Senior Disaster Risk Management specialist

The World Bank

Established in 1944, the WBG is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for development solutions. In fiscal year 2014, the WBG committed $65.6 billion in loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees to its members and private businesses, of which $22.2 billion was concessional finance to its poorest members. It is governed by 188 member countries and delivers services out of 120 offices with nearly 15,000 staff located globally.

The WBG consists of five specialized institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). IBRD and IDA are commonly known as the World Bank, which is organized into six client-facing Regional Vice-Presidencies, several corporate functions, and – as of July 1, 2014 – has introduced fourteen Global Practices (GPs) as well as five Cross-Cutting Solution Areas (CCSAs) to bring best-in-class knowledge and solutions to regional and country clients.

Global practices & cross-cutting solutions areas

The 14 GPs are: Agriculture; Education; Energy and Extractives; Environment and Natural Resources; Finance and Markets; Governance; Health, Nutrition and Population; Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management; Poverty; Social Protection and Labor; Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience; Trade and Competitiveness; Transport and ICT; and Water. The 5 CCSAs are: Climate Change; Fragility, Conflict and Violence; Gender; Jobs; and Public-Private Partnerships. The new operating model is part of a broader internal reform aimed at delivering the best of the World Bank Group to our clients, so that together we can achieve the twin goals of (1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and (2) promote shared prosperity for the bottom 40% of the population in every developing country.

The “Social, Urban, Rural And Resilience” (SURR) Global practice

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented pace. Cities generate 80% of global GDP and are key to job creation and the pursuit of shared prosperity. Yet one billion city residents live in slums today, and by 2030 one billion new migrants will arrive in cities. This concentration of people and assets will exacerbate risk exposure to adverse natural events and climate change, which affects the poor disproportionately. The absence of secure land tenure underpins deprivation and is a major source of conflict in the urban and rural space. One and a half billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles of violence. In the absence of services, participative planning and responsive institutions, these trends will result in increased poverty, social exclusion, vulnerability and violence. Finally, avoiding a 4-degree warmer world requires drastically reducing the carbon footprint of cities.

The WBG is in a unique position to support national and sub-national clients to: harness urbanization and enable effective land management in support of both growth and poverty reduction; foster social inclusion of marginalized groups; support the responsiveness and fiscal, financial, and management capacities of local governments – cities, municipalities, and rural districts – to deliver local infrastructure and decentralized services; strengthen resilience and risk management related to natural disasters; reduce conflict and violence; scale-up access to finance for sub-national governments; and reduce the carbon footprint of cities. The WBG brings a combination of lending ($7-8 billion in annual lending to cities), analytical and advisory services (e.g., social inclusion flagship, urbanization reviews, Sendai dialogue), its growing portfolio of reimbursable advisory services, its convening power (e.g., understanding risk and the land conferences), its leveraging capacity (e.g., guarantees and risk mitigation), and its ability to work with the private sector to tackle the challenges at scale and to effect.

The SURR GP covers a wide gamut: (i) developing green, inclusive and resilient cities; (ii) addressing the social inclusion of the poor, vulnerable and excluded groups through accountable institutions, and ensuring compliance with social safeguards; (iii) enhancing urban and rural development through supporting and managing the urban-rural transition, assisting local development through developing land tenure, management and information systems; and (iv) assisting in disaster risk management through issues of risk assessment, risk reduction (including flood management, urban drainage, coastal management, and retrofitting of infrastructure), disaster preparedness (including hydromet services, early warning systems, and civil defense), risk financing (including CAT-DDO), and resilient reconstruction (including post-disaster damage and loss assessment). A key responsibility of the GP is to provide professional expertise and operational support to other GPs to implement the WBG social policies (the WB’s safeguard policies and the IFC’s Performance Standards) to deliver sustainable development results that ensure that any adverse impacts of WBG interventions are limited and mitigated.

