Job: Extended Term Consultant

Location: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Deadline: Sunday, 17 November 2013

Background / General description:

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 our client countries to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve quality of life. To ensure that countries can access the best global expertise and help generate cutting-edge knowledge, the World Bank Group is constantly seeking to improve the way it works. Key priorities include delivering measurable results, promoting openness and transparency in development, and improving access to development information and data.

Sustainable development is fundamental to the World Bank's ability to deliver on its mission of poverty reduction. In order to fulfill its mission, the World Bank created the Sustainable Development Vice Presidency to help our client countries, as well as other stakeholders, think through and carry out programs and policies that advance sustainable development to ensure lasting poverty reduction. This involves working with our clients to drive growth in a greener and inclusive way and strengthening the 'triple bottom line' of economic, environmental, and social sustainability for people to fully benefit from development initiatives. Our work is carried out in conjunction with developing nations and emerging economies, but also in global fora with all stakeholders where we advocate for sustainable development practices. The Bank's Sustainable Development Network (SDN) brings together people and programs across six operational regions and six 'anchor' departments: agriculture and rural development; energy; environment; social development; transport, water, and ICT; and finance, economics and urban development. These anchor departments are housed within the SDN Vice Presidency to help provide strategic leadership by the SDN Council, develop new financial and knowledge products, manage partnerships, promote operational quality, and ensure sector expertise contributes to a data driven and results focused business associated with a $110 billion lending portfolio. Close to 2,000 staff are associated with the SDN Network professionally, and approximately 780 staff work directly within the Anchor.

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprises of 30 extremely diverse countries, 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 are IBRD eligible. 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. Country Partnership Strategies (CPSs) reflect this strong diversity with substantial variation in lending prospects, but strong demand for Bank technical services is present across the board.

For the most part, countries in the ECA region have recovered to the GDP levels prevailing prior to the 2008/09 crisis, yet growth is slower than before the crisis. GDP growth in the region is estimated to have fallen to 3 percent in 2012, from 5.5 percent in 2011, and is projected to rebound only slightly to 3.6 percent in 2013. The crisis left ECA countries with historically high levels of unemployment, which are still worsening, particularly in the Balkans. Furthermore, the ongoing sovereign debt problems in Western Europe are posing challenges to the sustainability of the tepid recovery. The World Bank is helping its ECA clients by implementing a regional strategy that is focused on addressing three critical challenges to growth and development---improving competitiveness, reforming the social sectors to achieve inclusive growth, and making growth more sustainable through climate action. Governance and gender issues cut across these three strategic pillars.

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, Romania, and Poland). 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.

The mission of the Sustainable Development Department in ECA is to support the Bank's clients' efforts in the region to achieve equitable, environmentally sustainable growth, and prosperity for all. ECSSD is responsible for:

(i) advising ECA Management on long-term development issues in the sectors of ECSSD expertise, and delivering a broad range of high-quality operational and analytical products, in response to demand from country clients and Country Management Units (CMUs);

(ii) professional development of the ECA staff assigned to the Sustainable Development (SD) Network, including those based in field offices; and

(iii) ensuring a proper link with the SD Network in developing a long-term vision and strategy for SD activities Bank wide and in ECA.

The Transport unit (ECSTR) within ECSSD has a rapidly growing portfolio of operations that target support to mainly client countries with policies inherited from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). In FSU countries, transport strategies are largely influenced by the consequences of the breakup of the Soviet Union with significant backlog in investment needs required to restore and modernize their transport infrastructure. The Transport Unit is thus expanding its support to programs in our clients in both low-income and middle income countries, to address the challenges of economic growth, environmental sustainability and trade competitiveness. The portfolio of transport projects in Uzbekistan comprises two large operations

(i) a programmatic regional road rehabilitation and safety project to support part of a large Government program and

(ii) the Angren and Pap railway project to build a single 124 km track rail link including a 19.6 km rail tunnel through the Kamchik Pass.

The incumbent will report to the Sector Manager Transport and the Country Manager Uzbekistan.

Duties and Accountabilities:

The World Bank is seeking to recruit a Transport Specialist with strong road sector experience to be based in the Bank's Uzbekistan Country Office in Tashkent. Frequent travel to possibly other countries will be required.

