Senior Energy Specialist, Clean Cooking – World Bank
Overview
About 733 million people still live without electricity and 2.4 billion people still rely on solid fuels and traditional cookstoves for their cooking, with serious impacts on the health of millions of people and on the climate (CO2 emissions, deforestation, Short-Lived Climate Pollutants). Without universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services, it is impossible to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce poverty, broaden education and improve public health. Achieving universal access by 2030 is one of two identified ESMAP Business Plan FY2021-FY2024 objectives together with advancing decarbonization across the energy sector in support of international commitments on climate change.
ESMAP’s energy access objective is supported by two interlinked programs Clean Cooking Fund and Electricity Access which are underpinned by two cross-cutting programs on Foundations for the Energy Transition and Energy Data and Analytics.
As a response to the need to scale up global efforts to accelerate access to clean cooking, ESMAP launched its US$500 million Clean Cooking Fund (CCF) at the UN 2019 Climate Summit. The CCF aims to scale up public and private investments in the clean cooking sector by co-financing with Multilateral Development Bank (MDB)’s lending operations, catalyzing technology and business innovation, and linking incentives with verified results. The CCF is organized into two pillars of intervention. Pillar 1 is the Country/Regional Investment Program, which co-finances investment projects of the World Bank Group (WBG) to scale up public- and private-sector investments in the clean cooking sector. Pillar 2 is the Global Platform for Knowledge, Innovation, and Policy Coordination, which works with development partners to mobilize high-level political commitments for the clean cooking sector at both global and country levels, generate and disseminate knowledge, promote ongoing technology and business innovations, and improve policy coordination.
Duties and Accountabilities
ESMAP is seeking a highly motivated senior energy specialist to lead the overall implementation of the Clean Cooking Fund and provide support to country and regional teams. The selected candidate will undertake the following responsibilities.
A. Lead CCF co-financed investment projects’ identification, preparation, and implementation
Since its launch, the CCF’s pillar 1 Country/Regional Investment Program has supported the preparation of six approved investment projects (in Chad, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) which are now under implementation with CCF co-financing of over US$40 million. The CCF is also administering the disbursement of 19 country and regional grants and providing just-in-time technical support to the country/regional teams which have contributed to market assessment, technical design, and development of national strategies to improve the ecosystem for the clean cooking sector. The selected candidate will
i) Engage with country/regional operational teams to develop CCF pipeline projects which would involve identifying co-investment opportunities, sharing CCF operational procedures, and providing technical guidance on project design and preparation.
ii) Lead review of CCF funding proposals (for Bank-Executed Trust Fund grant and/or Recipient-Executed Trust Fund) which would involve providing technical design inputs, sharing examples to enhance quality at the entry, and incorporating inputs from the review team.
iii) Provide technical guidance to CCF co-financed investment projects to ensure their quality implementation which would involve providing operations advice, sharing relevant country experiences, and advising/assigning relevant technical experts to support project implementation.
B. Lead CCF global platform for knowledge, innovation, and policy coordination
The CCF’s Pillar 2 works with development partners to mobilize high-level political commitment both at the global and country levels and increase knowledge, innovation, and policy coordination. The selected candidate will
i) Lead the CCF’s own-managed work program, fundraising, and reporting which would involve developing, delivering, and disseminating own-managed knowledge products, tracking CCF portfolio and results, preparing progress reports and sector briefs, and engaging and collaborating with donors and partners.
ii) Lead the clean cooking team (including mentoring junior staff), coordinate cross sectors within the World Bank, and manage a Clean Cooking Community of Practice.
iii) Contribute to the WBG corporate and global dialogue on clean cooking.
C. Cross support to regional/country operations
The selected candidate is expected to spend up to 50% of his/her time to provide cross-support to regional/country analytical and investment projects to enhance their design and implementation.
Selection Criteria
- Master’s degree in Economics, Engineering, Public Policy, Business Administration, or equivalent areas relevant for energy sector development with a minimum of 8 years of relevant working experience in the World Bank, other international institutions, companies, and/or government agencies with demonstrated track record of successful engagement with relevant developmental programs and projects, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Demonstrated strong understanding of the clean cooking/energy access sector.
- Excellent communication skills and demonstrated ability to lead high-level dialogue.
- Demonstrated capacity to lead teams but also act as an effective team member.
- Experience working with large global teams, to produce high-quality results and outputs with minimal supervision is required.
- High level of motivation, ability to work independently, and taking initiative.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and proven ability to build strong partnerships with clients, different stakeholders and colleagues across units and departmental boundaries in a multi-cultural environment with virtual teams located in different countries.
- Experience in results-based financing and catalyzing uptake of new approaches and technologies is preferred.
- Experience in managing the World Bank lending operations and knowledge products is preferred
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