Senior Operations Officer - Infrastructure

Job #:	112457
Title:	Senior Operations Officer - Infrastructure
Job Stream:	Technical Assistance & Advisory Services
Location:	To Be Determined
Closing Date:	01/12/2012
Background / General description:
Improving the investment climate in Africa is one of three core priorities of the IFC/World Bank Group strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFC manages the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group, which comprise staff based in the regional hub offices of Nairobi, Dakar and Johannesburg and across the continent, who work with a team of product specialists based in Washington, DC and Istanbul. The Investment Climate Advisory Services have been supporting Sub-Saharan African countries to design and implement investment climate reform programs for nearly a decade, and have scaled up their efforts significantly in recent years. The programs assist client countries to implement a range of investment climate reforms, including economy-wide reforms of aspects of business regulation, supporting international trade and investment, regional integration as well as addressing obstacles to private sector investment in leading industries, such as agribusiness, infrastructure, tourism and health. The team’s objective is to support African countries’ efforts to create a positive investment climate to increase their competitiveness and private sector investment. As part of its strategy, the Investment Climate (IC) Advisory Services is expanding its sector-specific focus, concentrating on the business environment in a select number of sectors with particular relevance for economic development. By operating in a catalytic role with internal and external partners and experts, the IC team addresses pressing sector-specific constraints with a view to unlocking private investment opportunities. Infrastructure is the most recent sector-specific practice that has been added. In this space, the IC team is working with IFC’s Public-Private Partnership (C3P) and Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA) Business Lines, as well as with staff in the Sustainable Development (SD) and Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) Departments at the World Bank, and infrastructure investment departments at IFC. The IC Advisory team focuses on targeted, results-oriented interventions in a mezzo space between the World Bank’s traditional sector reform and upstream regulatory work and IFC’s downstream transaction advisory and investments. The initial focus is on power (including grid, off-grid and renewables), with the possible addition of other sectors, such as water and wastewater services, in the medium term. From a geographic perspective, the electrification challenge is particularly pressing in the Africa region where access rates are lowest worldwide. Contributing to the mobilization of private resources to complement public support programs in the electricity supply sector in Africa is therefore at the heart of the IC Advisory activity in the new infrastructure space. The Investment Climate Advisory Services management is looking to fill a staff position of Senior Operations Officer for infrastructure, located in Nairobi or Dakar. We are looking for an experienced individual with relevant skills to assist the IC team in implementing reform projects in the area of upstream regulatory and business issues in the power sector necessary to promote increased private participation. Given the early focus on the power sector, this will include work on the regulation and business environment for traditional fossil fuel sectors as well as renewable energy (e.g. wind, solar, biomass, hydro). In light of the specific demands of rural communities in many International Development Agency (IDA) countries, both grid and off-grid systems for both traditional and renewable energy sources will be within the remit of the position. The staff is expected to work in close coordination with the World Bank Sustainable Development (SD), Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) staff, IFC staff from other advisory service lines, and IFC's Senior Investment Officer in the country. The Senior Officer will be part of the regional investment climate team with its hubs in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar, Washington and Istanbul. The staff is also expected to participate in and contribute to the Investment Climate Advisory Services’ support to regional investment climate reforms.
Duties and Accountabilities:
The scope of the work will fall into the following broad areas: 1.Removing constraints/entry barriers a.Examining the case for abolishing infrastructure monopolies and practices prohibiting or restricting a private sector role, through the development of regulatory frameworks enabling third party access and non-discriminatory and competitive entry conditions. b.Encouraging private to private sales of power in off grid areas. c.Reviewing sector law to allow for captive power and cogeneration when relevant. 2.Economic Regulation a.Light handed regulation for the rural sector – particularly for off-grid or remote grid systems, enabling private generation, distribution and supply. b.Reviewing or developing third party access rules and interconnection agreements of independent small and medium scale Renewable Energy (RE) generators with the grid, including standard Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), standard pricing principles, guidelines for interconnection, etc. c.Reviewing power purchase agreements and other off-take and dispatch agreements to ensure that they are bankable. 3.Licensing a.Reviewing and simplifying licensing and inspections regimes, quality and safety regulations and consumer protection rules. 4.Investment Incentives a.Reviewing fiscal incentives for private power provision. b.Examining non-fiscal approaches like Feed-in-Tariffs or portfolio standards that force the inclusion of renewable energy in a utility's energy mix. 5.Investment Generation a.Reviewing and benchmarking sector and sub-sector competitiveness to assess relevant power projects for promoting new investment. b.Building/packaging competitive investment propositions to take to the market. c.Building the framework for client counterparts to promote new investment in select projects. The successful candidate is expected to: •Lead programs in client countries to identify, develop and implement reforms in the upstream regulatory and business environment for the power sector (grid and off-grid); •Develop collaborative partnerships with all other World Bank Group teams involved in the power sector in client countries (other IFC Advisory Services, and IFC Investment) and contribute to a coherent sector strategy across teams for the benefit of the client country; •Collaborate closely with the IC Infrastructure team at HQ to ensure optimal client response;knowledge generation and dissemination of best practice across countries and regions; •Play an active role as member of a global IC Infrastructure core team on regulatory and business environment topics in the power sector; and •Act as a liaison on infrastructure regulatory issues internally with other parts of the World Bank Group with an interest in this topic and externally with government and private sector.
Selection Criteria:
•Masters degree in Economics, Law, Engineering, or Business. At least 10 years’ professional experience in the area of regulation of infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector. •Strong analytical skills combined with good business development skills. •Proven ability to innovate, develop programs in new spaces, and interact with clients at a senior level. •Experience in leading teams, projects and programs. •Ability to mentor more junior staff. •Excellent communication and partnership skills with the ability to utilize negotiation skills and deal sensitively in multi-cultural and matrix environments. Proven track record of working well across boundaries and finding creative solutions to help different parties to work together. •Sound operational and technical knowledge and political judgment. •Ability to multitask and work effectively in multidisciplinary teams is required. •High degree of self-motivation and proven ability to work under minimum supervision in a high-paced environment. •Demonstrated capacity to deliver high-quality outputs and results under tight deadlines. •Fluency in English is essential; French is desirable. Women are particularly encouraged to apply. Candidates are requested to indicate their preferred location and also note if the second location is unacceptable.
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