Job: Senior Economist (Health)

Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Deadline: Wednesday, 14 August 2013 

Description

Background / General description:

The Human Development Department in the World Bank's South Asia Region is responsible for the development of lending operations, supervision of the existing portfolio, analytical work, and delivery of policy advice and technical assistance to clients in the social sectors (education, health/nutrition/population, and social protection/labor). The South Asia Region encompasses eight countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and is home to a quarter of the world's population.

The Health, Nutrition, and Population Unit (SASHN) has a large health, nutrition and population (HNP) portfolio, with around 40 lending and analytical tasks, and commitments exceeding US$2.8 billion. The HNP portfolio is evolving to include more outcome-focused operations, innovative approaches aimed at strengthening health systems, more innovative lending instruments, and a substantial Bank role in encouraging, analyzing, and evaluating new approaches. The portfolio increasingly takes a sector-wide perspective, and aims to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation systems in client countries with an aim of bolstering the results culture. The scope of our work is extensive and growing, and covers a wide range of strategic areas, including health care financing and insurance, results-based financing, reproductive health and nutrition, communicable and non-communicable disease control, governance, private sector engagement, public sector management/public financial management, governance and accountability, decentralization, human resources for health, hospital management, pharmaceuticals, accreditation and quality assurance, information systems, evaluation and analyses (including expanding impact evaluations, as well as defining new approaches to analyzing HNP outcomes).

The HNP team focuses on two important outcomes: (a) improved health status particularly for the poor and vulnerable; and (b) reduced health-related impoverishment, partly through improved financial risk protection. We are also working to expand our work across sectors, and our understanding of how interventions outside of the health sector might best impact upon HNP outcomes. In addition, the HNP team seeks to exploit multi-sectoral work opportunities for operations focused on the specific role of various sectors in achieving better health outcomes.

SASHN consists of about 35 professional staff, seventy percent of whom are based in the field (and eight of whom are based in the New Delhi office). We work as a team of specialists bringing one another's expertise to bear on all tasks across the region, rather than as individual task teams. We seek to increasingly specialize as staff, recognizing the specific expertise of operations staff, economists and the range of HNP specializations required to respond to demands from our clients and deliver quality work.

In Bangladesh, the Bank contributes towards a comprehensive Sector-Wide Program, and manages a large share of the donor financing for this program through a multi-donor trust fund. The MDTF facilitates the Bank staffs' implementation support and an extensive AAA workprogram. The Unit is seeking to expand the locally-based team with additional capacities and global experience in key areas of importance to the development of the health sector in Bangladesh.

The SASHD HNP Unit is seeking an experienced and dynamic Senior Health Economist to support challenging HNP operational and analytical work and assist in high-level policy support to clients in the HNP sector in Bangladesh and across the region.

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:

The Senior Health Economist will work with teams to:

• Support the client in implementing their sector strategies, helping them define and continually refine the policies, budgets and operational plans which will attain intended results.
• Identify, develop, execute and disseminate high quality analytical and advisory activities that will contribute to the local and global knowledge base related to health financing and insurance, public expenditure, public financial management, decentralization, public-private partnerships, and results-based-financing. This may include public expenditure reviews, national health accounts, fiscal space analyses, analyses of efficiency and guidance on options for how health care is financed, as well as impact evaluations which help assess initiatives being supported under Bank-financed projects.
• Provide expertise in health economics and health financing to teams developing and managing health, nutrition& population lending operations. Lead in undertaking economic analyses for HNP operations, assume responsibility in operational teams for understanding the health financing landscape and bring a knowledge of health economics to the sector dialogue facilitated through a Bank-financed project.
• Measure, monitor, evaluate both the implementation and impact of policies and programs, and provide a high-level of accounting for the use of external funds.
• Expand partnerships and networks with development partners, civil society, media, academia, the private sector, as well as the IFC, to engage with a wider range of stakeholders, so as to broaden our collaboration and partnerships around universal health coverage and health financing.
• Work with the range of development partners to help ensure an effective and coordinated program of support and the application of the Paris Harmonization commitments International Health Partnership principles, while identifying and pursuing opportunities to mobilize additional external resources for the sector, and get a greater share of external resources aligned with the defined Sector Program.
• Ensure that the Bank's support across sectors, and in its high-level dialogue with government contributes to HNP outcomes. This will be achieved by engaging with staff across sectors, proactively identifying opportunities within lending and non-lending activities across the portfolio, and engaging with the Country Management Unit around, for example, the CAS and its monitoring, the CPIA.
• Expand partnerships and networks with civil society, media, academia, the private sector, as well as the IFC, to engage with a wider range of stakeholders, so as to ensure broad and sustained commitment to sector reforms and development strategies.
• Support clients in developing and implementing sector strategies, helping our counterparts define and continually refine the policies, budgets and plans that will help them attain intended results.
• Build partnerships and networks within the Bank: Participate fully in the Bank-wide Human Development Network by contributing to thematic groups, providing operational cross support to other regions, collaborating with South Asia staff in other sector units, and contributing to internal and external training activities. 
  The selected candidate will report to the SASHD HNP Sector Manager and will be work in close collaboration with the other members of the HNP and HD Team.

  Selection Criteria:

Competencies:

• 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.
• Health, Nutrition & Population (HNP) Knowledge and Experience - Possesses strong analytical skills (understanding of how to collect and use data) in the field of HNP. Contributes to the analysis, evaluation, design, strengthening and reform of HNP systems, policies, and programs.
• 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. Conducts effective data collection and analysis of relevant economic and sectoral issues in order to facilitate sound policy advice.
• Integrative Skills - Contributes to the development of an integrated view across all facets of the human development sector.
• Project Design for Impact and Sustainability - Carries out, under senior staff guidance, data collection on and analysis of relevant issues, and provides inputs to key project-related documents. Demonstrates broad knowledge of project management tools & methodologies; identifies key risks and mitigation measures; interprets background analysis and proposed solutions.
• Policy, Strategic and Technical Analysis for Country/Sector Issues - Provides inputs to key analytical and advisory documents by analyzing relevant issues, soliciting input from others, and using data and facts to support conclusions and/or positions.
• 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. 
  Additional Selection Criteria:
• A minimum of a Master's degree in Economics/Health Economics with at least eight years of relevant experience.
• Experience in both health systems and health financing, and expertise in health insurance and public financial management, would be particularly valued.
• Demonstrated capacity for analysis of macroeconomic, debt, fiscal policy and growth linkages, and financial issues, coupled with the ability to draw economic policy implications from applied economics work.
• Proven analytical skills, writing ability, and written and oral communications skills in English.

More Info and Application