World Bank is the biggest multilateral development bank in the world, established in 1945 together with the IMF as Bretton Woods Institutions. World Bank actually refers to International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA). In addition to these International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) constitutes the World Bank Group. The main purpose of the World Bank Group is to alleviate the poverty in the world and to boost the shared prosperity, which are called as "twin goals". The headquarters of the World Bank Group is located in Washington DC, USA, while it has country offices in almost all member countries. And, World Bank Turkey Country Office is now looking for an Economist to work in Ankara, Turkey, where the application deadline is 28 November 2014.
- 141372
- Economist
- Other
- Professional & Technical
- GF
- Ankara, Turkey
- Local Hire
- English [Essential]; Turkish [Essential]
- 11-Dec-2014
Background / General description:
The World Bank Group (WBG) twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity reflect a new global landscape: one in which developing countries have an unprecedented opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation.
Reaching the ambitious WBG twin goals will require high and sustained economic growth across the developing world that also translates more effectively into poverty reduction in each country. Countries need to maximize the potential development gains generated through integration into the global economy. Many have already achieved significant poverty reduction and growth through integration, but this will need to be expanded and intensified to reduce the global poverty rate to 3 per cent by 2030 and foster income growth in the poorest 40% of each country. Governments will have to effectively implement policies across a wide range of inter-related areas to achieve this. While governments must get the policy settings right, the private sector is the main engine of growth and job creation achieved through integration into the global economy. Understanding how firms operate and are affected by the global economy is essential in using integration to foster poverty reduction and inclusion.
In order to achieve this, the institution is organized around fourteen global practices (GP) and five cross-cutting solution areas (CCSA), one of which is the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice (T&C GP).
The Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice (T&C GP) brings together more than 500 leading technical experts in the field of trade, investment, innovation, and private sector development, with extensive policy expertise, sector-specific knowledge, and practical experience in implementation. Offering an integrated package of solutions--including policy advice, technical assistance, financing, and capacity building--the practice brings global knowledge to designing and implementing of projects tailored to the specific needs of client countries, whether fast-growing emerging economies, middle income countries, or fragile or conflict-affected states.
Turkey is one of the largest countries in ECA, with per-capita GDP on the verge of reaching high-income. Solid growth and an appreciating currency has helped more than triple GDP per capita and incomes for the bottom 40 percent since the start of the century, with a large decline in poverty and remarkable improvements in health and education outcomes. Nonetheless, in several dimensions of well-being, Turkey remains solidly a middle income country, facing numerous structural challenges.
Turkey's economic development over the past decade has resulted in impressive economic and social achievements. After a banking crisis in 2001, the country embarked on a concerted path of structural reform supported by strong fiscal consolidation, strengthened banking supervision, a reform of the social security system, and a shift to a flexible exchange rate regime with an independent central bank responsible for inflation targeting. Per-capita income subsequently almost tripled in less than a decade, and Turkey, with a population of almost 75 million, is now an upper middle-income country with the world's 18th largest economy. Social outcomes have also improved considerably as a result of economic growth and improved public service delivery, with improved access to education (and virtually universal enrollment at the primary level) and health services (linked to the Health Transformation Program).
However, Turkey's achievements have recently been challenged by an uncertain economic and political outlook. Economically, Turkey faces the prospect of lower growth in a context of less abundant international finance, unless it can strengthen competitiveness. Turkey's business environment remains relatively burdensome, with the country ranking 55th in the 2015 Doing Business Report. Improving the investment climate is critical for raising Turkey's labor productivity growth and further boosting its export performance. The implementation of further microeconomic reforms to deepen the financial sector will help provide greater access to financial services for all citizens and can also contribute to reversing the significant decline in Turkey's domestic saving rates that took place over the past decade. In parallel, continued improvements in enterprise governance could help Turkey attract further foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, bringing in associated new technologies and providing a more stable source of external financing.
T&C GP is the main responsible for advancing the CPS' competitiveness agenda in Turkey. Increasing domestic savings, attracting more FDI to reduce the dependence to short term capital flows, and finding additional sources of productivity growth to continue fueling economic growth are widely recognized as Turkey's main economic long term challenges. Accordingly, T&C program is focused on 3 main areas that fall within the scope of productivity-enhancing, investment-encouraging microeconomic reforms: (i) Improving the business environment; (ii) increasing trade integration; and (iii) fostering innovation and technology absorption.
