Global Financing Facility

Grade: GG

Term Duration: 3 years 0 months

Hire Type: Non-Managerial

Required Language(s): English

Preferred Language(s): French, Spanish, Portuguese

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? 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 and promoting shared prosperity. 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 Human Development (HD) Practice Group (PG)

The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries. 

The Human Development Vice Presidency (HDVP) at the World Bank Group is made up of the Global Practices for education; health, nutrition, and population; and social protection and jobs; additionally, the HDVP houses the gender group.  As such, HD is central to the World Bank Group’s goals to end extreme poverty by 2030 and raise shared prosperity. 

Over the past few years the World Bank’s Human development sector has been delivering a scaled-up program with an active portfolio over $71.3B with engagements in 121 countries. New commitments in FY21 are expected to reach a total $21.2B by FY end.  Human capital development, and in particular, the health sector program, has taken a central role for the WBG, as a result of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and its impact. 

The primary challenges of health development relate to health, nutrition, and demographic transitions that are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic both, through an agile short-term response, and a sustainable and inclusive longer-term response that tackles inequitable opportunities and outcomes in the health sector globally, regionally and within countries.  The fundamental challenge is to preempt, prevent and mitigate the developmental impact of these challenges now and into the future.  Specific challenges include: providing equitable, efficient, accountable and sustainable financing of health coverage; providing equitable, quality, appropriate and scaled-up delivery of priority public health services according to need; mobilizing the appropriate quantity and quality of key health systems inputs related to health workers, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare technology and facilities; and strengthening models of governance for the health sector that recognize core functions for government, responsibilities/accountability of key actors and enhance competencies for governance across levels (local, national, regional and global) and sectors (public/private/civil society, as well as government sectors such as education, transport, social protection, etc.).

Health, Nutrition & Population Global Practice  

The World Bank Group (WBG) supports countries’ efforts towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and to provide quality, affordable health services to everyone —regardless of their ability to pay — by strengthening primary health care systems and reducing the financial risks associated with ill health and increasing equity. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health 

Global Financing Facility Context
 
The Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership housed at the World Bank that is committed to ensuring all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Launched in July 2015, the GFF supports 36 low and lower-middle income countries with catalytic financing and technical assistance to develop and implement prioritized national health plans to scale up access to affordable, quality care for women, children, and adolescents. The GFF also works with countries to maximize the use of domestic financing and external support for better, more sustainable health results. The GFF is squarely focused on prioritizing and scaling up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition through targeted strengthening of primary health care systems – to save lives and as a critical first step toward accelerating progress on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The GFF has pioneered a shift from traditional development approaches to a more sustainable way forward where governments lead and bring global partners together to support a prioritized, costed national plan. Through this partnership, the GFF aims to mobilize additional funding through the combination of grants from a dedicated multi-donor trust fund (the GFF Trust Fund), financing from International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the crowding in of additional domestic and external resources. This approach has catalyzed high-impact investments for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition in the world’s most vulnerable countries. More information is available at: www.globalfinancingfacility.org

Duties and Accountabilities

1. Provides advice to country clients, World Bank task teams and the GFF secretariat team on evidence-based and scale-able approaches to address issues related to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH); Translate technical evidence and best practice into high quality investment case and program development in the context of a health systems approach to RMNCH-N. 
2. Supports the development of relevant metrics and evaluation approaches to enable results and performance-based financing approaches which can be used to improve MNCH performance with a focus on service quality.
3. Advises on GFF collaboration with internal and external stakeholders on MNCH, including links to education, social protection, and labor market opportunities.
4. Contributes to knowledge products including development and dissemination of tools, analytical work, country case studies and workshops at regional and global level, in collaboration with the other teams within the GFF Secretariat.
5. Support the GFF in routine reporting to stakeholders and responding to ad hoc requests for information on nutrition programming across the GFF portfolio and implementation of the investment case in countries for which the candidate is the GFF Focal Point.
6. Serves as a GFF Focal Point in one to two partner countries to support the country led processes of investment case development and implementation and stakeholder alignment through a functional country platform.  Engages with World Bank regions, country management units and task teams in the development and implementation of IDA/IBRD operations in support of the investment case and facilitates Bank access to GFF trust funds in support of strategic technical assistance, advisory services, and analytics.

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 I – Background and context

The Global Financing Facility in Support of Every Woman Every Child (GFF) is a country driven partnership that aims to accelerate efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths and improve the health and quality of life of women, adolescents and children, and thereby prevent up to 3.8 million maternal deaths, 101 million child deaths, and 21 million stillbirths in high burden countries by 2030.  The GFF seeks to support countries with an integrated health system approach that looks for the best solutions for better RMNCAH outcomes.

The GFF acts as a pathfinder in a new era of financing for development by pioneering a model that shifts away from focusing solely on official development assistance to an approach that combines external support, domestic financing, and innovative solutions for resource mobilization and delivery (including the private sector) in a synergistic way.  To do this, the GFF aims to reduce inefficiency in health spending through smarter financing.  Furthermore, the GFF aims to mobilize additional funding through the combination of grants from a dedicated multi-donor trust fund (the GFF Trust Fund), financing from International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the crowding-in of additional domestic and external resources.  The GFF also leverages the private sector expertise of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, to attract private sector resources to priority investment areas.

