Operations Officer, Global Product Specialist- Washington

Job #:	120584
Title:	Operations Officer, Global Product Specialist
Job Stream:	Climate Change
Location:	Washington, DC
Closing Date:	03/29/2012
Background / General description:
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit www.ifc.org. The Sustainable Business Advisory Department (CSB) functions as a global service hub supporting regionally-based staff in the design and delivery of advisory projects as well as managing global partnerships and initiatives. Specialists in CSB are accountable for strategic guidance, quality assurance, knowledge management, select client interface, and global relationship management for advisory projects executed by the business line. The business line delivers advisory services through seven product offerings: (i) Clean Energy; (ii) Corporate Governance; (iii) Environmental, Social and Trade Standards; (iv) Farmer and SME Training; (v) Resource Efficiency; (vi) Strategic Community Investment; and (vii) Sustainable & Inclusive Investing. CSB also provides leadership for IFC’s global climate change advisory business across four business lines. To deliver on this mandate, the business line houses a small Climate Change Advisory team, which builds on the synergy between IFC investment and advisory work to deliver on IFC’s Climate Change strategic commitment. The objectives of the Climate Change Advisory team are to support scale-up and impact of IFC’s Climate Change business through i) quality assurance of the Advisory Services (AS) portfolio in Climate Change; ii) represent AS in building and implementing a results measurement framework which ensures robust and consistently applied measurement of IFC’s climate change impacts; iii) support and guidance to product teams & regional teams to develop the Climate Change business opportunities for which they are positioned by incorporating Climate Change considerations into program/project designs and by developing new offerings to address emerging market opportunities for climate change business; and iv) development of guidance notes and training materials and delivery of events to build Climate Change understanding & knowledge among AS staff and catalyze AS-IS collaboration.
Duties and Accountabilities:
Reporting to the Global Products Division Manager, the Operations Officer/Global Product Specialist – Climate Change will have following specific duties and responsibilities: 1. IFC Climate Change Advisory coordination (50%) • Facilitate information flow between the Climate Business Group (CBG); relevant industry departments; four AS business lines; Environment, Social and Governance Department; and regions on corporate strategic directions for climate change, business development priorities and lessons learned from implementation of climate change programs and projects. • Develop/update impact measurement framework: • Work with CBG, the Development Impact Department (CDI) and AS business lines to develop/refine definition notes, guidance notes on climate change businesses in IFC, build consensus across the board to reach corporate agreement on how IFC should measure and report its CC impact, and how this can be linked to resource allocation and incentives for staff in the future. • Work across AS to improve consistency and standards in methodologies used to measure and report GHG impact by various product groups (direct and indirect impact). • Undertake CC portfolio review. • Perform regular (semi-annual) reviews for the AS Climate Change portfolio, update the management team on the portfolio status, trends, and critical issues that need attention, and provide feedback to advisory management, regional teams, as well as program teams on portfolio performance. • Support staff training & development across IFC’s Advisory Services • In coordination with CBG, develop training materials, guidance notes, and develop knowledge-sharing events to build understanding of the corporate CC strategy, enable innovation and replication of successful pilots, and increase/improve impact of IFC’s CC program business. 2. Build the Advisory Services Climate Change business through product development and new business models for IFC engagement across sectors (50%) • Cross-product and cross-business line support for integrating CC issues across IFC’s Advisory Services and integrated Investment Services business: • Provide inputs to AS product teams to help them understand CC risks/opportunities and how their products can address these issues, either unilaterally or collaboratively (i.e., across SBA products, across AS Business Lines). • Provide guidance across AS to all business lines to identify and develop opportunities to leverage CC impact through joint ventures and product development. • New product development: Climate Change Adaptation • Work with FinMech team, regional AS teams, and relevant investment departments to build the innovation platform for adaptation pilots (through the deployment of Pilot Programs for Climate Resilience, and other opportunities which emerge across IFC’s business) • Support the regions in building IS/AS strategic alignment, undertaking market assessments to identify opportunities and support for developing projects which respond to market opportunities. • Work with CBG to develop a product offer and marketing plan for climate risk assessment AS support for IFC clients. • Program/Project management & Quality Assurance • Support climate change project development for testing new pilot approaches and for catalyzing pipeline in those regions where there are gaps in local capacity. • Support the regions in building capacity to execute the CC project portfolio. • Knowledge Management • Support the knowledge management agenda for climate change in AS, taking accountability for gathering, managing and disseminating CC mitigation and adaptation best practices across teams and regions. • Fundraising: Support fundraising activities for CC portfolio at HQ and in regions as needed. • Administer globally managed funds to support scale-up of the climate change business in the regions. • Represent IFC in donor relations where climate expertise is required. • Prepare materials for senior management which support fundraising efforts. • Partnership building: Build SBA partnership with other stakeholders internally and externally to drive IFC’s CC impact scale-up through collaboration.
Selection Criteria:
• A minimum of eight years of relevant work experience in climate change relevant sectors • Technical background in environmental/social risk management issues and climate-related business, including resource efficiency, clean energy, water risk, climate resilience, etc. • Master’s degree in relevant areas of focus. Additional qualifications/experience in environment, monitoring & evaluation, public participation, strategy would be an advantage. • Demonstrated experience working with the private sector in emerging market contexts • Experience implementing multi-disciplinary approaches and fluency in facilitating change management & strategic analysis/decision-making for external clients. • Recognized as a team player, can effectively build consensus, and can collaborate across multicultural, multinational organizations • Strong client orientation and communication skills • Willingness to travel internationally as and where necessary • Good English language communication – written and verbal. Only online applications are accepted. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews.
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