Senior Operations Officer

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Background & General Description 

Niger is a vast, landlocked and very poor country in the Sahel, strongly affected by climate change and high population growth. It is a FCV country, which battles spill-over violence from extremist groups active in the region. Like its neighboring countries and partners in the Alliance of Sahelien States Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger is governed by a military regime.  

Within the WB’s West and Central Africa region (AFW), Niger has the second largest portfolio (after Nigeria), with a portfolio of USD $4.2 billion (national and regional projects). The program has recently gone through a strategic consolidation, reducing the number of national projects by one-third while doubling average project size. This is part of an effort, jointly with the government to improve project governance and increase the impact of WB lending and knowledge. A new Country Partnership Framework, aligned with the new approach to country engagement, is scheduled to be approved by the end of FY25. As part of that process, Niger aims to accesses the Prevention and Resilience Allocation (PRA) under IDA22. The collaboration between WB and IFC in Niger is very strong and growing. The World Bank is Niger’s most important development partner. 

Niger is part of the AWCW3 Country Management Unit (CMU) which also includes Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali where the Division Director, the Operations Manager, and four program leaders are located. The Niger Country Office team comprises about 50 staff and recently moved into a newly constructed office building in Niamey. Niger is a non-family-location, with a Rest and Recuperation cycle of 60 days. 

The World Bank office Niger is seeking an experienced, Senior Operations Officer (SOO) to lead the operational program for Niger, reporting to the Country Manager. S/he will ensure strategic focus, selectivity, integration and effectiveness of the pipeline and the portfolio. S/he will work closely across the matrix and with clients and partners. S/he will co-supervise the Administrative and Client Support team. S/he will be member of the Department Management Team and, as needed, back up other members of the CMU, including the CM. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

1. Country Strategy Formulation & Implementation 

Play a key role in the formulation and implementation of the annual business plans under the new Niger Country Partnership Framework. 

 Help ensure that technical, financial and knowledge support to Niger responds to the country’s fragility context.  

Advise the CM and the DD throughout the yearly WPA exercise. 

2. Pipeline and Portfolio Quality & Monitoring 

Closely monitor project portfolio and operational performance, including quality at entry, supervision, and exit, and ensuring compliance with Bank policies.  

Lead Country Team wide efforts to achieve yearly disbursement targets. 

Ensure quality, timeliness, and candor of Implementation Status Reports (ISR); work with teams to develop and implement action plans to improve project performance and to anticipate and resolve bottlenecks. 

 Lead all efforts on country portfolio performance, including regular, dedicated meetings and follow-up with task teams, with implementation support units, with the Project Implementation Units and with Government counterparts.  

 Work closely with multidisciplinary project teams to ensure that new projects and engagements have a design and implementation arrangements that build on lessons learned and are appropriate for the country’s institutional context; ensure that at the technical level, the CMU is part of and influences, the client conversation during project preparation, and that issues for management attention are timely flagged and followed up upon. 

Through analysis, identify trends and systemic issues in pipeline and portfolio, and advise on ways to address them. 

Engage the Program Leaders and other members of the CMU in an effective way to influence the quality of the pipeline, portfolio and ASA program.  

Review and provide comments on all packages at each stage of the project cycle; liaise with projects team leaders to ensure all comments are considered before clearance.

3. Operational Quality Assurance 

Advise the country team on operational policies, instruments, and procedures and on complex operational issues. 

Serve as liaison with regional and corporate units that deal with operational quality, effectiveness and risk management. 

Advise and as needed train task teams, CMU staff and other stakeholders on operational changes and innovations; ensure that good practices from within and outside the Niger portfolio are shared and adopted. 

Proactively ensure collaboration and cross-fertilization between task teams who work on similar topics within different operations and engagements. 

4. Support to CM and CO 

As needed, serve as Acting CM. 

Review, comment on, and clear all out-going correspondence; manage in-coming correspondence; review/comment/clearance of all operational requests (PIDs, AISs, etc.). 

Prepare a range of reports and briefs to counterparts, regional and senior management, including Spring and Annual Meetings briefs, visiting missions’ briefs and ad hoc briefs.  

In coordination with the CM and the Resource Management team, monitor the implementation of the WPAs, utilization of resources, including providing periodically updated information to TTLs for budget monitoring at task level; monitor the utilization of CMU resources during the Fiscal Year including reallocation of CMU budget towards operational uses/projects.  

Co-supervise and serve as mentor for the Administrative and Client Support team. 

 Serve as a liaison, coordination and integration point for the extended country team, providing guidance and advice on country developments, operational priorities and strategies as needed. 

 Support the preparation of high-level missions. 

5. Client and Development Partner Relations: 

 In close collaboration with the Country Officer, assist the CM in representation of the Bank and outreach to key stakeholders, development partners and donors, as well as NGOs, civil society, and the media, especially as they relate to project operational matters and the broader strategic agenda of the Bank; support the day to day dialogue with the Government on a broad range of policy and implementation issues.