The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Latin America and Caribbean Disaster Risk Management and Urban Practice

The mission of the Latin America and Caribbean Disaster Risk Management and Urban Practice is to work with national and local governments to reduce urban poverty, expand access to services, and enable cities to become more livable, economically productive, environmentally sound, and less vulnerable. The Practice pursues these objectives by (i) financing investments, (ii) providing technical assistance, and (iii) undertaking non-lending analytical and policy advisory work. In the field of Disaster Risk Management (DRM), the Practice focuses its work around four pillars: (i) risk identification; (ii) risk reduction; (iii) risk financing; as well as (iv) disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Within its program, the Practice serves Central American and Caribbean countries which are highly exposed to natural hazards – both physically and financially. While earthquakes are associated with the highest probable maximum loss per event in Central America and some Caribbean states, extreme rainfall events caused the greatest accumulated losses to countries in both sub-regions. Hydro-meteorological disasters are the most frequent, with associated damages and losses equivalent to more than one percent of national GDP per year for 14 countries in Central America and the Caribbean.

From1990 and 2008, the damages and losses associated with large-scale catastrophic events (e.g. earthquakes and hurricanes) have been estimated to total at least US$23 billion; in the same period, the comparable figure for Central American countries is close to US$21 billion. Public sector assets in the health, education, water, transport, agricultural and infrastructure sectors as well as in housing often incur most of the damages associated with catastrophic events. Such events contributed to large fiscal deficits and debt accumulations requiring public debt restructurings while at the same time limiting country abilities to finance risk reduction activities.

In this context, the Council of Ministers of Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (COSEFIN) requested the World Bank to help identify alternatives for sovereign risk protection. The association with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states through the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) was identified as the best alternative. CCRIF is the world’s first multi-country risk-pooling facility that has developed and successfully offered parametric insurance against tropical cyclones and earthquakes (and now excess rainfall). Backed by both traditional reinsurance and capital markets, CCRIF functions as a joint reserve mechanism and enhances its members’ financial resilience to disasters caused by natural events. By providing a policy payout in 14 days or less – in the event of a tropical cyclone or earthquake of sufficient magnitude (based on pre-agreed policy trigger) – CCRIF represents an efficient instrument to provide short term liquidity.

A Central America and Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Program (the Program) was designed to support COSEFIN countries to become members of CCRIF and to expand the services for CARICOM countries, contributing to increase the fiscal resilience of participating countries to insured catastrophic events. Client countries will be able to purchase parametric insurance – at a rate which is more cost-competitive than should a country approach the reinsurance market individually. This insurance instrument will be particularly useful in financing the post-disaster recovery needs as payouts are made quickly, allowing the affected government sufficient time to mobilize additional resources for longer-term reconstruction activities.

The World Bank has established a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to channel donor funding for the Program. Under Component 1 and 2 of the MDTF, the CCRIF will pool the earthquake and climate risk of participating COSEFIN member states in a segregated portfolio, while Component 3 will finance climate risk insurance for CARICOM countries within the CCRIF. A fourth component has been included to provide Bank-executed technical assistance and is meant to complement the implementation of Components 1, 2 and 3 (which will be executed by the CCRIF). Technical assistance will be strategically used to enhance Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance (DRFI) capacities amongst client countries as well as ensure timely delivery of the Program.

The DRM program in Central America and the Caribbean is growing rapidly. In the context outlined above, and in order to ensure quality support to client countries, the team is expanding through the hiring of a Sr. Disaster Risk Management Specialist, to be based in Washington D.C.

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities:

