Description

Background / Description

Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) is a central development challenge. By 2030, half of the global extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Furthermore, the global FCV landscape has deteriorated in recent years, with rising levels of conflict, violence and forced displacement. Importantly, FCV impacts both low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, making progress in FCV is central to the World Bank Group’s (WBG) mission and critical to achieving the Twin Goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

In the face of this increasingly complex landscape, the WBG and key partners are focusing their efforts on FCV settings and adapting their approach to maximize impact in the most challenging environments. In this context, the WBG has significantly increased its engagement and financing to low- and middle-income fragile and conflict-affected situations through IDA18 and the General Capital Increase. Moving forward, IDA and the WBG’s Strategy for FCV will further emphasize the importance of addressing fragility challenges to achieve the Twin Goals. Furthermore, these initiatives will highlight the importance of partnerships between a diverse range of actors – humanitarian, development, peace building, security, and private sector partners – to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to peace and prosperity in fragile situations.

The FCV Group aims to steer and drive the FCV agenda within the WBG, and to ensure consistency, complementarity, and synergies in approaches across the WBG. The FCV Group works with country management units (CMUs) and global practices (GPs) to enhance the impact of strategic and programmatic approaches in FCV-affected countries across the globe. It does so by: (i) providing analytical inputs to identify drivers of fragility and inform country strategies and programming; (ii) leading on the forced displacement agenda by promoting medium-term socioeconomic opportunities for displaced persons and host communities; (iii) developing and managing innovative financing solutions tailored to fragility challenges; (iv) deploying hands-on operational support to CMUs and GPs to address practical challenges of working in FCV contexts; and (iv) building and deepening partnerships with the UN, bilateral partners, international NGOs, and other external actors on fragility-related engagement.

The FCV Group is led by a Senior Director and is comprised of approximately 45 staff distributed across two separate units, Operational Support and Forced Displacement (GTFS2) and Strategy, Analytics, and Financing Solutions (GTFS1).

The State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund (SPF)

The State and Peacebuilding Fund (SPF) is the leading global Umbrella Trust Fund for implementing the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Strategy. The SPF's development objective is to enhance and expand the frontiers of World Bank engagement in helping countries address the drivers and impacts of FCV and strengthen the resilience of countries and affected populations, communities, and institutions. The SPF supports four ‘strategic areas of focus’ that are fully aligned with the FCV Strategy pillars of engagement. This differentiated scope provides a basis for ensuring that SPF activities and associated outputs are tailored to the distinct realities, needs and challenges faced by countries and their most vulnerable populations.

Pushing frontiers and innovating the Bank’s approach to FCV situations is central to SPF’s mandate. These include, but are not limited to, the inter-relationships between climate change, disaster risk, and conflict; transitional governance and institutional transformation in recovery contexts; justice and security sector reform; and addressing the impact of demographic change and the ‘youth bulge’ on FCV risks.

The SPF is generously supported by Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom, as well as by direct financial contributions from IBRD administrative budget. The SPF is housed in the FCV Group with decisions being made by a WBG-wide committee including representatives from Global Practices, Regions, and Corporate Units.

The SPF Secretariat oversees the day-to-day operations of the SPF, providing strategic direction, ensuring compatibility of the work program with the World Bank’s broader FCV agenda, monitoring and evaluating the SPF portfolio, and promoting knowledge exchanges and peer-learning.

Duties and Accountabilities

The Extended Term Consultant’s primary responsibilities will be to support the development and collaboration around SPF frontier areas in FCV and to work with task teams submitting proposals for funding under the SPF. The ETC will work closely with staff from the FCV Group, Practice Groups, Regions, and donor partners. The Extended Term Consultant will work under the supervision of the SPF Program Manager, based in Washington, D.C., and report to the Practice Manager, GTFS1.

Scope of Work

The Extended Term Consultant will also have responsibilities that include, but are not limited to:

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  Frontier areas in FCV initiative. The Consultant will support the implementation of SPF’s focus on financing work in frontier areas in FCV, including consultations and coordination with relevant Bank units such as the FCV Group, Global Practices, Regions, members of the SPF Technical Advisory Committee, SPF donor partners, and other stakeholders as relevant.
  
• Coordination and facilitation. Coordinate, support and facilitate the development of proposals supporting frontier areas in FCV.
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  Advice and support. Provide guidance to teams applying for SPF funding.
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  Partnerships and relationship management. Support partnership building activities and stakeholder outreach as relevant, including donor partners and the UN.
  
• Review of documents. Contribute to the review of funding requests, progress reports, and results and deliverables, to ensure quality and timely submission.
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  Reports and briefings. Support the preparation and production of progress reports and annual reports, and lead on any ad hoc reports on the frontier areas in FCV initiative. Respond to internal and external requests for information related to the frontier areas in FCV initiative.
  

The ETC may be assigned other tasks and deliverables as deemed appropriate by the SPF Program Manager and the GTFS1 Manager.

Selection Criteria

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  Demonstrable experience in working with IFIs on FCV issues, including direct operational, analytical, and technical support.
  
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience working across themes or sectors in an FCV context.
  
• Experience with the World Bank FCV agenda and WB-administered trust fund programs.
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  Candidates who bring direct personal and professional experience and background from diverse FCV backgrounds preferred.
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  Excellent organizational and management skills, and ability to manage a broad program of activities; ability to prioritize and be proactive, to deal with frequent and unexpected changes, and to work within tight timeframes and with a significant degree of autonomy.
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  Excellent oral and written communications skills in English, including the ability to write short reports and briefing notes.
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  Ability to work as part of a high-performing multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team, often operating under tight deadlines and timetables.
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  Personal integrity, with demonstrated ability to handle confidential matters in a discreet and respectful manner.
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  Effective interpersonal and communication skills with external partners and across the WBG matrix with the capacity to interact in a multi-cultural environment.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable for an additional one year, at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET Appointment of two years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their second-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.