Environmental Specialist

Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help Their clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, they work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges.

Duties & Accountabilities

 The Specialist is expected to be a highly skilled and motivated individual who will support the ENB agenda across Colombia, and lead operations in natural resources management and at the nexus of agriculture and forests.  The selected candidate will possess technical breadth and depth in environment-related sectors

Technical Support

• Support GP task teams on technical issues of the GEF 6 and 7 and design new projects under GEF8 for the Amazon, Orinoquia and Pacific regions to ensure that program components meet the necessary technical requirements.
• Support capacity building efforts during early development of programs as well as during implementation.
• Support technical and analytical studies prepared in Colombia on sustainable forestry, forest economy, blue economy and other topics related to the sustainable management of natural resources,
• Work closely with national entities, providing technical assistance to the BioCF Program, particularly to the sectoral dialogues to take place in the Orinoquia region, as part of the GP task teams.

Operational Support

• Manage, and co-manage, the preparation and implementation of ENB Operations in Colombia.
• Assist with planning and logistics of operational missions for ENB Colombia programs.
• Assist with the preparation of updates, reports, and other documentation to climate funds and GEF secretariats as well as GP management, and other relevant stakeholders, on ENB related issues.
• Respond to ad hoc queries from stakeholders, in coordination with GP task teams.

Program implementation:

• Engages pro-actively in an advisory role with GP teams, CD/OM and clients on the overall ENB program implementation in Colombia. 
• Drawing on relevant substantive and country knowledge, ensures the ongoing program is delivering expected outcomes, and works with GPs, Operations Manager, CDs/CMU staff, and clients to problem solve and to adjust based on learning, changing circumstances and client needs. 
• Provides upstream input to task teams to enhance quality of task outputs that intersect with the environment agenda.
• Ensures that the ENB project teams in Colombia consider corporate commitments (e.g. MFD, climate change, gender) in their approach.

Selection Criteria

• PhD or Master’s degree level in relevant field/discipline and related professional experience
• A minimum of 5 years of full-time relevant professional experience
• Demonstrated skills in integrating multi-sectoral inputs into a package of solutions to achieve development results. 
• Experience with  WBG financing operations as well as analytical and advisory services, including work programming, budgeting, task management, and strong familiarity with WBG instruments. 
• Proven experience in designing and managing/supporting IPF/DPF/ PforR and guarantee operations as well as innovative ASA which has impacted policy dialogues and reform paths. 
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to discussions at the highest policy levels in the environment sector. 
• Ability to communicate with senior authorities on complex environment policy issues, including the integration of sectoral solutions into the broader the economic framework. 
• Demonstrated client orientation through identifying and evaluating emerging opportunities aligned with WBG strategy, and challenging others to remove barriers and to deliver beyond client expectations. 
• Excellent inter-personal skills, ability to constructively solve conflict situations and proven ability to lead from behind. 
• Ability to work in written and spoken English, in addition to fluent Spanish.
• Superior communication skills, oral and written with proven experience in dealing with conflict situations, the media, external constituencies and expert groups.