector issues for the World Bank Group in DRC and support to ongoing operations, e.g reform of REGIDESO. Build relationships with internal partners so as to promote effective collaboration across Global Practices;

* Knowledge Management: Generate documentation, publication, and dissemination of lessons from the poverty diagnostic and the autonomous water systems and stand posts study; identify critical knowledge gaps and recommend capacity support and analytical activities to address them;

* Act as a public spokesperson for the Water Practice/WSP’s perspective on relevant issues, including conferences, meetings with partners and civil society, etc.

Selection Criteria

• Masters or higher-level degree(s) in a field relevant to water institutions, public administration and decentralization, such as, engineering, economics, water and sanitation, finance, public health, community development, or other relevant field;
• Have at least eight years of relevant experience in developing country work, including specific experience in development of public institutions, preferably focused on the water supply and sanitation sector, sector coordination and policy dialogue;
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Has a track record of conducting effective policy dialogue with country counterparts; communicates and defends difficult issues and positions to senior bank management and government officials.
• Knows the clients' water policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations, and can assess their impact on the operation or analytical work. Can credibly and effectively engage with a range of water institutions to support operational and analytical work outcomes. Supports client efforts to address weaknesses in its policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations.
• Knowledge and experience in Development Arena - Influences the design and execution of major policy and/or research initiatives; conceives and promotes innovations in development policies, project design, organization and management to improve operational and sector work.
• Proven track record of intellectual leadership and ability to integrate analytical work with operational expertise to formulate policy advice.
• Exceptional written and oral communications skills in English and Fluency in French.

Competencies

• Political economy and institutional development in DRC;
• Water/sanitation Policy, Strategy and Institutions - Comprehensive understanding of water/sanitation policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations;
• Deliver results for clients - Achieves results and identifies mission-driven solutions for the client;
• Collaborate within teams and across boundaries - Initiates collaboration across boundaries and broadly across WBG, and brings differing ideas into the forefront;
• Lead and innovate - Develops innovative solutions with others;
• Create apply and share knowledge - Creates, applies and shares knowledge from across and outside WBG to strengthen internal and/or external client solutions;
• Make smart decisions - Applies critical thinking and seeks inputs and experience from others to recommend a course of action consistent with the WBG’s strategy.

Electronic Applications ONLY (Paper candidacy will not be considered) 
For the full position description and complete selection criteria and required competencies, qualified candidates are requested to submit an on-line application at www.worldbank.org/careers. Click on > Current job openings >job # 160417. The World Bank is committed to achieving diversity of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.  Closing date for receipt of applications is March 7, 2016.  Only selected candidates will be contacted. Local candidates are strongly encouraged to apply!