• Contribute to, or lead, high-level dialogue on DRFI with governments and strategic partners and represent the Bank in this technical capacity at internal and external meetings.
• Support and lead parts of GSURR coordination and collaboration related to disaster risk financing and insurance with internal stakeholders, including the Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance team based in the Finance and Markets Global Practice and the World Bank Treasury team;
• Lead the design and implementation of disaster risk financing activities in the Caribbean and Central American DRFI Programs;
• Contribute to, or lead analytical work such as the assessment of economic and fiscal impacts of natural disasters, a review of the public sector post-disaster expenditure, among other diagnostic activities to inform advisory services aimed at strengthening government’s DRFI programs and systems for post disaster budget execution in selected countries;
• Lead the building and use of catastrophe risk models that can connect with dynamic financial models built by the DRFI team at Finance and Markets Global Practice, to support the analysis of cost-effective financial instruments to respond to potential fiscal impacts caused by natural disasters;
• Work with the DRFI team at the Finance and Markets Global Practice to assess potential sovereign implicit and explicit contingent liabilities due to weak or insufficient domestic catastrophe risk insurance markets, including through review of loss experience of domestic insurance market with respect to catastrophic event occurrence;
• Support client countries in the creation of sovereign catastrophe risk insurance frameworks and strategies, in the context of more comprehensive disaster risk management approaches;
• Supervise and support the development of excess rainfall models and other risk models related with the design specific financial instruments;
• Draft technical notes, reports and terms of reference;
• Supervise the work of consultants and technical specialists to ensure consistency and conformity to Bank standards;
• Contribute to, or lead the design and implementation of specific capacity building activities according with client needs.
• Support the Bank Caribbean and Central American DRM teams in the identification and preparation of DRM lending and grant projects, specifically as it pertains to (i) preparation of project concept notes; (ii) preparation of project identification documents; (iii) preparation of project appraisal documents and Board packages; (iv) preparation of operation manuals, procurement plans, disbursement schedules and project activity matrices;
• Provide technical advice to Caribbean and Central American Governments related to the implementation of World Bank-financed DRM portfolios;
• Advise Clients in the execution of projects, specifically as it pertains to (i) ensuring that all project covenants are and remain satisfactory; (ii) review terms of reference and bidding documents: (iii) liaise with Bank fiduciary, safeguard and financial management colleagues;
• Coordinate mission preparation and monitoring documents, including (i) mission announcement letters, (ii) Aide-memoires; (iii) Back-to-Office Reports; and (iv) Implementation Status and Completion Reports;
• Contribute to project team’s efforts to monitor project activities and ensure proper documentation;
• Support the DRM team’s contributions to GFDRR and GSURR knowledge products and provide peer review of World Bank DRM products as requested.

Selection Criteria:

• Master’s degree in engineering, geosciences, mathematics, physics, finance or closely related field with at least eight (8) years of relevant work experience, or a comparable combination of education and work experience;
• Extensive knowledge of disaster risk management;
• DRFI/DRM analytical work and/or project implementation experience will be considered with large and operationally oriented international public organizations, financial organizations and/ or academic organizations; with a demonstrated track record of results on the ground;
• Demonstrated achievement in senior positions that require first rate analytical and writing skills;
• Demonstrated ability to deliver high quality outputs while working under pressure and within tight time schedules;
• Proven track record in Project Management/Bank Operations. This would include preparation of projects and sector reports and ability to contribute to strategic thinking and to integrate strategies/policies into the implementation of programs and projects, as well as providing effective implementation support;
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with Government officials and technical staff and with other DRFI/DRM stakeholders;
• Proven strong leadership and communication skills and ability to work cross-sectorally and lead inter-disciplinary teams;
• Strong task and project management skills, with a proven record of problem-solving capability and a proven ability to conceptualize, design and implement major projects;
• Experience with Catastrophe Risk Modeling;
• Familiarity with Latin America and prior experience in the region highly desirable;
• Fluent in English;
• Spanish proficiency is an asset.

Competencies:

• Client Orientation - Takes personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to client queries, requests or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success.
• Drive for Results - Takes personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results, and has the personal organization to do so.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Collaborates with other team members and contributes productively to the team's work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Analyzes facts and data to support sound, logical decisions regarding own and others' work.
• General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills - Possesses a demonstrated track record of working with economic and sectoral data and analytical tools and models to conduct economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; understands underlying statistical concepts.
• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Understands policy making process; distills operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients.
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders.
• Integrative Skills - Working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current global practice.
• DRM policy, strategy and institutions - Understands the institutions and governance issues related to DRM, with specific firsthand experience on engaging institutions as well as assessing their respective capacities. Specific elements include: Institutional Assessment; Reconstruction Policy and Planning; International Cooperation; Legislative Framework; Institutional Capacity Building; Transparency and Accountability.