The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral family of funds dedicated to confronting biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution, and supporting land and ocean health. Its financing enables developing countries to address complex challenges and work towards international environmental goals. The partnership includes 186 member governments as well as civil society, Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth, with a focus on integration and inclusivity. Over the past three decades, the GEF has provided more than $26 billion in financing and mobilized over $153 billion for country-driven priority projects around the world.
The GEF Secretariat (GEFSEC) is a Vice-Presidential Unit within the World Bank Group and has approximately 100 professional, administrative and client support staff. GEFSEC is seeking a Senior Freshwater Specialist to join the Programming Division for program management, analytical, stakeholder engagement and policy needs, as described below.
Duties and Accountabilities:
The Senior Freshwater Specialist will take a leading role in providing GEF support to country cooperation in shared surface and groundwater ecosystems. S/he will support the GEF’s mandate to deliver global environmental benefits by supporting developing countries in their commitments towards several Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements. S/he will work in a multi-disciplinary technical team of environmental specialists including biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, international waters (transboundary freshwater and marine), and chemicals & waste. S/he will support eligible countries in programming GEF resources, provide timely review and processing of projects proposals submitted by GEF-accredited agencies, and provide sound upstream guidance to project proponents to foster coherence with GEF programming strategies.
The Senior Freshwater Specialist will be an integral member of the International Waters (IW) Focal Area team and support one or more of the GEF Regional Teams to ensure responsible and successful execution of the GEF Programming Directions and grant disbursement. S/he will also support regional and country-level engagement with clients and stakeholders to ensure that GEF recipient countries optimize their IW investments to achieve global environmental benefits. The Senior Freshwater Specialist will work under the guidance of the IW Focal Area Coordinator and will report to the Manager of the Programming Division.
Candidates should have a workable understanding of the complexity of the GEF partnership arrangement, the dynamics of a complex set of GEF client countries and experience in supporting complex processes of multi-country cooperation on shared resources.
Candidates must have strong experience with freshwater projects in developing countries, including freshwater transboundary projects and underlying legal and institutional frameworks. Candidates must also have strong interpersonal skills, diplomatic skills, along with political acumen and the capacity to work effectively on sensitive issues with senior management, the GEF Council, and across different organizations of the GEF partnership. The ideal candidate would bring to the position a good understanding of key players and partners in transboundary waters on global and regional levels.