Economist at World Bank

Roles & Responsibilities:

The Economist will be an integral part of the Nigeria MTI Team, which comprises a Lead Economist, a Senior internationally-recruited (IRS) Country Economist, a Senior locally-recruited Country Economist, one other IRS Economist, and Consultants (currently, one Extended Term and one Short Term Consultant). They will also be part of the Nigeria Country Engagement Team comprising colleagues from the different practice groups and other senior global practice staff to ensure cross-cutting solutions to the core (typically multi-practice) country engagements around which Nigeria’s Country Partnership Framework and the country program is organized. Each core engagement utilizes different Bank instruments (ASA, policy dialogue, lending).

Responsibilities:

The MTI Nigeria team works collaboratively and the allocation of specific responsibilities amongst team members is flexible according to circumstances and changes in needs. Economists’ work programs include the following areas:

• Co-lead the delivery of the Nigeria Development Update, the flagship biannual economic update for Nigeria.
• Co-lead the biannual Macro-Poverty Outlook for Nigeria, working closely with the Extended Term Consultant to update the underlying Macro Fiscal Model (MFMOD) for Nigeria.
• Supervise the Weekly Update (distributed internally) on the latest economic developments in Nigeria, by closely supervising the work on this product by the Extended Term Consultant.
• Help to maintain, update, and develop macroeconomic databases, including by closely supervising Consultants.
• Lead or contribute to management briefings and MTI inputs for other teams (e.g., macro context paragraphs in program documents).
• Work on continual improvements to the team’s set of analytics for the Nigerian economy.
• Support and participate in the policy dialogue on macroeconomic, fiscal, and monetary policy and economic growth issues with the country authorities.
• Maintain close working relationships with government counterparts and other stakeholders, including with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Support macro, fiscal and debt ASAs including Public Expenditure Reviews (PER)/Public Finance Reviews (PFR) and Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).
• Support Development Policy Operations, or other types of lending operations focused on economic and fiscal reforms.
• Other country economist functions as required (e.g., coordinating the annual CPIA exercise).

Selection Criteria

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in economics, with five years of relevant experience. A PhD would be an asset.
• Strong analytical skills in macroeconomic and fiscal management, and ability to conduct policy-relevant research.
• Integrative capacity including the ability to situate sectoral issues within a broader development framework.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present complicated analyses to non-specialist audiences.
• Strong client-orientation and diplomatic skills combined with candor and courage of opinion.
• Ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments and adjust to a variety of evolving tasks to meet often tight deadlines.
• A high degree of self-motivation, positive attitude, and drive.
• Strong commitment to teamwork and knowledge sharing, with a willingness and ability to be part of a highly collaborative team.