Climate Change Specialist at World Bank Group

Climate Change Specialist

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help solve the world’s greatest development and sustainability challenges. Established in 1944, the World Bank Group (WBG) 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, promoting transformative policies, and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

The Global Engagement Unit of the Global Department for Agriculture and Food (SAGGL) supports a global vision of delivering a triple bottom line of a healthy economy, healthy people, and a healthy planet. SAGGL has a broad mandate to manage and promote the Global Department’s global and corporate responsibilities. To serve this mandate, the unit is responsible for managing global programs, coordinating with global partners and across regions to ensure the global nature of solutions the Bank brings to the agriculture and food agenda in specific countries, facilitating knowledge and technical support to operational teams, and providing corporate and high-quality client services across the full range of IBRD and IDA countries. It also engages in high-priority, strategic analytical work, policy dialogue, and engagements at the global and regional levels. SAGGL has an active work program on climate change adaptation and mitigation in relation to agriculture and food. SAGGL provides thought leadership and knowledge exchange via strategic analytical work, partnership strengthening across key international institutions, and policy engagement in major global climate fora; supports moving from a global vision to climate action at the country level, through building countries’ capacity to plan, mitigate, and adapt to the impacts of climate change on agriculture and food systems; and builds the Bank teams’ capacity to design and implement projects and analytical work to support climate smart agriculture and food systems.

The World Bank is looking to scale up its support for the climate agenda in the agrifood system, as well as enhancing its engagement on other aspects of environmental sustainability, such as biodiversity, agricultural pollution control, and sustainable land and water resource management.

SAGGL seeks to engage the services of a dynamic Climate Change Specialist to strengthen efforts to promote the mainstreaming and scaling up of climate mitigation and adaptation, nature, and environmental sustainability in World Bank agriculture and food (AGF) investments, analytical work and policy dialogue globally.

Duties & Accountabilities

The Climate Change Specialist will have the following responsibilities: 

• Contribute to or lead key analytical and advisory products related to climate, agriculture and nature.
• Support the thought leadership of the AGF Department on the Climate and Nature (CAN) agenda and the technical and analytical underpinnings for scaling up of climate mitigation and adaptation, nature, and environmental sustainability in World Bank agriculture and food (AGF) investments, analytical work and policy dialogue globally.
• Serve as a team member and provide technical support for the new country-level Food System Climate Action Plans (FS-CAPs).
• Build on the work started by the CAN Team through the AGF Toolkit for Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) to provide technical and data generation and analysis to scale up coverage of the AGF agenda in CCDRs.
• Work with AGF teams in the Regions to spearhead the promotion of the climate and nature agenda in AGF operations to ensure consistent global approaches and best practices, and coordinate with colleagues in the Climate Change Group, the Environment Department, and elsewhere to maximize implementation of corporate climate commitments, including climate co-benefits, GHG accounting, and resilience rating, and monitor progress across the World Bank.
• Provide global technical and thought leadership on climate change adaptation and mitigation, and nature, in AGF, and promote knowledge sharing on the topic, including by organizing events and other activities of the internal Climate & Nature (formerly Climate-Smart Agriculture) Global Solutions Group, as well as major global fora such as climate COPs. 
• Engage and liaise with key international partners on these topics, such as UN agencies, CGIAR institutions, other MDBs, universities, think tanks, and national research organizations.

The Climate Change Specialist will join the team working under the leadership of the Global Lead on Climate and Nature. S/he will report to the SAGGL Practice Manager. 

Selection Criteria

At least a Master’s degree or Ph.D. in the field of climate change, agriculture and food security, agri-environment, agricultural economics, agricultural systems modeling, disaster risk management, or other relevant discipline.

• At least five years of experience post-Master’s degree, relevant to climate change, environmental sustainability, and agricultural development.

• Strong technical skills and deep knowledge on a range of issues of relevance to agriculture and food, climate change, and nature, such as climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience, sustainable natural resource management, and disaster risk management; data sources, measurement, and modeling of biophysical and economic variables in these areas; use of artificial intelligence and data presentation interfaces such as online dashboards.

• Familiarity with international climate and environment conventions and organizations, including for the three Rio conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification.

• Strong analytical skills, and a track record of contributing to rigorous analytical work and knowledge generation and dissemination in the areas of relevance to climate change, the environment, and agriculture and food.

• Ability to turn data and analysis into practical recommendations for effective public policies and expenditures to incentivize climate-smart and nature-positive behaviors on the part of farmers and other value chain actors.

• Ability to effectively present complex issues to World Bank management, international partners, and senior government representatives in country, as well as to non-specialist audiences.

• Proven sense of initiative, result orientation, teamwork, leadership qualities, and the ability to work effectively across sectors.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Additional languages including French, Spanish, and/or Portuguese would also be an advantage.

• Strong client engagement skills, and excellent interpersonal, problem-solving, and team skills with ability to work across various disciplines, while being diplomatic and sensitive to cultural, political and gender issues.

Technical Competencies:

• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies; interacts with clients at the policy level.

• Policy Dialogue Skills - Anticipates needs and requests in the field and conducts independent policy discussions with high level representatives of the government and non-government partners.

• Integrative Skills - Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas how they are interrelated; ability to conceptualize scaling up micro and project level outcomes to macro and global transformative outcomes.

• Agriculture Policy, Strategy and Institutions - Solid understanding of agriculture policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations.

• Project Design for Impact and Sustainability - Contributes to the design of projects and programs based on an understanding of the country and sector context.

• Multi-sector Dialogue - Able to conduct a dialogue with a range of clients including on complex issues related to climate change and its impacts, including agriculture, environment, finance, and private sector and markets, based on a solid understanding of interactions with agriculture.

• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.

• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.

• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.

• Knowledge, Learning, and Communication - Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.

• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

Note: If the selected candidate is a current World Bank Group Staff Member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, they will retain their Regular or Open-Ended appointment. If the selected candidate is a current World Bank Group Staff Member with a Term appointment that expires later than the end date of this appointment, they will retain the duration of their current Term appointment.

Note: This internal requisition is open to WBG and IMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/ temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case an external candidate applies, their application will not be considered.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of Urgency – Anticipating and quickly reacting to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful Risk Taking – Taking informed and thoughtful risks and making courageous decisions to push boundaries for greater impact.
3. Empowerment and Accountability – Engaging with others in an empowered and accountable manner for impactful results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.