E T Consultant

Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. 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, 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 and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. Please visit www.worldbank.org. The Social Policy (SP) Department helps individuals, families, and communities, especially the poor and vulnerable, cope with crises and shocks, build human capital, find jobs, and protect the aging population. It engages citizens, communities, and governments to deepen resilience, build inclusion, and empower vulnerable and marginalized groups to have influence and voice. It also supports jobs and livelihoods by strengthening pathways into work and helping people connect to better employment opportunities. Unit Context The SP Department of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan Pakistan (MENAAP) Region, MENAAP SP has an exciting, innovative, and growing portfolio of operational and analytical work in the areas of social inclusion, resilience, and job creation in the MENAAP Region, and seeks to promote peace and social stability. The Social Protection programs in MENAAP contribute to implementing The World Bank’s regional strategy through a dynamic approach that brings in external partners, leverages large-scale financing, and moves beyond humanitarian response to longer-term development wherever and whenever conflict subsides. SP activities in MENAAP seek to help individuals and families find jobs, improve productivity, cope with shocks, invest in the health and education of their children, and protect the aging population. In collaboration with other departments/units, SP Department in MENAAP seeks to assist Governments in the regions through interventions that: 1.Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of SP programs and build transparent and accountable Social Protection and Labor (SPL) systems. In particular, the program promotes better targeting and links Social Safety Nets (SSN), such as cash-transfer programs, to interventions that build human capital and strengthen productive inclusion across poor and vulnerable population groups. 2.Enhance resilience of communities and institutions in fragile and conflict-affected countries through social protection schemes that help protect the poor and vulnerable (including refugees, internally displaced, and host communities), improve livelihoods, and stimulate local markets. 3.Promote job creation and employment through innovative, comprehensive, and demand-driven employment interventions, particularly for youth and women, and entrepreneurship/self-employment interventions. This approach, conducted jointly with other departments/units, contributes to building a consensus for medium-term and long-term reforms aimed at promoting productive job creation and employment among the poor and vulnerable. MENAAP SP Department interventions span operational, analytical, and knowledge-sharing work across countries in the region, and include: In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the World Bank is supporting the Government through Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) in all areas of SP, especially as they relate to the KSA’s Vision 2030. In the area of Social Protection, the World Bank is assisting the Government in removing key bottlenecks that hamper the development of an effective and efficient social protection system. It is doing so by diagnosing the Social Protection system through evidence generation, analysis, and assessments, and by supporting a strategic, broad engagement encompassing areas related to SP, improving Labor market performance, and the sustainable creation of meaningful jobs for Saudi citizens. In Lebanon, throughout the past crises, the World Bank has provided technical assistance and financing spanning various sectors, in particular SP. This included the approval of new projects and the repurpose of financing available under the portfolio to address critical, emerging needs through cash transfers to poor households, productive economic inclusion, and the revival of small businesses after the Port of Beirut explosion. In Jordan, The World Bank supports the strengthening of social protection systems, including the development and operationalization of the Social Registry and the modernization of the National Aid Fund (NAF) delivery systems. These efforts help improve the identification and targeting of vulnerable households, enhance the efficiency and transparency of cash transfer programs, and strengthen the Government’s capacity to respond to shocks through scalable and well-coordinated social assistance. Against this background, The World Bank MENAAP SP Department is seeking to recruit Mr. Umut Ismail Yeşilırmak, who will be based in Riyadh / Saudi Arabia, and will primarily work on the KSA, Lebanon, and Jordan programs, but is also expected to contribute to the broader SP portfolio and pipeline in the MENAAP region. Mr. Yeşilırmak will report to the Practice Manager, Social Policy Department, MENAAP. The contract duration is one year, renewable based on performance and business needs. Roles Responsibilities: Mr. Yeşilırmak is expected to: • Lead or co-lead social protection and labor programs in KSA, Lebanon, Jordan, and possibly other MENAAP countries. • Provide technical advice for the improvement of the delivery systems in Lebanon, in continuation of the engagement started in 2022 under the ESSNP • Provide technical advice for the design and development of KSA’s AOUN platform and any other relevant delivery systems the government is designing/implementing. • Oversee and facilitate the smooth implementation of the social protection and labor programs and other relevant activities on a day-to-day basis. • Contribute to a range of analytical and operational tasks, co-lead the operationalization of global knowledge and regional/country-level analytical findings and recommendations in the country context. • Provide research and analytical contributions to inform project design and overall knowledge creation in labor market policy and SSNs. • Proactively take the lead on knowledge-sharing and capacity-building events on labor market policy and SSNs. • Share knowledge and program updates and interact frequently and work closely with colleagues in the SP Department, CMU, and others as appropriate.