Environmental specialist

Background

Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of around 782 million people in 47 countries, is home to 36 of the world’s poorest countries. Making headway against poverty in sub-Saharan Africa continues to present the world with its most formidable development challenge. The Africa region of the World Bank is committed to working with Africans and other development partners to make faster progress toward the Millenium Development Goals, particularly cutting poverty levels in half by 2015. The region is comprised of approximately 1750 staff members of whom over 60% are based in the Region's 37 field offices.

The strategic thrust of the World Bank Africa Region’s Environment and Natural Resources Sector Unit includes sustainable land, water, forest, coastal and marine management; climate change adaptation and mitigation and related disaster risk management; environmental governance; and ensuring sound environmental design and implementation of all projects and programs in the Africa region, including addressing environmental issues in key natural resource extraction and large infrastructure projects, and protecting regional and global public goods.

The core values guiding our work are passion for our mission of sustainable development and poverty reduction, 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.

The Bank currently has a portfolio of nearly 40 active projects in Ethiopia, with a total commitment of nearly US$3.8 billion, covering infrastructure development, energy development, human development, natural resource management, agriculture, sustainable land management, water and sanitation, etc.

Duties/accountabilities

The environmental specialist who will work on operational and analytical work in Ethiopia would have the following key responsibilities:
- Primarily work as an environmental specialist for projects with important environmental and safeguard dimensions, contributing to the design of investment operations and ensuring high quality environmental assessments of these projects.
- Participate as a team member in operational and analytical work related to environmental governance, natural resource management, disaster risk management and climate change.
- Contribute to new business line development for the Africa Environment and Natural Resources Sector Unit and the Ethiopia Country Management Unit, in close collaboration with task teams, sector leader, and other members of the country team.

Selection criteria

- A minimum of a Master’s degree in environmental science, environmental engineering, natural resource management, or related fields;
- Have had at least five years of direct relevant operational and/or analytical experience;
- Good understanding of environmental safeguards and the World Bank’s operational policies;
- Practical experience in environmental assessment of a range of investment operations;
- Good understanding of public administrations and their environmental and natural resource management systems;
- Experience in leading environmental and natural resource management operations, articulating policy issues and carrying out analytical work;
- Strong leadership skills and effective interpersonal skills to work with the World Bank colleagues, clients, civil society, donor counterparts, etc;
- Hard working, proactive, able to handle multiple tasks and work in multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams with ease and with less supervision;
- Excellent report verbal and written communication skills in English is a requirement and in Amharic is an advantage;
- Ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments, adjust to and prioritize a variety of complex evolving tasks and under pressure to meet deadlines;
- Recognized as a results-oriented team player who is adaptable to changing business needs; and
- Takes initiative, can work independently and is capable of contributing to a diverse set of activities.
- English (essential), Amharic (desired)
Qualified male and female candidates of diverse background (gender, religious, ethnic etc) are encouraged to apply.