Senior Economist, Jobs Measurement

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank 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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

Office of the Senior Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships

The Senior Managing Director’s (SMD) key mandate includes overseeing the Bank’s knowledge and partnership programs and ensuring that the Bank’s analytical work continues to address the pressing development challenges facing client countries and global partners. The office is responsible for the Evolution Roadmap, G20 and G7 engagements, the implementation of the Knowledge Compact, as well as the replenishment of IDA, the Bank’s concessional lending arm for the poorest countries. It provides strategic guidance on the WB’s global knowledge and IDA corporate commitments; oversees key partnerships with shareholders, development agencies, other multilateral development banks (MDBs) and academia; helps shape and drive the Bank’s strategic directions; and through the Trust Fund portfolio in Global Practices, mobilizes support and financial resources across the international community to bring concessionally to our work.

Building on the progress of past efforts, the WBG Knowledge Compact for Action aims to empower clients, public and private, by systematically making the latest knowledge available to respond more effectively to increasingly complex development challenges. This includes knowledge embedded in policy advice, expertise and know-how, including from financing operations, as well as the latest research, data and tools to formulate robust development policies and programs. Compact will deliver this knowledge to clients under the four pillars of enhanced products, partnerships, learning and systems. To advance the knowledge agenda, the practice groups will be organized into five vertical vice presidencies aligned with the new mission (People, Prosperity, Planet, Infrastructure and Digital).

In addition, three new departments are being created to enhance coordination, integration and outcome orientation across the WBG.

• The Outcomes team generates metrics, aggregates results, and monitors in real-time how and where the Bank is driving development outcomes. It also identifies cross-cutting thematic areas that require additional efforts and resources.
• The Innovation team drives forward-thinking, innovative approaches and explores new frontiers to address the most complex development challenges.
• The Knowledge and Learning team foster systematic and consistent curation and use of knowledge and development expertise to build client and staff capacity, delivering tailored, world-class development solutions to clients.

The Department for Outcomes provides the strategic vision and direction for an effective outcome orientation across the WBG, including thought leadership on approaches to development impact measurement, proposing revisions and updates to outcome indicators and methodologies as needed, coordinating the development of outcome targets and their implications in our knowledge, operations, and financing.  It also oversees the development and implementation of metrics and systems to evaluate outcomes on cross-cutting themes such as climate, jobs, private sector capital mobilization, women and youth and the monitoring of these areas in the Corporate Scorecard, in collaboration with MDO, IFC and MIGA. This department is responsible for generating metrics, aggregating results, and monitoring in real-time how and where we are driving development outcomes, and where we need to place greater focus and additional resources

In addition, the Department convenes both external and internal parties and other MDBs regarding outcome metrics, building external and internal capacity, and acting as the secretariat for external advisory groups like the Job Council.

The Department for Outcomes is seeking a Senior Economist to lead the development and application of advanced methodologies for assessing the impact of WBG-financed projects and country strategies on employment outcomes. In this role, the Senior Economist will play a leadership role in finalizing and refining the WBG's methodology for measuring job outcomes on the Scorecard and provide technical support to operational units in its implementation. Working closely with Verticals and other stakeholders, the Senior Economist will ensure the robust and accurate measurement of employment-related indicators across various initiatives. The Senior Economist will also lead the development of modeling and analytical platforms supporting the estimation and analysis of employment effects, in collaboration with other WBG units.

Duties and Accountabilities: