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The World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is looking for a creative and innovative applied micro-economist with a demonstrated track record of sound analytical work and excellent judgment, and an interest in supporting women and girls to achieve equality by learning what does and does not work to close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, assets, and agency, and using these insights to shape policy. The ideal candidate will have training and research interests in development economics, labor economics, gender, entrepreneurship, firm- and household-behavior, private sector development, and financial inclusion, and experience engaging with policymakers.
The thematic focus of this position is on closing gender gaps in access to productive inputs, productivity, earnings, and profits. This may include work on micro-, small-, and medium-enterprises as well as on aspiring entrepreneurs, and includes pilots and impact evaluations in the areas of entrepreneurship; skill development; access to capital; digital and financial inclusion; and norms. The geographic focus of this position will be on Ethiopia, but may also include Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Lesotho, as well as other Sub-Saharan African countries. The position will involve extensive engagement with policymakers and senior leadership within both government and the private sector, as well as World Bank operational teams. The Economist will lead RCT impact evaluations and other analytical work.
Institutional context
The Africa Gender Innovation Lab: The Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is part of the World Bank’s Africa Region Chief Economist’s Office. For more than ten years, the Africa GIL has been supporting women and girls to achieve equality by learning what does and does not work to close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, assets, and agency, and using these insights to shape policy. The Africa GIL is currently working in 20+ countries with the aim of building an evidence base with lessons for the region. To date, GIL has influenced the design of nearly 200 World Bank projects and has helped shape $11.6 billion in development spending. The Africa GIL’s three-pronged approach includes:
- Generating and synthesizing evidence: Conducting rigorous analytical work, including more than 100 rigorous (mostly RCT) impact evaluations, as well as inferential work, that identifies key drivers of gender gaps, and the effectiveness of interventions in closing them.
- Actively working with project teams, governments, and the private sector to design and test evidence-based interventions that directly target key drivers of gender gaps.
- Engaging with policymakers for change at scale: GIL has been transforming the policy discourse, helping policymakers achieve their development goals, and advancing gender equality at scale by showing how gender equality matters for development, and championing and enabling an evidence-based approach to program and policy development.
Duties and Accountabilities
The Economist will contribute to the successful delivery of GIL’s ongoing initiatives, as well as GIL’s broader strategic agenda. The Economist will lead and support the design and implementation of impact evaluations, other rigorous research, and innovative pilot interventions aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs, and closing gender gaps in earnings, profits, firm growth, etc. The Economist will provide intellectual leadership, particularly in the area of women's financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, and will work closely with World Bank teams, government counterparts, and development partners to develop and evaluate innovative financial services and training programs. The role involves significant research, data analysis, team management, and communication responsibilities, including presenting findings, facilitating policy adoption, and writing for policymaker audiences. Additionally, the Economist will assist in project monitoring, reporting, and fundraising efforts. The ETC Economist will work under the supervision of the Africa Gender Impact Evaluation Unit Leader, Michael O’Sullivan:
Responsibilities will include:
Portfolio Development and Policymaker Engagement
•Provide intellectual leadership on the design of GIL’s current and future work program around productive financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, in Ethiopia as well as other African countries, drawing on relevant thematic expertise, professional networks and available resources.
•Support dialogue with World Bank project teams, governments, partner organizations as well as broader dissemination efforts with development practitioners, to inform the design of projects, policies and strategies.
•Identify opportunities for policy influence and learning, and provide timely and targeted support to promote the integration of learning and adoption of policies and programs that advance women’s economic empowerment.
•Foster new partnerships and strengthen collaborations with other units both within and outside of the World Bank, and with external research collaborators in academia, NGOs, and government.
•Develop and/or contribute to concept notes, proposals, work plans, and budgets for Africa GIL supported activities.
•Support GIL fundraising within this thematic area by identifying opportunities for funding and developing expressions of interest and proposals.
Intervention Design and Piloting
•Work with World Bank project teams, governments, and the private sector to design and test evidence-based interventions that directly target key drivers of gender gaps.
•Collaborate with operational specialists at GIL on the design of new financial services, training programs and other potential solutions to the underlying constraints that hinder women’s productivity and ensure that pilots are designed to answer priority GIL questions and contribute to the economic literature, and are amenable and are designed in a way that is conducive to the integration of rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT) impact evaluations, if possible, in cases where an RCT would add significant value.
Research and Delivery of Findings
•Lead or support the design, operationalization and implementation of RCT impact evaluations and other research studies, including lit reviews; identifying key questions to be addressed, outcome indicators to be used, data sources, sample composition (sampling framework, power calculations), field procedures, ethical review board compliance, timeline, and budget.
•Design data collection instruments, including baseline and follow-up surveys; conduct and supervise data cleaning and analysis (using STATA); and write-up and publication of findings in policy briefs, reports, and academic-style papers for publication as working papers or in peer-reviewed academic journals.
•Build and manage teams comprised of World Bank staff, external researchers, data analysts, field staff and survey teams to monitor implementation of evaluation plans and ensure compliance with randomization protocols and treatment assignments.
•Sensitize government counterparts and teams responsible for project implementation on impact evaluation objectives and approaches, as well as provide coaching and capacity-building as needed.
Communications
•Prepare policy briefs, presentations, blogs, talking points, and other written outputs to communicate findings and insights from GIL’s work to broader audiences, such as World Bank project teams, government counterparts, development partners, etc.
•Contribute to the academic literature by writing papers and other research outputs to document research findings and key learnings, including by publication in peer-reviewed journals.
•Present key research findings and conduct technical workshops and training sessions targeted at government counterparts, project teams and other audiences.
•Facilitate communication between GIL and related units within the World Bank including the target Global Practices and the Africa Region, Gender, and Africa Chief Economist Communications and Knowledge Management teams.
Monitoring and Reporting
•Support the preparation of reports for GIL and World Bank management, donors, and external partners; also respond to ad-hoc information requests.
•Support project monitoring and ensure that implementing partners collect and share information required for project reporting.