Sr Financial Management Specialist (Corporate Financial Reporting)

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.

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.

Regional Context

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprises of 30 extremely diverse clients, with a population of nearly 500 million people. Four of our clients are IDA only and another 5 are IDA blend countries.  The remaining 21 countries are IBRD credit-worthy though not all have active lending programs. Although 10 of our clients have joined the EU and 7 of these have graduated, most continue to remain active recipients of knowledge and/or lending services. The ECA Region is characterized by a rapidly changing business environment with countries in different stages of development. Country Partnership/ Assistance Strategies reflect this strong diversity with substantial variation in lending prospects, but strong demand for Bank technical services is present across the board.

Over the last 20 years of transition, ECA countries have integrated into the global economy across many dimensions such as trade, finance, and labor flows.  GDP in the Region grew by two-thirds from 2000 to 2008 – an enviable growth of an average of 6.5 percent a year. Yet despite this progress, ECA was hit the hardest by the global economic crisis compared to the other regions in the Bank.  Growth in the Region, which had peaked at about 7 percent in 2007, fell to a negative 6 percent in 2009.

The financial and economic crisis led to a substantial increase in Bank lending and knowledge activities in all ECA countries, including in several EU members states (e.g., Latvia and Hungary). The crisis helped serve as a powerful reminder of the relevance of the Bank both as an attractive source of funding and a reliable provider of timely and quality advice.

It is projected that ECA is going to be the slowest region to recover from the crisis. Growth in 2010 reached about 4 percent, and prospects for 2011–13 are only slightly better.  Based on this changing context, the new ECA strategy is focused on developing a new growth model for the region through:
1. Increasing competitiveness to achieve faster growth.
2. Pursuing social sector reforms and fiscal adjustment to achieve more inclusive growth.
3. Supporting climate action to achieve more sustainable growth.

Even while declining from the heights of the crisis, we expect demand for our lending and advisory services post-crisis to remain strong. But we are constrained in our capacity to respond given budget constraints and a limited IDA and IBRD resource environment.  This requires an increased results focus to help direct our resources to where they will have the greatest impact, along with continued emphasis on leveraging partnerships and expanding our fee for services activities in MICs, building on the successful experience in Russia.

With the generous financial support of the Government of Austria, a new officethe Centre for Financial Reporting Reform (CFRR)was opened in Vienna in November 2007 to host ECA’s corporate sector financial reporting activities that are aligned with the business model described above, which seeks to expand the delivery of fee-for-service and trust-fund-financed advisory services.

Client demand for Bank assistance in the field of corporate sector financial reporting has been growing strongly. Significant reforms are required to come into compliance with the relevant aspects of the acquis communautaire, in the case of countries which have already joined the EU, which are preparing to do so, or which simply wish to align with a robust and comprehensive model. All countries recognize the contribution of improved financial information to private and financial sector development, to the regulatory and tax-raising capacity of the state, and to enhanced transparency and governance more generally. The financial crisis has led to additional focus on the contribution of financial reporting to financial sector prudential supervision and financial stability.

The Vienna CFRR is part of the ECA Financial Management (FM) Unit. In carrying out its activities, the CFRR collaborates closely with other colleagues forming part of the Financial Management Unit, regional staff working on other sectors, the various networks, and other parts of the Bank Group, including FinSAC, CIC, IFC and MIGA.

The current work program of the Vienna CFRR comprises:
1) The Financial Reporting Technical Assistance Program (FRTAP) which is a large (approx. US$20 million) multi-year programmatic fee-for-service technical assistance program for four new EU Member States (Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia), combining both regional and country-level activities;
2) The Road to Europe Program of Accounting Reform and Institutional Strengthening (REPARIS) which is a large (approx. US$12 million) multi-year technical assistance program for seven countries of the Western Balkans plus Moldova, combining trust-fund-financed Bank-executed regional activities and recipient-executed national activities;
3) Country-level technical assistance activities in CIS countries;
4) Economic and Sector Work including primarily the Accounting and Auditing Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes – “A&A ROSCs”;
5) Technical support to an investment lending operation under supervision;
6) A range of knowledge management activities including the CFRR website and quarterly newsletter.

Another multi-year technical assistance program in the area of corporate financial reporting modeled after REPARIS is under consideration at the moment for countries of the Black-Sea and South-Caucasus area (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine).

Knowledge and learning is one of the six strategic themes of the Bank aiming to leverage the best global knowledge to support development.  The Bank is committed to remaining the premier source of development knowledge through reports, data and analytical tools, conferences, and the Internet.  The Bank is accelerating integration of knowledge and learning into its core work, enhancing the capacity to share the knowledge globally and helping build partnerships and expertise in client countries.

In accordance with this strategic focus, the CFRR seeks to act as a center of knowledge and technical excellence in corporate financial reporting. The CFRR is responsible for providing diagnostic assessments, advisory services and technical assistance at both regional and country level.

The knowledge products and services of the CFRR rely on four pillars: 1) the A&A ROSC; 2) thematic community of practices (CoPs) to enhance knowledge sharing and peer learning; 3) ministerial-level and technical conferences, workshops, and distance-learning seminars for knowledge dissemination, peer exchange and capacity development tailored to the needs of partner countries at regional or country levels; and 4) the CFRR website and quarterly newsletters to share cutting edge topics in accessible and interactive manner. A CoP is a knowledge-based group of people, featuring peer learning and facilitating knowledge transfer and innovation. Currently, the CFRR hosts two thematic CoPs in the area of accounting education, and financial reporting and auditing, plus a series of technical seminars on accounting and auditing issues for financial-sector supervisors in the REPARIS countries.  CoP activities are carried out under FRTAP as well.

Annually, the CFRR organizes between 15 and 20 face-to-face events, including large-size conferences (100-200 participants) and smaller-size workshops (30-70 participants), as well as 12 to 15 distance learning seminars (40-80 participants).  The face-to-face events are held predominantly in Vienna but can also be held in other cities of the ECA region.
Further information on the CFRR’s activities can be obtained at www.worldbank.org/cfrr.

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.

122406

Sr Financial Management Specialist (Corporate Financial Reporting)

Financial Management

Professional & Technical

GG

Vienna, Austria

10-Nov-2012