The selected candidate will be assigned on duties as a member of a team to prepare, appraise, negotiate, and supervise implementation of transport sector related projects and programs. In addition s/he may be required to contribute to analytical and advisory work. S/he will be expected to keep abreast of issues affecting the transport sector's performance, such as: environment and social impact, HIV/AIDS, road safety, gender and poverty reduction strategies. In addition to working closely with World Bank Group staff, s/he will be expected to maintain regular contact with Government, the private sector, development partners, the media and other stakeholders.

Specific duties will include, but not limited to:

• Program and project preparation; helping identify development objectives, review and critical analysis of proposals from Government to meet these objectives, gathering supporting data and information to support the proposals and providing specific inputs into project appraisal document;
• Participate in project preparation, appraisal and negotiation activities, including operational missions in the field countries, with particular focus on implementation, project costs, and getting results on the ground;
• Program and project implementation; regular monitoring of costs and quality of work, identifying and helping resolve emerging issues to ensure results on the ground;
• Carry out regular reviews of project implementation, inclusive of site visits and review of progress reports, and make recommendations on remedial and follow up actions to resolve emerging or outstanding problems;
• Participate in project supervision missions and take a leadership role in all or part of the implementation review activities;
• Provide cross-support to other sector units in the design, implementation and supervision of civil works and related project components;
• Review of procurement documents (and/or financial management reports) to ensure compliance with Bank guidelines and the provisions of credit agreements, prepare comments and follow up correspondence for the team leader;
• Participate actively in sector donor coordination activities in the country;
• Fiduciary activities; together with procurement and financial management experts on the team, review procurement documents and financial management reports to ensure compliance with relevant guidelines and agreements;
• Knowledge sharing; contribute specific professional knowledge both in the assigned countries and within the Bank on transport and developmental issues;
• Keep abreast of key developments in related sectors and in regard to cross-cutting issues affecting the performance of the transport sector, such as: environment, social impact, HIV/AIDS, road safety, gender, poverty reduction;
• Facilitation of private sector engagement; encourage participation of the private sector in formulation of transport policy, sector strategies and implementation plans, with particular emphasis on development of the domestic construction and transport industries.
  Critical Success Factors
• Ability to identify, analyze and propose practical solutions to a broad range of technical, operational, financial and procurement issues during project implementation and evaluation;
• Sound understanding of World Bank operational and procurement procedures;
• Professional credibility;
• Interpersonal skills to interact effectively with team members, clients and other development partners;
• Strong organisational and project management skills to perform day-to-day in-country management of a large and complex portfolio and
• Excellent command of the English and Russian languages.

Selection Criteria:

Master's degree in Highway/Railway Engineering or Transport Planning and Economics with 5 years experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• At least 5 years experience in transport operations including management of transport projects, road or railway projects, experience in contract administration, planning and programming of capital and maintenance works and institutional reforms;
• Comprehension of typical sectoral issues in transport, including experience in advocacy of sector policy reforms and management and financing of transport infrastructure;
• Superior analytical skills as applied to common problems in the transport sector;
• Excellent organisational and presentation skills;
• Ability to work within a matrix management structure;
• Strong communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills;
• Computer literacy in basic software for word processing, spreadsheet and database;
• English language proficiency and Russian desirable.

Prior Bank group experience in project management, operations, procurement or finance is an advantage.

Required Competencies:

• Integrative Skills - Working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current sector.
• 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.
• Transport Policy, Strategy, and Institutions - Familiarity with transport policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations.
• Transport Engineering and Technologies - Deep experience in at least one subtopic; develops novel approaches to mitigate risk or overcome difficult challenges.
• 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.
• Operational Project Management - Demonstrates broad knowledge of project management tools & methodologies; identifies key risks and mitigation measures; interprets background analysis and proposed solutions.
• Sector Dialogue - IL - For use in client discussions and advice, conducts effective data collection and analysis of relevant issues.
• Railway Policy, Strategy, and Institutions - Familiarity with railway policies, strategies, institutions, and regulations.
• Highway Engineering and Technologies - Deep experience in at least one subtopic; develops novel approaches to mitigate risk or overcome difficult challenges.
• Transport Economics - Solid understanding of many of the economic concepts relevant to transport, with hands-on experience.
  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.
  
  
  More Info and Application