Description

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Summary:
The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) of the World Bank’s Africa Gender Impact Evaluation Unit, which is mapped to the Africa Region Chief Economist’s Office, conducts impact evaluations of development interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to examine the gender gap between men and women when it comes to economic growth and empowerment. With the results of the impact evaluations, the GIL aims to support the design of innovative, scalable interventions to address gender inequality in productive economic sectors across Africa. The impact objective of GIL is to increase take-up of effective policies by governments, development organizations, and the private sector in order to address the underlying causes of gender inequality in Africa, and through that promote growth.

Background:
Institutional Context: The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is housed within the Africa Region Gender Impact Evaluation Unit, mapped to the Africa Region Chief Economist’s office.

Impact Objective: The Gender Innovation Lab has a clear and actionable impact objective: to increase take-up of effective policies that can address the underlying causes of gender inequality in Africa, particularly in terms of women’s economic and social empowerment, and through that promote growth. GIL aims to do this by strengthening knowledge, in particular, by producing and delivering a new body of evidence and developing a compelling narrative, geared towards policymakers, on what works and what does not work in promoting gender equality. This new evidence will deepen capacity for gender-informed policymaking throughout the Africa region, including policies created and enacted by governments, as well as common practices and program models of private firms, civil society, and development agencies.

Regional Orientation: GIL’s work is focused exclusively on Sub-Saharan Africa, where the team is currently working in 20+ countries with the aim of building an evidence base with lessons for the region.

Sector Specific: GIL is focused on conducting rigorous research in order to generate evidence on how to close the gender gap in earnings, productivity, assets, and agency. GIL’s work is grouped into several categories: agricultural productivity, private sector development, land and property rights, and youth employment, and social norms.

Impact Evaluations: GIL is currently working on over nearly 100 impact evaluations, with additional work in the pipeline, and requires a core team of DC-based staff to coordinate and country-based Economists that support analytical work.
Influencing Policies and Practices that Matter for Gender Equality: GIL engages in rigorous research by partnering with high-profile, large-scale, innovative and/or potentially influential projects and project partners on its impact evaluations. GIL then uses its results, which are disseminated in papers, presentations, policy briefs, blogs, and in other ways, in order to influence how development projects and policies are conceived and run. GIL aims to help direct funding to the most effective programs and policies, increase the availability of good data to inform programs and policies that target gender inequalities, and increase the use of evidence to inform program and policy decisions.

GIL’s internal organization and staffing: Each impact evaluation is led by a coordinator and other GIL team economists and research assistants, often in collaboration with external researchers. The projects that GIL evaluates are typically implemented by external partners, and data collection is carried out by external firms.

Ethiopia Country-Level Lab:
Ethiopia is one of the focus countries for GIL with several ongoing IEs and pilots. To provide an adequate structure to GIL’s growing project portfolio in Ethiopia, a country-level lab was established as the Gender Innovation Policy Initiative for Ethiopia (GIPIE). GIPIE started in 2019 and achieved major milestones including completing a gender diagnostic report, initiating new impact evaluations to generate new evidence on women’s economic empowerment, and establishing partnerships. GIPIE’s overarching goal is to produce evidence on what works for women’s economic empowerment to be used in policymaking in Ethiopia. Critical to achieving this objective is a timely and effective engagement of policymakers at all levels. Policymakers are central to the design and implementation of the transformative changes required to accelerate women’s economic empowerment.

Duties and Accountabilities

The key responsibilities of the Extended Term Consultant will include:

– Getting GIL evidence used. Engage with government partners and World Bank project teams to present evidence and use evidence to build stronger policies on women’s economic empowerment (research uptake) in Ethiopia. Work closely with the research uptake team and economists based in Washington to help government and development partners effectively use the evidence that GIL produces from Ethiopia and the rest of the continent. Identify key opportunities for policy influence at the policy and program level and mobilize the necessary resources to provide timely and targeted policy advice and capacity building, for greater effectiveness.
– Support task teams, including government, NGOs, and the World Bank’s Ethiopia Country Management Unit (CMU), to identify and develop innovative pilot interventions and impact evaluations that target and test potential solutions to the underlying constraints that hinder women’s productivity.

– Liaise with and support the World Bank Ethiopia CMU, including in its analytical work and its ongoing gender policy dialogue with government and other key development partners in the country.