An important challenge Turkey faces to strengthen the competitiveness of its economy is related to the wide regional disparities that remain in levels of economic development. In this context, T&C GP recently engaged in a reimbursable activity with the Ministry of Development of Turkey to undertake an investment climate assessment at the sub regional level in the country.
For this, we are hiring an Economist who will work as a part of the Trade & Competitiveness GP located in the World Bank Office Ankara. The primary objective of the economist is to provide microeconomic analysis and strengthen capacity building efforts implemented by T&C. The economist will report directly to the Practice Manager, in Washington, DC, and coordinate daily duties and responsibilities with the Program Leader (PL) in Ankara and with respective Team Leaders (TTL) of the tasks to which the Practice Manager has assigned the economist.
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 2 year term appointment.
Duties and Accountabilities:
T&C GP is looking for an economist to be based in Ankara, Turkey to:
* Participate and lead teams to provide knowledge (analytical work, technical assistance, capacity building), financial and convening services in the following areas:
o Provide high quality technical advice as required in response to on-demand requests from the Government of Turkey, development partners, and from within the Bank;
o Prepare and deliver research reports and policy memos based on analytical findings; play an active role in the planning and implementation of dissemination strategies to promote policy uptake of evidence-based recommendations; and
o Provide interpretation of analytical findings and formulation of key messages from research findings;
o Support identification of evidence-based policy recommendations concerning competition policy, trade, innovation and technology, business environment and regulatory issues all with a particular focus on provision of "how-to" advice for program reforms, systems design and implementation;
o Provide advice to country and GP teams on how to address business environment, Innovation and technology, and trade related issues and promote evidence based decision making with support for country assistance strategies, policy loans, investment operations, and other country and regional analytic products.
o Engage in operational and policy dialogue with clients to design and deliver innovative analytical work, capacity building services, financial products and technical assistance.
o Support efforts to build capacity in government and non-government institutions to improve local capacity to conduct applied, policy-oriented, microeconomic research and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities;
o Assist in the design of analytical tools designed by the Bank and intended for analysts and researchers from government agencies, universities and think tanks.
* Other Responsibilities
o Represent the World Bank, as needed, at public forums and meetings;
o Contribute to T&C GP planning, budgeting and reporting;
o Assist in the recruitment of consultants and staff;
* Other tasks as requested by the Program Leader or TTL.
Selection Criteria:
Minimum Education/Experience:
Master's degree with 5 years experience
Preferred Education/Experience:
• Masters in economics accepted from an internationally recognized university (microeconomics, economics of the financial sector, industrial organization, trade economics from a microeconomic perspective, labor economics, microeconomics of development and/or impact evaluation).
Selection Criteria:
• Operational Project Management - Demonstrates broad knowledge of project management tools & methodologies; identifies key risks and mitigation measures; interprets background analysis and proposed solutions.
• 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.
• 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.
• Personal commitment to issues of trade and competitiveness such as firm-level productivity growth, job growth as it relates to poverty reduction and developing a business environment for sustainable and equitable growth;
• Strong analytical skills in microeconomics and an excellent command of econometrics; experience with large-scale household data.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills, with the capacity to influence across organizational and multicultural boundaries;
• Knowledge of political economy in Turkey related to private and financial sector development is an asset.
• Excellent fluency in English and in Turkish is required.
Required Competencies:
• Lead and Innovate - Develops innovative solutions.
• Make Smart Decisions - Interprets a wide range of information and pushes to move forward.
• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries - Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly receives diverse perspectives.
• Deliver Results for Clients - Proactively addresses clients’ stated and unstated needs.
• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge - Applies knowledge across WBG to strengthen solutions for internal and/or external clients.
• Trade Policy and Integration- Has basic knowledge of trade policy & competitiveness issues; has prior work experience at the analytical, policy level, and operational projects in specific trade-related issues such as trade policy, trade facilitation, and related areas.
• Trade Competitiveness- Has prior work experience in operational projects in specific trade-related issues such as trade policy, trade facilitation, competitiveness and private sector development.
• Trade Facilitation and Logistics- Has knowledge and experience in development and trade issues in developing countries.
• Trade and Investment- Demonstrates broad knowledge of Tax, Trade Logistics, and/or Investment Policy; demonstrates technical expertise to contribute to the design of, and then lead business projects
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.
Source: worldbank.org
