| Job # | 100913 |
| Job Title | Director, Comprehensive Peace Agreement & Fragile States Initiative |
| Job Family | Country Services |
| Location | Nairobi, Kenya |
| Appointment | International Hire |
| Job Posted | 28-Apr-2010 |
| Closing Date | 19-May-2010 |
| Language Requirements | English [Essential]; Arabic [Desired]; French [Desired] |
| Appointment Type |
| Background / General description |
Note: 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 4 year renewable term appointment. The Africa Region, which is comprised of approximately 1600 staff members of whom around 60% are based in 38 field offices, is committed to helping Africa realize its considerable development potential, with a focus on employment generation. The core values guiding our work are passion for our mission of sustainable poverty reduction with keen attention to quality and transformative impact, putting the needs of the client at the center of all our activities, trust and respect as a common currency, intellectual rigor and curiosity, honesty and integrity, teamwork, openness to learning and the courage to admit we do not always have the answer. Sub-Saharan Africa has a population of around 800 million people in 47 countries, and is a vibrant and changing environment for development work. The last two decades of democratic elections and, in some countries multiparty systems has created a greater openness to pro-poor reforms. A vibrant civil society has become increasingly vocal on policy issues, and African citizens are more and more holding politicians accountable for their actions (although there are variations across countries). Regional institutions, such as AU/NEPAD are applying peer pressure on national leaders to improve their performance. Until the onset of the global financial and economic crisis, Africa had been experiencing a period of sustained and widespread growth. In addition to the oil exporters, some 22 non-oil-exporting countries were experiencing better-than-four-percent growth for a decade and two third of the population lived in countries that had grown by between 5.9 and 8.1 percent per year. The sources of this growth were three-fold: (i) external resources—aid, debt relief, private capital flows and remittances were all increasing; (ii) strong commodity prices and a buoyant global economy; and (iii) improved macroeconomic policies, reflected for instance in the fact that the median inflation rate in the mid-2000s was about half that in the mid-1990s. While the overall business climate in Africa is the weakest in the world, several countries—including some fragile states—have made great strides in improving their environment for business. For example, Rwanda was the “reformer of the year” in the latest Doing Business Report. Similarly, after decades of neglect, Africans are making a concerted effort to increase agricultural productivity—and that effort is beginning to bear fruit. Some 13 African countries increased productivity faster than 3 percent a year for the last six years. The overall policy environment in Africa, which had been improving until the recent crises, continued to improve during the crises. Some countries even accelerated their reform programs. What is emerging as a result is a growing region, with setbacks from time to time, that is increasingly seen as a destination for investment as much as for aid; and one where leaders are increasingly willing to address problems of misgovernance that harm development effectiveness. As a result it is possible that Africa is poised for a growth takeoff, much like India was 20 years ago and China 30 years ago. The Africa Region plans to seize this unprecedented opportunity to better support our clients in realizing the dream of a continent free of poverty. The Africa Action Plan (ie, the Region’s overall strategy for guiding its overall response these unprecedented opportunities and expectations over the next 5-10 years) is being revised based on significant inputs from African stakeholders and partners across the world, the regional management team, and staff. This renewal is focusing on six areas: governance and capacity; private sector, jobs and women’s empowerment; vulnerability and resilience to shocks; aid architecture; fragile states; and regional solutions. Constituent Programs: The Director will lead the Bank’s further engagement in supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Sudan and also oversee the piloting of the fragile states support program that is being established in Nairobi. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement Support Initiative: Sudan is the largest country geographically in Africa. Decades of civil war between the north and the south ended in January 2005, with the signing of the CPA between the former Government of Sudan and the Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM). Under the CPA, a referendum will be held in Southern Sudan in January 2011 on the issue of independence for the south. In the interim, Southern Sudan is governed by the semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan (GoSS). In support of the implementation of the CPA, donors established a multi-donor trust fund for the national level (MDTF-N) and another for Southern Sudan (MDTF-SS), with the resources of roughly $260 million and $520 million, respectively. The Bank is the administrator for both MDTFs. Because of the arrears situation, however, there are no lending activities from the Bank’s own resources at the moment. The country office in Khartoum and a sub-office in Juba are able to provide significant in country support to the clients. The Bank's strategy was laid out in a July 2003 Country Re-engagement Note based on LICUS principles. An Interim Strategy Note for Sudan was presented to the Board in March2008, with a focus on supporting the CPA process through MDTFs and the Bank’s own AAA work. An updated ISN is scheduled to be presented to the Board in the first half of FY11. In both the north and the south, the Bank is stepping up AAA work to motivate strategic dialogue on medium-term development issues. For the north, the focus is on the issues of supporting growth of non-oil sectors and rectifying severe geographic disparities in social services and development outcomes; for the south, the focus is on building a functioning state, assuring access at least to minimum levels of basic services, and stimulating self-sustaining economic growth. With the political future of Southern Sudan still unresolved, and the possible independence bringing new political challenges, Sudan is a highly complex and fluid development environment. Darfur too continues to pose significant challenges, not only for achieving full peace in Sudan, but also to the Bank’s work, including the ability to move forward with arrears clearance and the resumption of full financial support to Sudan. The Fragile States Support (Pilot) Initiative: As part of the Global Bank reforms, the Africa Region will pilot the establishment of a small sub-regional Hub in Nairobi to house some of the key skills needed to support critical work in fragile and post conflict states (FCSs). Staff posted to this Hub will serve FCSs across the continent and will include individuals who are highly experienced and committed to restoring/sustaining core government functions (including peace and reconciliation initiatives, demobilization of combatants, civil service and public finance management, and critical public service provision) under conditions of conflict. Over time, staff from other global practices may be posted to this Hub as well. Their presence on the continent would allow them to be deployed quickly as needed and to make frequent visits to the countries to monitor developments and provide strategic advice as needed. This pilot would provide opportunities for learning and course and scale adjustments, and help solve two key problems (i) the scarcity of some skills and the economies arising from clustering them; and (ii) the difficulty of attracting staff to live in some FCS locations. |
| Duties and Accountabilities |
1. Develops and implements the ISN for Sudan, with special attention to transformative interventions at the sub-regional, country, sectoral and program levels that produce practical, visible and sustainable development results. 2. Appreciates the complexities and relevance of political economy considerations on the Bank’s development effectiveness in Africa and collaborates appropriately with African Regional and sub-regional institutions and other partners to enhance such effectiveness. Supports the development and monitors the implementation of high quality work programs and sector strategies that are based on the ISN and are attuned to client demand and country contexts. 3. Exercises courageous and transformative leadership in dialogue and partnerships with the governments concerned, development partners, civil society, media, the private sector, and other stakeholders to further the aid effectiveness agenda. 4. Works proactively and innovatively with IFC and MIGA to leverage World Bank financial and technical support, including with the private sector. 5. Leads and motivates the Sudan country team with a focus on client orientation, development outcomes, strong cross-sectoral coordination and problem solving, and takes responsibility for achieving and communicating these outcomes with operational staff, sectoral technical staff, and the country management team. 6. Provides oversight on portfolio management and quality issues, working with clients and the country teams to provide timely and effective implementation support. 7. Oversees the work of the Country Managers based in Juba and Khartoum respectively. 8. Coordinates the Fragile States Support Cluster, in partnership with sector management, modeling integrity and inclusion, and offering mentoring and development opportunities for local and international staff. 9. Embraces good corporate citizenship, including contributing to the development, implementation and communication of corporate policies, strategies and priorities (including ongoing reforms in investment lending, knowledge management, HR policies, and the “Global Bank”). Champions regional management initiatives. |
| Selection Criteria |