ET Consultant - GFF Country Coordinator at World Bank Group

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group 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 and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work 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.  For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

The Human Development (HD) Practice Group (PG)

The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries. 

The Human Development Vice Presidency (HDVP) at the World Bank Group is made up of the Global Practices for education; health, nutrition, and population; and social protection and jobs; additionally, the HDVP houses the gender group.  As such, HD is central to the World Bank Group’s goals to end extreme poverty by 2030 and raise shared prosperity. 

The primary challenges of health development relate to health, nutrition, and demographic transitions, through an agile short-term response, and a sustainable and inclusive longer-term response that tackles inequitable opportunities and outcomes in the health sector globally, regionally and within countries.  The fundamental challenge is to preempt, prevent and mitigate the developmental impact of these challenges now and into the future.  Specific challenges include: providing equitable, efficient, accountable and sustainable financing of health coverage; providing equitable, quality, appropriate and scaled-up delivery of priority public health services according to need; mobilizing the appropriate quantity and quality of key health systems inputs related to health workers, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare technology and facilities; and strengthening models of governance for the health sector that recognize core functions for government, responsibilities/accountability of key actors and enhance competencies for governance across levels (local, national, regional and global) and sectors (public/private/civil society, as well as government sectors such as education, transport, social protection, etc.).

Health, Nutrition & Population Global Practice  

The World Bank Group (WBG) supports countries’ efforts towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and to provide quality, affordable health services to everyone —regardless of their ability to pay — by strengthening primary health care systems and reducing the financial risks associated with ill health and increasing equity. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health 

The HNP Global Practice is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the GP. The HNP Global Practice works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that HNP outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the HNP sector.  Accordingly, a capacity to work across GP boundaries, forge coalitions and influence multi-practice solutions are essential for achieving the major objectives of improving HNP outcomes.

Global Financing Facility Context

The Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership housed at the World Bank that is committed to ensuring all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Launched in July 2015, the GFF supports 36 low and lower-middle income countries with catalytic financing and technical assistance to develop and implement prioritized national health plans to scale up access to affordable, quality care for women, children, and adolescents. The GFF also works with countries to maximize the use of domestic financing and external support for better, more sustainable health results. The GFF is squarely focused on prioritizing and scaling up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition through targeted strengthening of primary health care systems – to save lives and as a critical first step toward accelerating progress on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The GFF has pioneered a shift from traditional development approaches to a more sustainable way forward where governments lead and bring global partners together to support a prioritized, costed national plan. Through this partnership, the GFF aims to mobilize additional funding through the combination of grants from a dedicated multi-donor trust fund (the GFF Trust Fund), financing from International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the crowding in of additional domestic and external resources. To date, the GFF has mobilized more than $2.5 billion in trust fund resources.  This approach and these resources have catalyzed high-impact investments for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition in the world’s most vulnerable countries. More information is available at: www.globalfinancingfacility.org

The GFF partnership is led by the GFF Director; the day-to-day management of the GFF team is the responsibility of the GFF Practice Manager. The GFF secretariat, which is based at the World Bank and is situated in the HNP Global Practice, works to deliver on the GFF objectives. This includes working with countries to develop quality investment cases, managing the GFF Trust Fund, technical assistance to regional teams, and supporting the GFF Investors Group, the governance mechanism for the GFF.

•Prioritization and Alignment

       a. Helping to organize and support the implementation of the various pieces of analytical work that will be required for the Investment Case (IC) and/or rapid prioritization processes

       b. Supporting the GFF Government Focal Point in finalizing the IC and the associated Results Framework and updating it when necessary. 

       c. Leading a systematic process to design and periodically assess the validity, progress and outcomes of the priorities and reform processes of the IC and/or rapid prioritization plans

       d. Working with the Government to monitor government expenditures with respect to IC and annual operational plan priorities. In this work, the consultant may be supported by a public financial management consultant. 

       e. Support and facilitate the process of institutionalization of resource mapping, costing and expenditure tracking using resource mobilization and expenditure tracking and help to disseminate results.

       f. Liaising with the GFF Secretariat country Focal Point to identify technical expertise that may not be available in-country for the development of the and implementation of the IC 

       g. Integrate monitoring of the IC with broader health sector and multisectoral monitoring plans, processes and reviews, as appropriate 

       h. Helping the government to iteratively map resources and stakeholder investments to support better alignment of the budget, monitoring frameworks and plan

•Coordination 

      a. Support the Government to identify and/or form a country platform in countries that are joining the GFF and ensure that all relevant stakeholders are well informed about the GFF purpose and process. 

      b. Support the Government to convene the multistakeholder country platform meetings and produce minutes with time-bound action plans in support of the IC

      c. Identify and map technical and political forums for advocacy and decision making on RMNCAHN-G and broader health resource allocation, tracking and course-correction for IC implementation at national and subnational levels, as appropriate

      d. Engage, as and when appropriate, in regional forums such as the RECs (Regional Economic Communities) established by the African Union on DRM or Lusaka agenda.

• GFF Secretariat Support

      a. Provide status reports on the use of GFF Trust Fund investments for IC development and supervision

      b. Provide quarterly input into the GFF Country Engagement platform in coordination with the GFF country focal point and health financing and results specialists.

      c. Support preparation of Country Engagement Strategy Review and updates

      d. Collaborate with GFF Secretariat results specialists to support data use at all levels.

      e. Provide logistical and administrative support for GFF Secretariat Missions and in-country operations.

      f. Provide ongoing orientation and technical assistance to the GFF Government focal point on key areas relevant to the GFF portfolio 

• Country Communications

      a. Using a standardized template, producing and disseminating communication materials (e.g., newsletter, country brochure/factsheet) to ensure that all stakeholders are well informed of the GFF purpose, process, engagement and support in-country. 

      b. Participate in GFF multi-media missions, as needed

      c. Conduct meetings with financiers/donors/civil society/other stakeholders if needed to ensure alignment and secure additional financing for priorities over time. 

•Support for World Bank processes and programs

      a. Support GFF Focal Point to ensure effective and timely use of BETF resources for development and monitoring of a ‘living’ prioritized Investment Case 

      b. Organize meetings with partners for GFF Secretariat and WB staff involved in the GFF to improve coordination and communication on priority programs as needed.

      c. Support World Bank task teams in project operations including but not limited to project identification, preparation, implementation, supervision and completion processes 

      d. Support WB Country office and Task Team Leads in their stewardship function in support of GFF co-financing

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