Urban Development Specialist Washington, DC

Regional Context

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region comprises of 30 extremely diverse clients, with a population of nearly 500 million people. Four of our clients are IDA only and another 5 are IDA blend countries. The remaining 21 are IBRD credit-worthy though not all have active lending programs. Although 10 of our clients have joined the EU and 7 of these have graduated, most continue to remain active recipients of knowledge and/or lending services. CASs/CPSs reflect this strong diversity with substantial variation in lending prospects, but strong demand for Bank technical services is present across the board.

Over the last 20 years of transition, ECA countries have integrated into the global economy across many dimensions such as trade, finance, and labor flows. GDP in the Region grew by two-thirds from 2000 to 2008 – an enviable growth of an average of 6.5 percent a year. Yet despite this progress, ECA was hit the hardest by the global economic crisis compared to the other regions in the Bank. Growth in the Region, which had peaked at about 7 percent in 2007, fell to a negative 6 percent in 2009.

The financial and economic crisis led to a substantial increase in Bank lending and knowledge activities in all ECA countries, including in several EU members states (e.g., Latvia and Hungary). The crisis helped serve as a powerful reminder of the relevance of the Bank both as an attractive source of funding and a reliable provider of timely and quality advice.

It is projected that ECA is going to be the slowest region to recover from the crisis. Growth in 2010 reached about 4 percent, and prospects for 2011–13 are only slightly better. Based on this changing context, the new ECA strategy is focused on developing a new growth model for the region through:

1. Increasing competitiveness to achieve faster growth.

2. Pursuing social sector reforms and fiscal adjustment to achieve more inclusive growth.

3. Supporting climate action to achieve more sustainable growth.

Even while declining from the heights of the crisis, we expect demand for our lending and advisory services post-crisis to remain strong. But we are constrained in our capacity to respond given budget constraints and a limited IDA and IBRD resource environment. This requires an increased results focus to help direct our resources to where they will have the greatest impact, along with continued emphasis on leveraging partnerships and expanding our fee for services activities in MICs, building on the successful experience in Russia.

Sector Context

The mission of ECA’s Sustainable Development Department (ECSSD) is to support the Bank’s clients in the region achieve equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable growth and prosperity. ECSSD is responsible for: (i) advising ECA Management on long-term development issues in the sectors of ECSSD expertise, and delivering a broad range of high-quality operational and analytical products, in response to demand from country clients and Country Management Units (CMUs); (ii) overseeing professional development of the ECA staff assigned to the Sustainable Development (SD) Network, including those based in field offices; and (iii) ensuring a proper link with the SD Network in developing a long-term vision and strategy for SD activities Bank wide and in ECA.

The Europe and Central Asia Region Urban, Water and Disaster Risk Management Unit (ECSS6) within ECSSD operates in the context of the overall Regional mission to improve the quality of people's lives. With over 70 percent of the population living in urban areas, ECA is the second most urbanized region in the developing world. Cities in the ECA region are still going through a process of transition from centrally-planned economies of over 20 years ago to market-based economies. While urban areas are generally drivers of growth and innovation in the Region, many cities are experiencing a hollowing out of industry, demographic decline and relatively high levels of unemployment, particularly as a result of the global economic and financial crisis. Typical characteristics of many ECA cities are aging and often oversized infrastructure, weak urban planning mechanisms, problems of inefficient utility operations and weak cost recovery (water and sanitation services, solid waste management and other communal services), and housing policy and affordability gaps. ECA is also the most energy intensive developing region and efforts to improve energy efficiency, particularly at the city level are of paramount importance.

Several ECA countries also stand out as examples from which other regions can learn from the region’s urban experience, including adaptation to urbanization pressures, historic cities preservation, urban redevelopment, and energy efficiency, among other areas. Therefore, drawing lessons learned, sharing experience and promoting cross-regional learning is an important agenda for ECSS6.

Against this backdrop, ECSS6 has developed a diverse and responsive urban program, including solid waste management, housing and communal services, regional and local economic development and tourism, municipal funds and finance mechanisms, metropolitan governance and management, infrastructure and urban environment. The region’s flagship urban program is “Sustainable Cities,” which is structured around the triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social sustainability at the city level. Extensive knowledge exchange programs, diagnostic tools and planning frameworks have been developed and delivered that are now driving new investment lending and advisory services.

The mission of the Europe and Central Asia Regional Urban, Water and Disaster Risk Management unit (ECSS6) is to work with national and local governments and with communities to make cities more economically productive, environmentally sound and livable and less vulnerable. ECSS6 teams work seamlessly across all three areas of the unit’s services, including water supply and sanitation and disaster risk management, in addition to the urban program. ECSS6 provides our clients services through lending (including sector investment loans), implementation support (supervision), and advisory, knowledge, technical assistance, and fee based services. ECSS6 works collaboratively with other sector units within the Sustainable Development Department, in addition to working across the Bank networks and with other institutions of the World Bank Group.

At present, ECSS6 has 40 ongoing projects in its portfolio, with a loan/credit value of US$3.4 billion. The unit is working on a diverse pipeline with strong innovation and client responsiveness. ECSS6 is comprised of about 30 team members, including extended term consultants.

To support the growing demand for urban service improvement from our clients, the unit is seeking a highly qualified and motivated Urban Development Specialist to support and in some cases lead projects, analytical and advisory services and also support policy dialogue in the urban development area, with particular emphasis on the areas of sustainable cities, solid waste management, housing and communal services, regional/territorial development and/or municipal management/finance.

• Carries out responsibilities for a variety of operational tasks, e.g. technical analyses, design of technical assistance interventions, participation in loan negotiations, etc.

• Employs appropriate methodologies for handling simple and complex procurement tasks and/or issue.

• Participates in developing and implementing sector strategy and assists in country-specific policy work.

• Participates in missions in area of specialization; provides technical inputs and guidance to counterparts on appropriate scope, technology, costs, etc.; prepares terms of reference for project- or sector-related work.

• Works independently, seeking guidance on complex projects/issues from senior specialists.

Urban Development Specialist