Senior Education Specialist - Pretoria, South Africa - World Bank Group

World Bank Group
World Bank Group
Verified Company
Pretoria, South Africa

3 weeks ago

Thabo Mthembu

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Thabo Mthembu

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Description

Job #:

- req22190
Organization:


  • World Bank
    Sector:
  • Education
    Grade:
  • GG
    Term Duration:
  • 3 years 0 months
    Recruitment Type:
  • International Recruitment
    Location:
  • Pretoria,South Africa
    Required Language(s):
  • English
    Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:


  • 4/27/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
    Description

THE EDUCATION GLOBAL PRACTICE


Education is central to achieving the World Bank Group's twin goals: it is a reliable route out of poverty because it has large and consistent returns to income for individuals and because it can drive economic growth.

It is also a prime vehicle for promoting shared prosperity.

The main challenge in the education sector is to achieve "learning for all, learning for life"—that is, to ensure that all children and young people acquire the knowledge and skills they need for their lives and livelihoods.

The developing world has achieved great advances in education in the past two decades, most notably in enrolling and keeping children in school and in approaching gender equality.

Yet these successes in expanding access to education have highlighted the major remaining challenges:

how to remove the educational barriers faced by the poorest people and those living in fragile states, and how to improve the quality of education so that schooling leads to real learning.

The WBG and the broader education development community are increasingly shifting focus to learning outcomes.

Because traditional input-driven programs often fail to promote learning, the WBG's education strategy highlights the need for a more comprehensive systems approach to education reform, investments, and service delivery.

This approach is about increasing accountability and targeting results, as a complement to providing inputs.

And it also requires strengthening the knowledge base on education, to highlight where systems are achieving results, where they are falling short, and what the most effective solutions are.

These efforts are increasingly guided by the need to invest early; invest smartly; and invest for all.

Through high-quality analytical work, collection and curation of evidence, and practical know-how in these three areas, the WBG is helping its partner countries accelerate their educational progress.


REGIONAL CONTEXT
The World Bank Group serves 48 client countries in the Africa Region (AFR).

Clients range from low-income countries among them many fragile and conflict states to a small but growing number of middle-income countries (MICs) but with weak human development indicators.

Average annual per capita income varies widely, and inequalities persist in most AFR countries, with most of the Region's people living in poverty.

The Bank's strategy in AFR is focused on two pillars - competitiveness and employment, and vulnerability and resilience - and a foundation - governance and public-sector capacity.


The Education Sector Unit for Eastern Africa is responsible for policy, analytical and operational work in the education sector in the sub-region.

The unit currently has a portfolio of IDA projects, Trust Funds and major studies and technical assistance products in IDA and middle-income countries.

The portfolio spans the full spectrum of the education sector from early childhood education to higher education and research.

The unit is committed to delivering high quality technical products to support education development in the Bank's client countries, and to do so in a manner that builds capacity through collaborative interactions with country counterparts.


The unit's core goals are to (i) equitably improve learning outcomes, (ii) ensure universal completion of quality primary/basic education; (iv) expand access to and quality of pre-primary, secondary, TVET, second chance education, and higher education, with a focus on applied sciences, engineering and technology and strengthening the links between post-basic education systems and labor markets.

The unit is also developing innovative approaches to education, including the use of ICT to expand access and improve quality and results-based modalities for Bank projects.

It tries to achieve these goals through education sector interventions (financial and analytical) and through interventions in other sectors that influence education outcomes, as well as through partnership activities with a variety of partners.


The unit is seeking a highly experienced Senior Education Specialist based in South Africa to contribute to the education policy dialogue, analytical and technical work, program development, and implementation support for the education portfolio.

He/she will be lead and support the undertaking of analytical work on priority topics as well as the development of IBRD pipelines in the region, engaging in cross-sectoral collaborations.

In addition, he/she will spearhead business development initiatives to expand our analytical and operational engagements in the SACU region. T
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