Analyst

The World Bank
Washington, DC - United States
S: Competitive

Background

Summary:
The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) of the World Bank's Africa Region Impact Evaluation Unit, which is mapped to the Africa Region Chief Economist's Office, conducts impact evaluations of development interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to examine the gender gap between men and women in terms of productivity and economic empowerment. With the results of the impact evaluations, GIL aims to support the design of innovative, scalable interventions to address gender inequality in productive economic sectors across Africa. The impact objective of GIL is to increase take-up of effective policies by governments, development organizations, and the private sector to address the underlying causes of gender inequality in Africa, and through that promote growth.

Through its capacity building program, GIL leads a Junior Fellowship Program for promising young economists and other social science researchers from Sub-Saharan Africa. The program is designed to serve as a stepping stone for junior researchers to make the transition from research assistants to lead investigators. The Junior Fellowship offers a three-pronged program to provide strong and tailored mentorship, hands-on experience with rigorous impact evaluations for gender-informed policy, and preparatory training for a PhD program. Candidates who intend to apply for a doctoral program in a relevant discipline (as well as recent PhD graduates) will be eligible for this fellowship. There will be three GIL Research Analyst (Junior Fellowship) positions based in Washington, DC. We are looking for quantitative and qualitative research candidates. Applicants are requested to include their preference for the QUANTITATIVE or QUALITATIVE position in their cover letter.

Background:
The World Bank's Gender Innovation Lab conducts rigorous impact evaluations of development interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to generate evidence on how to close the gender gap in earnings, productivity, assets, and agency. The GIL team is currently working on over 50 impact evaluations in more than 20 countries with the aim of building a gender evidence base with lessons for the region. The impact evaluations rely on quantitative methods to measure causal effects and qualitative methods to understand the mechanisms for these effects. The Lab, which forms a part of the Africa Region Chief Economist's Office, focuses its work on four thematic areas: agricultural productivity, entrepreneurship, labor markets, and property rights. The impact objective of GIL is to increase take-up of effective policies by governments, development organizations, and the private sector in order to address the underlying causes of gender inequality in Africa, particularly in terms of women's economic and social empowerment. The Lab seeks to do this by strengthening knowledge by producing and delivering a new body of evidence and developing a compelling narrative, geared towards policymakers, on what works and what does not work in promoting gender equality. The Lab is supported through the World Bank Group's Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) in partnership with the United Kingdom and United States. Funding is made possible through generous contributions from the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Through its work on gender-informed impact evaluations in Sub-Saharan Africa, GIL has identified the need for a capacity building program to support the young local talent who currently work as research assistants or data collection field coordinators and who have a desire to strengthen their research skills and apply for competitive doctoral research programs, or launch research careers. In response to this need, and as part of an institutional commitment to strengthening development effectiveness through human capital investment, the Lab recently launched a Junior Fellowship Program. The program is designed to provide mentorship to selected Junior Fellows, increase their exposure to rigorous impact evaluations and other research in their areas of interest, and equip them with on-the-job and formal training in preparation for PhD admission, or policy research careers.

The Gender Innovation Lab is currently seeking candidates for three Washington-based Research Analyst (Junior Fellow) positions. It is anticipated that one of these positions will be quantitative in its focus (under the guidance of a GIL Economist) and the other will focus on qualitative research (under the guidance of the GIL Social Development Specialist).

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 1 year term appointment.


Duties and Accountabilities

These are the primary functions that the Research Analyst (Junior Fellow) should expect to complete:

• Provide technical support to impact evaluations of ongoing interventions, including with the design of data collection protocols and tools (quantitative and/or qualitative) data analysis, and analytical report writing.
• Provide inputs (tables, graphs) for inclusion in impact evaluation reports, academic articles and policy briefs.
• Draft written summaries of analysis and academic literature, as needed.
• Assist as needed in the design of interventions and impact evaluations, including in the preparation of concept notes.
• Present impact evaluation results and research findings to internal and external policy and academic audiences.
• Contribute to other research-oriented tasks of the Gender Innovation Lab.


Selection Criteria

Competencies
• General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills - Possesses a 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. (quantitative fellowship position)
• Qualitative Research and Analytical Skills – Possesses skills to design qualitative research to answer policy-relevant research questions, training on how to incorporate existing social theory into research designs, knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of different qualitative research methods, and experience conducting qualitative data collection and analysis. (qualitative fellowship position)
• 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.
• Integrative Skills - Working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current sector.
• Gender-related Economics and Integrative Skills - Is working to develop a stronger integration of gender issues in the current sector, at the analytical and operational level.
• Written and Verbal Communication - Delivers information effectively in support of team or workgroup
• 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.

Selection Criteria
The Research Analysts (Junior Fellows) should present the following minimum requirements:

• National of a country from Sub-Saharan Africa
• 35 years of age or younger
• Master's degree in economics, international development, statistics, sociology, or other related field with the Bachelor and/or Master's degree obtained in Africa
• Minimum of four years of relevant professional and/or academic experience
• Interest in preparing for and pursuing a PhD in a relevant discipline following the fellowship, or pursuing a policy research career
• Interest in conducting analytical work on gender issues in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Relevant experience in impact evaluation and/or other applied research
• Fluent in English
• Ability to speak and/or read in French and/or Portuguese a plus
• Willing and able to undertake frequent international travel

Additional criteria for the quantitative fellowship position:
• Analytical and quantitative skills including a strong econometrics background, and the ability to use Stata (quantitative fellowship position)

Additional criteria for the qualitative fellowship position:
• Analytical skills and qualitative research experience, including research design, data collection, and data analysis

Remuneration will be set according to standard World Bank rates, commensurate with experience. The position starts as soon as possible and will be based in the World Bank's headquarters in Washington DC.

Job summary