Municipal Finance Specialist

Industry:

Company: World Bank Group

Municipal Finance Specialist

Job #:
req29072

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
Urban

Grade:
GF

Term Duration:
3 years

Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment

Location:
Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:
9/15/2024 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Note: This recruitment is a part of Japanese Recruitment Mission

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org

Regional Context:
The South Asia Region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) is at a crucial stage of development. Rapid economic growth, driven by urbanization and demographic dividend, has brought down poverty rates, but severe forms of exclusion and disparities based on ethnicity, caste, and gender remain. Rapid growth has also come with congestion and pollution in cities. South Asia is more than other regions affected by changes in temperature and extreme weather event. Additional challenges are that South Asia is underperforming in exports, has large informal sectors and low female labor force participation rates. All these challenges must be addressed to secure rapid growth in coming decades.

Private sector led growth, focused on investments in infrastructure, energy, logistics and cities are essential to generate the jobs needed to employ South Asia’s sizeable youth population. At the same time, the region needs to continue building human capital so that South Asia’s population is well equipped for the jobs of the future.

The World Bank in South Asia: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar

Duties and Responsibilities :
• Participate with task teams to develop and carry out analytical activities on municipal finance, urban governance, state of city finances, financing urban infrastructure and service delivery, local government strengthening and capacity building.
• Support task teams to perform deeper analytics on city specific municipal revenue streams, expenditure management, investment planning, accessing commercial financing and capacity strengthening. Determine and analyze country wide municipal finance parameters (e.g., municipal revenue as a percentage of GDP).
• Contribute to policy dialogues, identify policy level issues and challenges in the country pertaining to city financing and particularly focusing on own source revenue (OSR) / property taxes, valuation and assessment methodologies, legislative frameworks and regulations related to commercial financing, user charges and cost recovery, etc.
• Formulate and lead dialogues with the national / state level government on strengthening capacity of cities to access commercial financing through credit enhancement, capacity building, project / investment preparation, etc.
• Draw linkages with city economic growth and develop approaches on leveraging city finance to develop cities as engines of economic development and growth hub.
• Identify global approaches related to (i) city financing to meet urban infrastructure needs; (ii) fiscal transfer systems; (iii) OSR assignments and administrative practices; (iv) absorption and management of funds for urban services and generate ‘best practice’ papers.
• Collaborate within the World Bank Group (IBRD, IFC, MIGA) to leverage resources and capacities to support city infrastructure financing, attracting private capital, public-private partnerships, etc.
• Identify business opportunities and contribute to the development of the WBG city finance program in the country.
• Support the preparation and supervision/ implementation of lending operations and programs (including projects with components focusing on municipal finance).
• Participate in professional development and knowledge sharing activities in the urban, city development and financing sector and contribute specific knowledge within the assigned countries and in the Bank.

Selection Criteria
• Master’s degree or above in finance, economics, urban development, or similar field with at least 5 years’ experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Solid technical expertise in areas including sustainable cities, urban governance, and municipal finance. More specifically, proven expertise is required in undertaking diagnostic analysis in topics mentioned above, framing the sector dialogue, identify policy level challenges, and developing innovative solutions for accessing city finance and meeting infrastructure and service delivery gaps at the city level.
• Technical expertise and proven analytical experience in working on urban infrastructure financing and municipal finance including OSR mobilization, capital investment planning, urban governance, models for mobilizing private and market finance would be highly desirable. Good technical understanding of existing intergovernmental fiscal transfer systems and status of fiscal decentralization within the country.
• Prior experience of working with urban local governments, municipalities and city level utilities on policy and implementation issues related to city finance, urban service delivery, infrastructure planning and development, fiscal transfers, and financial sustainability in the current context of climate change, fiscal stress, and low institutional capacity.
• Good understanding of prevailing municipal finance challenges in the country including policy level issues and key constraint to accessing commercial financing by cities, legislative framework for municipal borrowing, ex-ante / ex-post rules. Clear understanding of global practices related to city finance, accessing commercial financing (e.g., municipal bonds).
• Experience in initiating and implementing municipal finance analytical studies and programs focusing on revenue administration and improvements, land value capture, expenditure management, capital investment planning, user charges and cost recovery, implementation capacity of ULBs, strengthening of state-owned financial intermediaries / development funding institutions. Identifying capacity gaps and developing capacity strengthening plans for local body staff.
• Must have experience of working with local bodies to strengthen their financial sustainability and resilience; develop roadmaps to improve credit worthiness.
• Experience of working with city governments to foster private sector participation / mobilizing private capital to finance urban infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to work with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Ability to anticipate client demand and undertake relevant knowledge and research and analytical work.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, with demonstrated ability of making effective presentations to diverse audiences.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.