Innovation and partnership bond the five institutions of the World Bank Group (WBG): the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It uses financial resources and extensive experience to help poor nations reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve the quality of life. The World Bank Group’s work focuses on achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goals call for eliminating poverty and achieving inclusive and sustainable globalization. The MDGs lay out a blueprint for the World Bank Group, setting its priorities and measuring its results. The World Bank is the world’s largest funder of education; the world’s largest external funder of the fight against HIV/AIDS; a leader in the fight against corruption worldwide; a strong supporter of debt relief; and the largest international financier of biodiversity, water supply, and sanitation projects.
Regional Context
The Africa Region, which is comprised of approximately 1600 staff members of whom around 60% are based in 38 field offices, is committed to helping Africa realize its considerable development potential, with a focus on employment generation. The core values guiding our work are passion for our mission of sustainable poverty reduction with keen attention to quality and transformative impact, putting the needs of the client at the center of all our activities, trust and respect as a common currency, intellectual rigor and curiosity, honesty and integrity, teamwork, openness to learning and the courage to admit we do not always have the answer.
Sub-Saharan Africa has a population of around 800 million people in 47 countries, and is a vibrant and changing environment for development work. The last two decades of democratic elections and, in some countries multiparty systems has created a greater openness to pro-poor reforms. A vibrant civil society has become increasingly vocal on policy issues, and African citizens are more and more holding politicians accountable for their actions (although there are variations across countries). Regional institutions, such as AU/NEPAD are applying peer pressure on national leaders to improve their performance.
Until the onset of the global financial and economic crisis, Africa had been experiencing a period of sustained and widespread growth. In addition to the oil exporters, some 22 non-oil-exporting countries were experiencing better-than-four-percent growth for a decade and two third of the population lived in countries that had grown by between 5.9 and 8.1 percent per year. The sources of this growth were three-fold: (i) external resources—aid, debt relief, private capital flows and remittances were all increasing; (ii) strong commodity prices and a buoyant global economy; and (iii) improved macroeconomic policies, reflected for instance in the fact that the median inflation rate in the mid-2000s was about half that in the mid-1990s.
While the overall business climate in Africa is the weakest in the world, several countries—including some fragile states—have made great strides in improving their environment for business. For example, Rwanda was the “reformer of the year” in the latest Doing Business Report. Similarly, after decades of neglect, Africans are making a concerted effort to increase agricultural productivity—and that effort is beginning to bear fruit. Some 13 African countries increased productivity faster than 3 percent a year for the last six years.
The overall policy environment in Africa, which had been improving until the recent crises, continued to improve during the crises. Some countries even accelerated their reform programs. What is emerging as a result is a growing region, with setbacks from time to time, that is increasingly seen as a destination for investment as much as for aid; and one where leaders are increasingly willing to address problems of misgovernance that harm development effectiveness. As a result it is possible that Africa is poised for a growth takeoff, much like India was 20 years ago and China 30 years ago.
The Africa Region plans to seize this unprecedented opportunity to better support our clients in realizing the dream of a continent free of poverty. The new Strategy, entitled “Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Support to it” which was strongly endorsed by the Board on March 1, 2011, will guide its overall response these unprecedented opportunities and expectations over the next 5-10 years.
Unit Context
Ethiopia, with a population of about 81 million, is the second-most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the world’s oldest civilizations, Ethiopia is also one of the world’s poorest countries. At US$350, Ethiopia's per capita income is much lower than the Sub-Saharan African average of US$1,077 in FY 2009 (GNI, atlas Method).
The current Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Ethiopia covers the period FY 2008-2011. The CAS aims to support Ethiopia in achieving four main strategic objectives, consistent with the Government’s Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP): (i) fostering economic growth to sustain the emerging economic ‘take-off’; (ii) improving access to and quality of basic service delivery to sustain the emerging basic service ‘take-off’;(iii) reducing Ethiopia’s vulnerability to help improve prospects for sustainability; and (iv) fostering improved governance to support progress on the previous three objectives and empower citizens.
.The International Development Association is Ethiopia’s largest provider of official development assistance: it has committed over US$7 billion to more than 60 projects in Ethiopia since 1991, most notably for the protection of basic services, productive safety nets, and roads. The Bank has worked to promote economic growth and address systemic poverty challenges across many sectors such as Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Roads, Decentralization, Private sector, Regional cooperation, and Improving governance to maximize aid effectiveness.
***The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of race, gender, nationality, culture, and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. ***
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 4 year renewable term appointment.
110724 | Country Director -Ethiopa | Country Services | International Hire | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 31-May-2011 |
Country Director -Ethiopa
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