Job Description

E T Consultant

Job #:
req37574
Organization:
World Bank
Sector:
Financial Sector
Grade:
EC2
Term Duration: 1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type:
Local Recruitment
Location:
Bujumbura,Burundi
Required Language(s):
English, French
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:
7/22/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) 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

The Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice combines expertise in the financial sector with expertise in private sector development to foster sustainable private-sector led growth, facilitate jobs creation, enhance enabling environment for the local markets development in client countries and their integration into global value chains. FCI’s core lines of business are: (a) Financial Stability & Integrity; (b) Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure & Access; (c) Firm Capabilities & Innovation; (d) Long-Term Finance; (e) Climate & Risk Management; (f) Markets and Technology; and (g) Investment and Competition.

For more information, please visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/fci

Eastern and Southern Africa: Home to about half a billion of Africa’s people, Eastern and Southern Africa is a geographically, culturally and economically diverse region of 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South. Children under 18 make up almost half of the total population. The subregion boasts of some of the world’s richest human and natural resources and, apart from South Africa, the countries are predominantly raw material exporters.

The subregion harbors some of Africa’s protracted conflicts, rendering many of its countries fragile, while significant gaps in education, health, and skills development continues to keep people from reaching their full potential. This creates a huge development challenge, impacts heavily on the lives and livelihoods of people, and hinders regional integration and trade. But it also creates an opportunity to work closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and young people to chart a brighter course for the future.

The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,207 staff, mostly based in 26 country offices, has been helping countries realize their considerable development potential by focusing on the following priorities:

• Creating Jobs and Transforming Economies: We are working with countries across Africa to stimulate job creation and economic transformation by leveraging all sources of finance, expertise, and solutions to promote investment.
• Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030 – a vision that, if realized, can boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year, and reduce poverty by 1 percentage point per year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.
• Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support is helping governments strengthen public policy processes, manage resources effectively, and reinforce fair and reliable delivery of public services.
• Investing in People: We are at the forefront of helping African countries accelerate human capital gains and empower women by improving their access to education and skills acquisition, sexual and reproductive health services, and employment opportunities. With the influx COVID-19, we are mobilizing financial support and timely analysis and advice to countries across the subregion deal with the pandemic.
• Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption: In the face of increasing climate-related risks, we are working with African countries to advance efforts to adopt renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and green infrastructure. A number of East African countries are currently facing a debilitating Desert Locust infestation, threatening the already precarious food security situation. The World Bank Group has put together a program to help affected countries deal with the scourge.
• Addressing the Drivers of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence: Given the cross-border nature of conflicts in Africa, we are employing an approach that simultaneously focuses on the drivers of fragility while also supporting well-targeted regional initiatives to create opportunities for peace and shared prosperity.
• Building Partnerships and Working across the African Continent: We are scaling up our work on regional integration, taking a holistic view of the continent that covers both North and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Bank Group is a dedicated partner for Eastern and Southern African countries, helping them deliver strong development outcomes for their people. A brighter future for Africa is a better future for the world.

The position is for the Finance Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) East Africa Unit to be based physically in the WBG office in Bujumbura, Burundi. The primary focus of activities will be supporting the work program of the FCI financial sector team in Burundi, provide cross-support to other WBG teams and projects as needed, and ensure sound and smooth policy and technical dialogue with the beneficiary agencies, public and private sector and support efficient donor coordination to facilitate financial and private sector reforms in Burundi. This position offers an opportunity to be an integral part of the WBG team to support the country’s reform process and to work closely with policy makers, civil society, development partners, and the private sector to chart a brighter course for the future.

As part of the Country Partnership Framework, the WBG will help the Government of Burundi continue strengthening legal, operational, institutional framework for private and financial sector development and diversification, building capacity and knowledge, and improving enabling environment for creation, growth and competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). In FY27, the FCI portfolio in Burundi will include a mix of lending operations and analytical and advisory services (ASA) work, including but not limited to:

• Burundi Jobs and economic transformation project (PRETE);
• The Regional Emergency Preparedness and Access to Inclusive Recovery Project (REPAIR);
• Digital foundations project – modernization of public financial management Project (PAFEN);
• Project to Support Skills Improvement for the Employability of Women and Youth (PACEJ);
• The Burundi Great Lakes Trade Facilitation and Integration Project (PFCIGL);
• Regional PASA for Policy Dialogue for Financial Inclusion, Stability and Diversification/Burundi, funded by the Finance for Development (F4D) Trust Fund;
• Burundi Social Protection PASA: Strengthening National Social Protection Systems/Burundi, funded by the G2P Trust Fund;
• Other programs and initiatives aimed at responding to government urgent needs, supporting financial inclusion and expansion of digital financial services, fostering financial capability and financial services penetration for households and MSMEs in BURUNDI.

