Senior Social Protection Specialist

Senior Social Protection Specialist

Job #:
req25251

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
Social Protection

Grade:
GG

Term Duration:
3 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment

Location:
Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:
12/12/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Established in 1944, the World Bank Group (WBG) is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for development solutions. It is 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. For more information, visit

Human Development Practice Group (HD PG)

The WBG is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a systematic and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the WB Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries.

Social Protection & Jobs (SPJ) Global Practice

The SPJ Global Practice delivers analytical and operational approaches and evidence-based solutions to help individuals and families manage risk, cope with chronic/transitional poverty, and access better livelihoods and jobs. These include:
Strategy, analysis, financing, and design of programs delivering social safety nets/social assistance in the form of cash transfers, public works programs, social services, and fee waivers.
Advisory and analytical services on design and delivery of contributory transfers (including old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, disability, and survivor benefits), and their fiscal sustainability (including budget support for transitions).
Analysis, design and delivery of labor market and youth employment programs (with a focus on supply side interventions and intermediation policies), as well as policy advice on labor market regulations and interventions.
Strategy, analysis, financing, and design of integrated social protection delivery systems (e.g., payments, identification, registries, systems assessments) as underpinnings of effective social programs that can help cope with climatic shocks or underpin fiscal reforms.

SPJ Data Bank: ASPIRE – The Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators on Resilience and Equity

The Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE) is the World Banks Data Bank on Social Protection and Labor indicators to analyze the scope and performance of policies and programs. It is a global public good critical for informing policy and program design and to monitor progress towards the goal of universal coverage of Social Protection. It is used by partners such as the IMF as key input for their country assessments. The indicators produced by ASPIRE, derive from both administrative and household survey data, cover social assistance, social care, labor market programs, social insurance programs, as well as remittances. It includes indicators for over 140 countries and more than 5,000 programs and provides country and regional level information for cross country comparability and benchmarking of SP program performance. The ASPIRE database is available in WB DataBank, WB Data Catalog and ASPIRE Portal.

The objectives of ASPIRE are to (i) track SDG Target 1.3. to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all; (ii) monitor country progress on social protection outcomes; (iii) benchmark SP program performance across countries and time; and (iv) support evidence-based policy dialogue on the design and improvement of social protection policies and programs.

The SPJ Global Unit hosts the SPJ Data Bank and seeks to hire a Senior Social Protection Specialist/Senior Economist, to manage and advance the growing data agenda. S/he will lead the SP Data Agenda and coordinate the team working on the production and generation of social protection indicators for World Bank client countries. This position offers exciting opportunities and challenges within a dynamic team developing data solutions and innovations to help WB country operations.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main responsibility for this position is to manage the ASPIRE Data Unit and its various work streams:

1. Support the next generation of the Data agenda within SPJ Practice:

Coordinate the team working on the regular production of up-to-date key performance indicators (KPI) to track the size, composition, evolution, and distributional performance of the main social protection programs in World Bank client countries, derived from both household survey and administrative data.
Work with other Units at the Bank to optimize business processes that facilitate the collection of Household and administrative data, including DEC, Poverty, SPJ regional units, country teams and government counterparts to keep the data updated in a sustainable and efficient manner.
Contribute to the improving of social protection data globally by providing recommendations to data producers (NSO and government implementing institutions)

2. Knowledge generation: ASPIRE analytics and technical publications:

Lead and/or contribute to the use of the data through analytical work, including the State of Social Protection Report, technical and methodological papers, PERs, etc.
Work in collaboration with the SPJ Global Solutions Groups, the Jobs Groups and Cross-Cutting programs to respond to corporate requests, provide peer-reviewing of the SPJ GP products and generate inputs to help position SPJ agenda within the WBG.
Provide support to operational teams on the use of ASPIRE indicators.

3.Knowledge sharing: dissemination of ASPIRE indicators and publications:

Develop a vision and strategy to disseminate ASPIRE data and analytical products to made them relevant for both country operational work and as a global benchmarking tool.
Ensure the twice a year publication of ASPIRE data in WBG main data repositories and dissemination platforms: ASPIRE internal and external portals, DataBank, WDI, Data Catalog, Datalibweb and the Global Monitoring Database.
Design accessible data products that maximize the use of ASPIRE by various profiles of users. This includes dissemination of country harmonized microdata, ADePT SP country indicators, country administrative data, and regional and country income group indicators.
Supervise the production of ASPIRE communications products: ASPIRE in Focus newsletter, data updates announcements, brochure updates/translations, and blogs.
Craft a strategy to increase ASPIRE presence in social media and use new technology such as MAI

4.Developing tools and methods ASPIRE 2.0:

Co-lead the development of phase 3 of ASPIRE Administrative Data Portal: content streamlining and simplification, access, data auditing, analytics, and dissemination.
Roll out the new ASPIRE indicators such as sex disaggregated indicators, and country specific indicators.
Expand the country coverage of the tool to match administrative and HH survey data in selected countries.
Lead the design and development of improve data repository and dissemination platforms, including the revamping of the ASPIRE external portal and intranet.

5.Corporate reporting: Corporate Score Card (CSC), Portfolio reviews and SDGs:

Co-Lead the development of ASPIRE third data program to track SPJ portfolio. Design a platform for corporate reporting of the SPJ portfolio coverage, and its footprint in reducing poverty and digitalization.
Lead, in collaboration with Global Leads, portfolio reviews and streamline / harmonize data collection methodology across SPJ projects.
Develop a methodology to improve the tracking of CSC tier 1 indicator related to Social Protection and Labor coverage.
Ensure continue reporting of SDG target 1.3 to Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable. Advocate for the inclusion of sex-disaggregated coverage indicators.

6.Fundraising, partnerships, and collaborations :

Co-Lead relationship with donors and actively search for opportunities to fundraise.
Nurture collaborations across SPJ units, poverty GPs units, DEC and other data initiatives such as the Household Survey Working Group, SDGs Working Group, and the most recent DataBank initiative.
Nurture collaborations with stakeholders outside the Bank such as the IMF, FAO, ILO, UNICEF, etc.

Selection Criteria

Academic: Advanced (Graduate) university degree in Economics, Finance, Social Policy, or other relevant discipline, plus at least five years of direct relevant experience.

Proven knowledge and experience in the field of social protection and/or labor, including analytical and operational work with country counterparts. Significant experience in SPL system implementation and an excellent track record in carrying out high quality and timely activities. This includes proven analytical skills, including capacity to conduct high quality quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Strong quantitative skills, data management and data analysis. Experienced user of statistical and econometrics software (STATA, ADEPT, PYTHON).
Demonstrated ability to interact with clients, other development agencies and donors to translate cross-country technical knowledge into practical applications for country and sector strategies.
Ability to collaborate across boundaries: Demonstrated ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries, internally and externally.
Ability to manage a team, to operate under pressure, to deliver high-quality work within deadlines, and meet team objectives.

Technical and Behavioral Competencies

Drive for Results – Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion – Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches. Seeks actively cooperation with other agencies at country level and balances institutional differences.
Knowledge, Learning and Communication – Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making – Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.

Reporting and Functional Relationships

The Senior Social Protection Specialist/ Senior Economist will report to the Practice Manager of the Social Protection Global Engagement Unit and work together with ASPIRE team in the delivery of the data agenda.

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.

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