The GFF Secretariat is responsible for supporting countries, managing the GFF Trust Fund, supporting the GFF Investors Group, and the governance mechanism for the GFF.  The Secretariat is based at the World Bank, situated in the HNP Global Practice. The GFF health financing team is responsible for supporting countries mobilize additional resources for health and improve the use of those resources to improve health outcomes and progress towards the health-related SDGs.

A core aspect of the GFF’s health financing team is supporting countries in resource (budget) mapping (RM) and expenditure tracking (ET) of investment cases (or the country’s national health plan). The RM and ET exercise provides a comprehensive picture of funding gaps, and alignment of donor and government funding with the aim of supporting the health sector of low- and middle-income countries to mobilize additional resources, improve allocative efficiency, and better coordinate planning efforts.

GFF countries fall under different categories in their capacity for, and experience in conducting RMET. Countries in the first category (or early stage) have recently started or are in the process of starting their RM/ET; they will need extensive external technical assistance in conducting RMET. As countries move towards the third category (final stage), ministries of health and relevant institutions will have sufficient expertise to lead the process. The nature of technical support for such countries will be lighter touch, focused on improving use of data and analysis from RMET for decision-making.

As part of the GFF expansion phase, support is needed to help countries with RMET. The focus will be on early stage countries requiring heavy support but will also extend to other countries. The GFF is in the process of building a pool of short-term consultants who can be deployed to provide TA to ministries of health on RMET and contribute to enhance in-country technical skills in this area.

III –Responsibilities

• Conduct or manage health sector resource mapping and expenditure tracking in GFF countries requesting technical assistance;
• Build capacity of government officials in conducting RMET, using the resource mapping tool, and analyzing data;
• Support use of data and analysis from RMET for decision-making (e.g. future budget allocation), and donor alignment;
• Support integration of financial management systems, RMET databases, and health information systems to systemize results monitoring in advanced stage GFF countries;
• Create or modify tools, templates, analyses, policy briefs, presentations, and other resources for a range of stakeholders -- in-country and global;
• Contribute to global RMET activities, e.g. improving global stakeholder coordination;
• Represent GFF in external forums as needed in collaboration with other World Bank officials;
• Perform other activities pertaining to health financing:
  • Provide technical assistance on health financing issues to GFF countries in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of GFF Investment Case;
  • Support countries in the analysis of relevant public financial management issues,  reviews of public expenditure, budget preparation, execution and monitoring;
  • Support results monitoring through the development of narratives and preparing inputs for Investor Group meetings and reports;
  • Provide technical support within the GFF Secretariat on health financing issues

III – Timing and Duration

The timing, duration and terms of contracts will be based on the needs and the experience and availability of consultants.

I – Background and context

The Global Financing Facility in Support of Every Woman Every Child (GFF) is a country driven partnership that aims to accelerate efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths and improve the health and quality of life of women, adolescents and children, and thereby prevent up to 3.8 million maternal deaths, 101 million child deaths, and 21 million stillbirths in high burden countries by 2030. The GFF seeks to support countries with an integrated health system approach that looks for the best solutions for better RMNCAH outcomes.

The GFF acts as a pathfinder in a new era of financing for development by pioneering a model that shifts away from focusing solely on official development assistance to an approach that combines external support, domestic financing, and innovative sources for resource mobilization and delivery (including the private sector) in a synergistic way.  To do this, the GFF aims to reduce inefficiency in health spending through smarter financing. Furthermore, the GFF aims to mobilize additional funding through the combination of grants from a dedicated multi-donor trust fund (the GFF Trust Fund), financing from International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the crowding-in of additional domestic and external resources. The GFF also leverages the private sector expertise of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, to attract private sector resources to priority investment areas.

The GFF Secretariat is responsible for supporting countries, managing the GFF Trust Fund, supporting the GFF Investors Group, and the governance mechanism for the GFF. The Secretariat is based at the World Bank, situated in the HNP Global Practice. The GFF health financing team is responsible for supporting countries mobilize additional resources for health and improve the use of those resources to improve health outcomes and progress towards the health-related SDGs.

This consultancy is to support the work of the GFF health financing team.

II – Responsibilities

Specific duties of each consultancy will vary depending on the candidate profile and anticipated technical need. In general, consultant(s) may expect to work on activities such as:

• Provide technical assistance on health financing issues to GFF countries in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of GFF Investment Cases;
• Support GFF countries in the tracking and analysis of domestic and external resources in health, with the aim of increasing efficiency of health spending and improving resource mobilization.
• Support countries in the analysis of relevant public financial management issues:  reviews of public expenditure, budget preparation, execution and monitoring;
• Support results monitoring through the development of narratives and preparing inputs for Investor Group meetings and reports;
• Create data analyses, tools, templates, policy briefs, and other process-based resources for internal and external country and global stakeholders;
• Provide technical support within the GFF Secretariat on health financing issues upon demand.

III – Timing and Duration

The timing, duration and terms of contracts will be based on the needs and the experience and availability of consultants.