Build a career with impact. Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help countries solve their greatest development challenges. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, the WBG is a unique partnership of five global institutions dedicated to ending poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, the WBG works with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges.

Home to about 700 million of Africa’s people, Eastern and Southern Africa is a geographically, culturally and economically diverse region of 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South. Children under 18 make up almost half of the total population. The subregion boasts of some of the world’s richest human and natural resources and, apart from South Africa, the countries are predominantly raw material exporters.

The subregion harbors some of Africa’s protracted conflicts, rendering many of its countries fragile, while significant gaps in education, health, and skills development continues to keep people from reaching their full potential. This creates a huge development challenge, impacts heavily on the lives and livelihoods of people, and hinders regional integration and trade. But it also creates an opportunity to work closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and young people to chart a brighter course for the future.

The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,200 staff, mostly based in 26 country offices, has been helping countries realize their considerable development potential by focusing on the following priorities:

• Creating Jobs and Transforming Economies: We are working with countries across Africa to stimulate job creation and economic transformation by leveraging all sources of finance, expertise, and solutions to promote investment.

• Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030 – a vision that, if realized, can boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year, and reduce poverty by 1 percentage point per year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

• Making Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support helps governments strengthen public policy processes, manage resources effectively, and reinforce fair and reliable delivery of public services.

• Investing in People: We are at the forefront of helping African countries accelerate human capital gains and empower women by improving their access to education and skills acquisition, sexual and reproductive health services, and employment opportunities.

• Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: In the face of increasing climate-related risks, we are working with African countries to advance efforts to adopt renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and green infrastructure.

• Addressing the Drivers of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence: Given the cross-border nature of conflicts in Africa, we are employing an approach that simultaneously focuses on the drivers of fragility while also supporting well-targeted regional initiatives to create opportunities for peace and shared prosperity.

• Building Partnerships and Working across the African Continent: We are scaling up our work on regional integration, taking a holistic view of the continent that covers both North and Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) Region: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/eastern-and-southern-africa

On October 1, 2018, the World Bank launched its Environment and Social Framework (ESF) to help protect people and the environment in the investment projects that it finances. The ESF brings the World Bank’s environmental and social (E&S) protections into closer harmony with those of other development institutions, and makes important advances in areas such as transparency, non-discrimination, social inclusion, public participation, and accountability – including expanded roles for grievance redress mechanisms.

The Southern Safeguards Unit (SAEM1) is one of the three ESF Units in AFE that manages E&S risks in two Country Management Units (CMUs): Mozambique CMU – Mozambique, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius and South Africa CMU – South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia. The other two ESF Units are the Southern Safeguards Unit (SAEM1) comprising of the) and the Eastern Safeguards Unit (SAEM2) comprising of the Kenya CMU – Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia; and the Tanzania CMU – Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe; and the Central Safeguards Unit (SAEM3) comprising the DRC CMU – Angola, Burundi, DRC, Sao Tome and Principe; and the Ethiopia CMU – Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Eritrea.

All World Bank-supported investment projects must meet these ambitious environmental, social, health and safety standards. SAEM1 staff are responsible for providing technical support and oversight to all investment projects to meet these requirements. In line with the ESF, the team also supports clients to build systems, institutions and capacity in country to manage environmental and social risk for WBG funded activities and more broadly.

This position is for the Mozambique CMU, and the selected candidate will be based in Antananarivo, Madagascar and will focus on environmental risk management, including on health and safety for projects in Madagascar and Comoros.

This position will focus on implementing the World Bank’s environmental and social risk management policies (including the Safeguard Policies and the Environmental and Social Framework, or ESF) and building national systems and capacity in this regard. All World Bank-supported investment projects must meet ambitious environmental, social, health and safety standards. SAEM1 is responsible for providing technical support and oversight to all investment projects to meet these obligations.

She/he will report directly to a regional Practice Manager. The selected candidate will also be expected to work collaboratively and develop good relations with the corporate safeguards team.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the preparation and implementation of Bank-financed operations by providing technical advice to Borrowers on environmental risk management and sustainability.

• Provide technical support for the screening of Bank projects for environmental risks and impacts, and vulnerabilities and identify risk management opportunities/strategies, including in Occupational and Community Health and Safety and climate change adaptation and mitigation in Bank operations.

• Perform environmental risk management function for IPFs under World Bank’s ESF/safeguards policies and by providing technical input and advice to sector projects and programs ensuring compliance of the operations with the Bank’s ESF and standards.

• Monitor compliance of all project-financed activities through the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP), including those relating to associated facilities with the ESSs and the Bank’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines, as well as GIIP (Good International Industry Practice).

• For projects being supported by the Bank’s ESF, using the ESCP as benchmarking tool, monitor compliance with the ESSs including OHS guidelines, sector specific guidelines, other relevant policies, and contract specific conditions; flag issues of non-compliance to borrower and Bank management and advise and support the borrower in developing and implementing remedies.

• Contribute to analyzing and disseminating lessons learned and best practices from specific Bank projects for research, knowledge and learning purposes.

• Provide guidance to the borrower on open and transparent engagement (through consultations, information disclosure and grievance redress mechanism) with relevant project stakeholders throughout the project cycle.

• Collaborate with World Bank GPs and IFC/MIGA colleagues on joint projects as well as other colleagues from multilateral development institutions when supporting same projects, understanding and implementing a common approach when formally approved.

• Responsible for environmental input in project documents in accordance with the Bank operational policies including Project Concept Note (PCN), Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS), Project Appraisal Document (PAD), as well as Program Documents (PDs) for other Bank lending instruments, and Decision/Negotiations Packages and assist with managing timely and proper disclosure procedures and public consultation requirements for all required environmental assessment and management instruments under IPFs, DPFs and P4Rs.

• Conduct timely project preparation, implementation support missions, and reporting and provide technical support on environmental and social risk management related topics and provide guidance on open and transparent engagement (through consultations, information disclosure and grievance redress mechanism) with relevant project stakeholders throughout the project cycle.