– Foster new partnerships and strengthen collaborations with other units in the Bank through analytical and advisory initiatives. This includes conscious efforts to integrate gender into the Bank’s operations and building a case for systematic approach to impact evaluation.

– Present findings from GIL research and provide technical workshops to government counterparts, project teams, and other select audiences; organize training and workshop sessions and deliver selected contents; prepare documents, including policy reports, intended for external release.

– Help create new partnerships between GIL and external research collaborators, in academia, NGOs, and government, by supporting GIL’s calls for proposals and new partners, and the subsequent review of expressions of interest, and concept note creation for possible new impact evaluations.

– Provide technical support on the design of selected impact evaluations and implementation of ongoing interventions, including designing baseline and follow-up surveys, undertaking data analysis, and writing relevant reports.

– Assist as needed in preparations for surveys and qualitative research initiatives, including in the planning of fieldwork activities and the finalization of data collection instruments. Build and manage teams comprised of external researchers, government and NGO collaborators, field staff, data analysts, and survey teams.

– Prepare project work plans, budgets, etc.

– Conduct data analysis using STATA.

– Inspect, perform logic and consistency checks on, clean, merge, and transform raw data.

– Organize (and provide) refresher training on impact evaluation for project and implementing partner staff, local organizations and primary stakeholders, in line with the projects’ objectives.

– Provide support on the preparation of progress reports to management.

– Support the team with monitoring and reporting for trust funds and donors.

– Expected to spend roughly as much time on policy take up and engagement as on analytical work related to impact evaluations.

Selection Criteria

Competencies

I. General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills – Possesses a demonstrated track record of working with economic and sectoral data and analytical tools and models to conduct economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; understands underlying statistical concepts.
II. Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena – Understands policy making process; distills operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients.
III. Policy Dialogue Skills – Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders.
IV. Integrative Skills – Working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current sector.
V. Gender-related Economics and Integrative Skills – Experience in working to develop a stronger integration of gender issues in the various economic sectors, at the analytical and operational level.
VI. Written and Verbal Communication – Delivers information effectively in support of team or workgroup.
VII. Client Orientation – Takes personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to client queries, requests or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success.
VIII. Drive for Results – Takes personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.
IX. Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion – Collaborates with other team members and contributes productively to the team’s work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view.
X. Knowledge, Learning and Communication – Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner.
XI. Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making – Analyzes facts and data to support sound, logical decisions regarding own and others’ work.

Selection Criteria

XII. Minimum of Master’s degree in economics (PhD preferred), international development or related field;
XIII. Five years + of relevant professional experience in applied research, gender, impact evaluations, and policy dialog required;
XIV. Fieldwork experience in Ethiopia (or elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa) executing impact evaluations or conducting similar research, including survey design and implementation, required.
XV. Excellent analytical and quantitative skills including a strong econometrics background, and the ability to use STATA;
XVI.  Excellent project management skills;
XVII. Behavioral competencies that facilitate dialogue with government, country partners and country teams, including listening skills, capacity development skills, and ability to adapt advice to the local institutional realities;
XVIII. Commitment to teamwork, knowledge-sharing, and ability to influence across organizational boundaries;
XIX. Excellent analytical and quantitative skills including a strong econometrics background, and general economic knowledge and analytical skills. Demonstrated track record of working with economic data and analytical tools and models to conduct economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; understands underlying statistical concepts.
XX. Teamwork, collaboration, and inclusion – Commitment to teamwork, knowledge-sharing, and ability to influence and network across organizational boundaries. Collaborates with team members and contributes productively to the team’s work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view. Demonstrated ability to lead, manage, and motivate teams and group efforts across organizational boundaries.
XXI. Client orientation – Takes personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to client queries, requests, or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success.
XXII. Drive for results – Able to take personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.
XXIII. Knowledge-sharing, learning, and communication – Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner. Strong written and oral presentation skills required. Strong ability to distill relevant recommendations/lessons for clients and target audience.
XXIV. Business judgment and analytical decision-making – Analyzes facts and data to support sound logical decisions regarding own and others’ work.
XXV. Fluent in English and Amharic. Knowledge of additional languages spoken in Ethiopia is preferred.
XXVI. Willing and able to undertake travel.
XXVII. Familiarity with World Bank operations and procedures is preferred.

Remuneration will be set according to standard World Bank rates, commensurate with experience. The position starts as soon as possible and will be based in the World Bank’s country office in Ethiopia.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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