Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
Senior Energy (Finance) Specialist
Job #: | req23074 |
Organization: | World Bank |
Sector: | Energy |
Grade: | GG |
Term Duration: | 4 years 0 months |
Recruitment Type: | International Recruitment |
Location: | Nairobi,Kenya |
Required Language(s): | English, French |
Preferred Language(s): | |
Closing Date: | 6/29/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC |
Description: Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
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 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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org
Eastern and Southern Africa
Home to about half a billion 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.
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The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,207 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.
• Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support is helping 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. With the influx COVID-19, we are mobilizing financial support and timely analysis and advice to countries across the subregion deal with the pandemic.
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• Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption: 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. A number of East African countries are currently facing a debilitating Desert Locust infestation, threatening the already precarious food security situation. The Bank has put together a program to help affected countries deal with the scourge.
• 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.
The World Bank is a dedicated partner for Eastern and Southern African countries, helping them deliver strong development outcomes for their people. A brighter future for Africa is a better future for the world.
Unit Context: Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
The Energy & Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank Group is made up of more than 300 professionals, a lending program in the order of US$5-7 billion a year, an active portfolio of some $40 billion, and a rich program of Advisory and Analytical Work. The EEX GP focuses on: providing affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to meet the needs of fast growing economies and to ensure universal access to modern energy services for people in client countries; and, strengthening policy and institutional frameworks to promote transparent and equitable growth of the extractive sectors for public benefit. There is a strong emphasis on private sector resource mobilization and catalyzing financing from commercial and other sources of development and climate finance.
The World Bank Group launched a major, innovative Initiative to accelerate electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa with Distributed Renewable Energy (DARES – Distributed Access with Renewable Energy Scale up) aiming to significantly scale up private sector deployment and funding in Distributed Renewable Energy to provide energy access to at least 100 million people in Africa. To implement this initiative, the World Bank is currently scaling up its support for energy access, including via a regional multi-phase approach (MPA) for Eastern and Southern Africa.
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Additionally, the Bank initiated the “Electrifying Africa” program designed to address the major challenges hindering progress on clean energy access. These challenges include the lack of comprehensive, national electrification strategies and plans; policy and regulatory gaps to attract private investments; financial viability and operational challenges of mini grid and off-grid companies as well as progressive power utilities; institutional and capacity constraints of implementing agencies; affordability and access to finance challenges; lack of cross-sectoral collaboration, and lack of coordination among donors.
The World Bank on-going energy portfolio in the region includes support for power generation projects, especially renewables such as solar and geothermal; transmission network development and grid distribution including last mile electrification; support for solar mini grids, off-grid stand-alone solar systems for households and communities, solar water pumping and cookstoves in the underserved counties; technical assistance and capacity building of sector institutions; and interconnection with neighboring countries as part of the efforts to enhance the connection to the regional Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) electricity network.
The Bank provides this support through development policy financing; program for results; investment financing support; technical assistance; and guarantee operations. Assisting the governments with policy and regulatory reforms to accelerate electrification comprehensively (grid, mini grids and off-grid) as well as increase investments in renewable energy generation along with the promotion of the regional energy trade in the EAPP and modernizing the electricity network for the needs of a modern economy are among the key areas of the Bank’s deepening engagement in the sector.
The Africa energy sector grouping consists of four Units across two regions of East and Southern Africa and newly created VPU of West and Central Africa. The position is based in Nairobi, Kenya supporting the East Africa unit (IAEE1).
Duties & Accountabilities: Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
The East Africa unit (IAEE1) of the World Bank seeks a Senior Energy Specialist to be a key member of the Energy Team to support the Governments to co-lead the design and implementation of the on-going and future World Bank support in energy in East and Southern Africa in general and in Burundi, Madagascar, Somalia and DRC in particular (other countries may be added) in its efforts towards provisioning of clean, affordable, and sustainable electricity.
The candidate is expected to be a core member of regional initiatives focusing on energy access, in particular the regional energy access MPA program, Electrifying Africa and DARES. The work entails strategic, advisory, and operational work. The main responsibility of the candidate will be to support the scaling of the DRE-sector through ongoing sector dialogue, implementation of the investment lending operations, preparation of pipeline, as well as analytical work in the energy sector. The candidate will be based in Nairobi but travel frequently to the focus countries.
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The selected candidate will participate in overseeing implementation of energy access operations with the aim to enhance quality and accelerate implementation and will play an active role in Bank’s policy dialogue with the authorities, development partners, and other stakeholders on strategic energy issues and implementation of ongoing energy sector reforms.
The selected candidate will contribute to the design and implementation of flagship initiatives including Energy Access MPA program, Electrifying Africa and DARES.
The selected candidate will also lead teams, provide guidance and mentoring to junior staff on operational, policy dialogue and analytical activities.
The AFR Energy team is a key contributor towards the WBG strategy for “Maximizing Finance for Development (MFD) with the objective to help countries maximize their development resources by drawing on private financing and sustainable private sector solutions. The Senior Energy Specialist is expected to actively seek opportunities to apply MFD principles in our work program and build a strong internal WBG partnership with IFC and MIGA, as well as network with private sector partners that can contribute to the achievement of our development objectives.
