Senior Social Protection Specialis, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Background / General description:

The Social Protection and Labor unit in Eastern and Southern Africa (AFTSE) covers 23 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are in various stages of economic and social development, including middle income countries, fast-growing low income countries, and some post-conflict countries. The World Bank (Bank) supports them with a wide range of instruments and services, including investment and budget support operations, economic and sector work and technical assistance. The Bank also uses its unique multi-sector capacity and macro-economic focus to improve impact and sustainability at the country-level.

The Bank and the Government of Tanzania have established a strong collaboration in the area of social protection. Since the early 2000s, the Bank has been supporting the Government of Tanzania in its efforts to reduce poverty through social protection activities. After two successful SP operations mostly focused on improving provision of social and economic services in poor rural areas and protecting particularly vulnerable groups, the Government has set an ambitious mid-term strategy to reduce extreme poverty by half. With analytical support from the Bank (Social Safety Net Assessment) in 2012 the Government and the Bank designed and approved the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN), which provides an exciting platform for the development of a modern Safety Net system in Tanzania.

The PSSN is based on two core operations: A Conditional Cash Transfer Program and a Labor Intensive Public Works intervention. The conditional cash transfer intervention is intended to increase the household income on a permanent basis while introducing an incentive to beneficiary families to invest in the education and health of their children. The public works program seeks to provide a predictable transfer during the lean season to ensure a minimum consumption level while assisting beneficiary households to avoid negative coping decisions. The original design of the PSSN provided the Government with the basic building blocks for a social safety net system supporting an initial expansion to 275,000 households.

With the government's strong push to reduce poverty as quickly as possible, the consolidation of the safety net system and a significant scale-up of the PSSN has become the core of the Government of Tanzania's strategy to reduce extreme poverty by half. This entails a much faster expansion of the PSSN to reach approximately the poorest 15 percent of the Tanzanian population (equivalent to over 920,000 households), as soon as possible. The Government of Tanzania and the Bank agreed that reaching the goal of expanding and sustaining the PSSN requires additional support and technical assistance, stronger systems and operational tools, and a different funding structure involving not only IDA funds but also a significantly increased amount of counterpart funds as well as financial support from key Development Partners.

The Bank is the international agency leading the assistance to the Government of Tanzania to scale up and sustain the Productive Social Safety Net. The Government of Tanzania has demonstrated high level commitment and ownership to scale up the PSSN and has been able to encourage key development partners to provide mid-term support to the process, including the UN system, UK's DFID and Sweden's SIDA. The Bank has played a key role in the process through different activities, including

(i) carrying out ongoing policy dialogue on social protection,

(ii) producing sound analytical work,

(iii) providing specialized advice and assisting program implementation through operational support, and

(iv) facilitating financial assistance through IDA funds and grants.

In this framework, Bank's support will focus on strengthening social protection systems in Tanzania to reduce vulnerability and poverty by supporting poor citizens to:

(i) manage risk and respond to shocks,

(ii) build their productive assets and increase their access to basic services, and

(iii) engage in productive income-earning opportunities. By doing so, the social protection sector will contribute to inclusive economic growth and more equitable development results in Tanzania.

In addition to the focus on the scaling up of the PSSN, the team has worked very closely with PREM on fiscal sustainability, economic reports focusing on SP, for example. This collaboration will be continued moving forward and as Tanzania's revenues from new-found gas comes on-stream. While the critical focus of the staff will be on the Tanzania program, both analytically and operationally, there will be opportunities to work in other countries in the Region as well as needs arise.

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 3 year term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities:

AFTSE is seeking a Senior Economist/Social Protection Specialist who can carry out operational and analytical work as well as conduct sound policy dialogue in social protection. The Senior Economist/Social Protection Specialist will support the Bank in consolidating the policy dialogue in social protection in Tanzania through the ongoing dialogue with the Government and Development Partners. The selected candidate would participate as a core member of the Social Protection family with opportunities to work in other countries depending on need and interest. The position combines both operational and analytical work, as well as conducting ongoing policy dialogue on social protection. The position will be based in the Bank's Tanzania country office but the candidate would be expected to travel to other countries and to Washington as appropriate.

The responsibilities of this position include:

Consolidate the ongoing dialogue in the area of social protection with the Government, especially the Ministry of Finance, key line ministers involved in social protection and the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF).

Support the preparation and conduct the day-to-day dialogue for operational and analytical work.

Discuss with relevant authorities the social protection priorities in the short- and long-term, and provide advice in the areas of, among others, social safety nets, targeting mechanisms to identify the poorest and most vulnerable, monitoring and evaluation systems on the basis of international experiences and framed in the Tanzania context.

Identify possible options to support the Government in the area of social protection through additional analytical work, specialized advisory consultancies, training or study tours.

Consolidate the dialogue and working relationship with the social protection group of development partners and represent the Bank in relevant meetings as appropriate.

Participate in and lead, as appropriate, social protection missions, follow-up on agreements reached and contribute to or lead analytical work as needed.

Assist the HD Program leader, TTLs and task team members in coordinating with Bank's External Affairs Unit as needed given the high-profile nature of the PSSN scale-up.

Contribute to tasks managed by other departments in social protection is involved, such as PREM analytical work, CAS, DPOs, CPIAs as well as in the preparation of reports and briefings as necessary.

Selection Criteria:

Academic achievement and experience - A Master's Degree in relevant discipline (social policy, economics, public policy) with at least 5 years of experience in social protection, preferably in the areas of social safety nets, poverty reduction or other related fields. Experience having worked in Tanzania (or in another developing country with similar political economy considerations) is a plus.

Conceptual and analytic skills - Experience and expertise in the design, implementation and assessment of social assistance, and employment programs. Ability to: (a) translate conceptual and analytical findings into practical operational applications and policy recommendations; and (b) communicate these findings effectively in a variety of technical and non-technical settings to influence policies, programs, and business opportunities.

Communications skills and team work - Ability to (a) deal sensitively in multi-cultural environments, to work in a team environment; (b) operate independently with minimal direct supervision and support; (c) work effectively and independently as a team member and as a leader alike, including in multi-sectoral teams; (d) share and disseminate relevant information with colleagues, clients and managers alike; (e) interact effectively with a range of stakeholders within and outside the Bank, with a strong client orientation; and (f) identify and develop new and creative partnerships with a wide variety of agencies and organizations.

Knowledge and Experience in Development - Understands policy making process and 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.

Demonstrated ability in time management - The individual should be able to handle multiple tasks effectively, meet deadlines, manage uncertainty, and adjust to a changing work program over a wide variety of low-income and fragile states.

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

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