The assignment includes supporting the WBG lending, analytical and advisory services, contributing to projects’ preparation, implementation, coordination within the WBG and with external partners, facilitating and expanding policy dialogue and sharing knowledge with projects’ beneficiaries and monitoring projects’ results, expanding and deepening dialogue with external public, private and international partner institutions for enhanced coordination and synergy and maximum development impact for financial and private sector development, financial stability, jobs and economic growth in Burundi. The Extended Term Consultant will provide technical, analytical, and operational support to Task Team Leaders and the projects’ teams, contributing to the effective delivery of the FCI work program in Burundi. Specific tasks and requirements are outlined below.

General Roles & Responsibilities:

The consultant will provide technical and operational inputs as part of the FCI team working on financial and private sector projects in Burundi, and to support project implementation and monitoring through carrying out the following main tasks:

• Support preparation of pipeline projects and implementation of existing projects, including through provision of technical expertise, preparation of respective projects documents (including PAD, ISR, Aide Memoires, briefs and other), data collection and analysis, client and partner relations management, knowledge transfer and problem solving; implementation and monitoring, and contribute to other operational tasks at all stages of a projects’ cycle (LENN and ASA);
• Proactively work with clients and respond to their needs as related to the WBG projects, policies and procedures, ensure effective communication and data flow between all parties concerned;
• Monitor project results, assess quality of outputs, transfer knowledge, coordinate and facilitate effective communication between various stakeholders, WBG teams and experts to maximize results and support effective project implementation in line with agreed timeline and expected results;
• Ensure regular financial market developments and policy monitoring, collect data, carry out research and analytical tasks on a wide range of operational, country and sector specific issues in Burundi to support program implementation and advance financial sector policy dialogue, analysis and reform, undertake desk reviews of relevant subject as necessary and prepare regular and ad-hoc technical and analytical notes, assessments, briefs, presentations, communication and knowledge documents as required to support FCI program and inform WBG work in Burundi;
• Coordinate and participate (in-person and/or virtually) in the WBG/FCI missions and other phases of the projects’ preparation and implementation, support their preparation and organization of meetings, prepare progress updates and analysis of key issues and impediments, prepare missions’ documents and advise/support the TTLs on the resolution of key issues prior, during and after missions; travel internally in Burundi if required as part of the WBG missions;
• Organize meetings, workshops, consultations to ensure effective coordination with public and private sector stakeholders, international partners and WBG to support the program and advance financial sector reforms;
• Work with the FCI team, World Bank communications experts (CMU and HQ) and the clients to support effective communications about the World Bank program and FCI portfolio in Burundi;
• Provide cross support to other teams and projects in WBG, as agreed with FCI management and task team members, including project preparation, implementation and coordination for maximum impact and effective implementation of coordinated, holistic financial sector development and financial inclusion policies ;
• Based on the business needs and priorities, the ETC may also support FCI teams in other countries in the region upon agreement with the management and the project team in Burundi.

Selection Criteria

• Graduate degree in finance, economics, international development or comparable field;
• At least five (5) years of relevant experience working on financial sector development issues with a focus on financial stability, financial sector regulation and supervision, inclusive financial sector development, financial intermediation, digital financial services and access to finance for MSMEs and underserved clients women;
• Burundi country experience and solid knowledge of the legal, institutional, policy framework and challenges in the financial and private sector development and growth;
• Knowledge of other countries experience and of international good practice for financial sector regulation, supervision and development;
• Expertise and experience with design and implementation of the WBG projects, strong performance record of consulting and analytical assignments with the focus on MSME development and finance, value chain development and financing, financial sector infrastructure, financial stability, financial literacy and inclusion;
• Excellent conceptual and analytical skills with an ability to address both macro and micro issues;
• Demonstrated ability to communicate ideas and analytical findings clearly and tactfully, both verbally and in writing, and to influence the thinking of senior officials and policy makers;
• Outstanding communication skills, proactivity and ability to work independently on complex problems, consistently applying creativity , independent judgment and ability to deliver under pressure;
• Ability to work effectively with others in multi-cultural and multi-discipline environment;
• Proficiency in spoken and written English, French and the Kirundi;
• Strong writing skills and ability to draft documents under tight deadlines with minimal supervision.

Areas of Learning

Through the assignment, the Extended Term Consultant (ETC) will strengthen practical knowledge and hands on experience in WBG operations, including the project cycle from preparation to implementation and supervision, procurement and reporting requirements, WBG products and results framework.

The assignment will also provide self-learning and in-house learning opportunities through direct engagement with clients and stakeholders, participation in WBG missions, preparation of analytical and technical notes, collaboration with Task Team Leaders, technical experts from the FCI global practice and WBG and projects’ consultants on financial sector and private sector development reforms.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

As per WBG policy, an Extended Term (ET) appointment is subject to a lifetime maximum of three (3) years. Former and current ET staff who have completed or are in the process of completing their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.

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.