The responsibilities of the selected candidate will include: Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
The Sr Energy Specialist/Sr Energy Finance Specialist, based in Nairobi, Kenya, will lead part of the Bank’s energy engagement in East and Southern Africa with primary responsibility to assist in mobilizing finances. This will involve liaising with potential investors, multilateral or bilateral donors, and financial institutions to secure funds for electrification, particularly those related to Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE). The Sr Energy Specialist would be expected to:
• Leverage knowledge of regional financial markets to identify potential sources of funding and investment opportunities. This includes understanding the investment climate and structuring deals to attract both domestic and international investors.
• Develop and implement innovative financing strategies and mechanisms to support the growth of DRE projects. This could involve exploring and promoting non-traditional forms of financing such as green bonds, blended finance, and crowd funding.
• Advise a range of Governments on energy policy and strategy as well as reform dialogue, with particular focus on acceleration access to electricity through a comprehensive approach (grid, mini grid, off-grid);
• (co-)lead the supervision and implementation support of the existing portfolio;
• Lead analytical work on DRE access, especially on financing aspects
• Build a pipeline of new investments supported by quality analytical work;
• Build on existing partnerships with development partners and other stakeholders (like AMDA, GOGLA, EREA, RERA, COMESA), to drive the broader electricity access agenda including improving conditions for access expansion in fragile states and core sector structural and financial sustainability reforms, and
• Liaise with the CMU, other GPs, and WBG on energy Access as well as climate change and resilience aspects.
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Other responsibilities will include technical support to lending and non-lending programs, in particular in relationship to the DRE sector and with focus on finance:
• Lead or co-lead energy sector strategy development and policy dialogue.
• Lead the development of new lending, preparation, and supervision of investment operations in the energy sector with the aim to enhance quality, efficiency and pro-poor focus and accelerate implementation.
• Lead the preparation of analytical and advisory reports and studies on country and regional market analysis for electrification; geospatial planning; policy and regulations; mobilizing (semi) commercial financings; attracting mini grid and off-grid companies and progressive utilities; as well as skills development.
• Lead the drafting and inputs for sector and country briefings, analytical and advisory reports and studies on electrification, DRE acceleration, utility reform, transmission and distribution, renewable energy; energy efficiency, and other programs within the AFR Energy portfolio.
• Support the unit’s analytical agenda on improving access to energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Assume an active role in the Kenya based DRE team with the aim to ensure adequate and appropriate integration of relevant aspects of the energy development agenda in core Bank products, including the country partnership framework, strategic country diagnostic, country economic memorandum etc.; and
• Participate in the dialogue with relevant representatives of the private sector (including AMDA and GOGLA) in order to keep abreast with issues related to the business investment climate and identify possible areas of collaboration through public-private-partnerships.
• Develop strong working relationships with the staff of other donor and financing agencies and co-operate with them in the preparation and supervision of projects.
Selection Criteria: Senior Energy Specialist: World Bank, Nairobi – International Recruitment
• Master’s degree in engineering, finance, business administration, economics, environment or equivalent areas relevant for energy sector development.
• At least 8 years of combined experience in the World Bank, other international institutions and/or companies, government agencies, and/or power sector utilities with demonstrated track record of successful engagement with relevant developmental programs and significant portion of this experience in the DRE (Distributed Renewable Energy) field.
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• Seasoned professional with a broad understanding of the DRE/mini-grid space financial markets, investment climate, and structuring. This includes a deep understanding of financial markets, investment climates, and structuring of deals.
• Strong knowledge of operational challenges faced by mini-grid companies and power utilities in the region, and experience in designing solutions to address these challenges.
• Demonstrates proven understanding of energy policies, technologies or strategies, private sector participation, utility reform, and institutional development needed to support development and for the success of project and analytical work.
• Experience leading and/or playing key roles in policy dialogue with clients and stakeholders.
• Experience working on/with World Bank or other International Financial Institutions (IFIs) I) lending and non-lending operations is desirable.
• Track record in the development and implementation of innovative financing strategies and mechanisms. Experience with non-traditional forms of financing, such as green bonds, blended finance, and crowd funding, is highly desirable.
• Demonstrates active listening skills and the ability to influence the audience (such as counterparts in government, international partner organizations, academia, and Bank colleagues, senior staff and managers).
• An excellent track record in carrying out high quality and timely analytical reports and activities would be advantageous.
• Experience working with large global teams, to produce high-quality results and outputs with minimal supervision is required;
• High level of motivation, ability to work independently, taking initiative, and flexibility in quickly adjusting to changing work program requirements;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and proven ability to build strong partnerships with clients, different stakeholders and colleagues across units and departmental boundaries in a multi-cultural environment with virtual teams located in different countries;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, able to communicate complex issues in simple terms and to engage in evidence-based dialogue with clients; French language Skills required, and
• Demonstrates strong understanding and able to translate technical analyses into policies, operations and/or research of at least one of relevant thematic business lines such as Energy Access; Economics, Markets & Institution; Oil & Gas; Energy Efficiency; Renewable Energy; Energy Finance; Hydropower; Power Systems & Technologies.
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