Build a career with impact. Working at the World Bank Group (WBG) provides a unique opportunity to help countries solve their greatest development challenges. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, the WBG is a unique partnership of five global institutions dedicated to ending poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, the WBG works 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.
REGIONAL CONTEXT
Western and Central Africa (Western and Central Africa (AFW) Region: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/western-and-central-africa) is a region with diverse cultures, beliefs, languages, and lifestyles – marked by contrasts of stability and conflict, affluence, and poverty. Home to about half a billion people, it encompasses 23 countries stretching from the westernmost point of Africa across the equator and partly along the Atlantic Ocean to the Republic of Congo in the South. The sub-region is rich in resources and brimming with opportunities. It made impressive progress in regional cooperation and includes two monetary unions - the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) that cover 13 countries between them.
The World Bank Western and Central Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,139 staff mostly based in about 23 country offices, is committed to helping countries to realize their considerable development potential and become more competitive in the global economy by focusing on the following priorities:
(i) 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. (ii) Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030; (iii) 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; (iv) 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 (v) 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; (vi) 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 and (vii) 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.
SECTORAL CONTEXT
Agriculture is an essential pathway to meeting the World Bank Group’s (WBG) twin goals—eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity. Food production must increase by at least 35 percent to meet the needs of the rising global population. Thus, ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity cannot be achieved without more and better investment in agriculture, food security, and nutrition. Meeting today’s challenges on the food and agriculture agenda will require major strides in agricultural innovation and climate smart agriculture, efficiency in food production and distribution systems, promoting environmentally and socially sustainable production practices, strengthening agricultural policy and institutions, supporting agribusiness value chains, and joint private and public sector action. The Farming and Agribusiness (FAB) department of the WBG, working closely with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), supports a Global Vision for Food and Agriculture with agriculture able to feed every person, every day, in every country with a safe, nutritious, and affordable diet, and where jobs and income gains in the food system are sufficient to meet poverty reduction targets.
To help the achievement of the twin goals, the strategic focus of the FAB department is to help client countries with the issues mentioned above. Areas of focus include, among other: (i) increasing smallholder agricultural productivity, and its resilience through support to improved land and water management in irrigated and rain-fed areas; (ii) linking farmers to markets and strengthening value chains through support for improved infrastructure, information technology, postharvest handling; etc.; (iii) facilitating rural non-farm income by improving the rural investment climate and skills development; (iv) reducing risk, vulnerability and gender inequality through support to risk management mechanisms; and (v) enhancing environmental services and sustainability.
The work program of the FAB department in Central and West Africa spans across 23 countries and supports projects/programs and non-lending services aimed primarily at inclusive growth through increased agricultural productivity, food security, and rural non-farm incomes and employment while protecting the quality of the environment. The FAB department’s program in the region is central to achieving the Bank's Mission of reducing poverty given that: (i) the majority of the Region’s poor live and work in agriculture; (ii) the demand for food in the region is expected to significantly increase over the next decades; and (iii) the pressure on natural resources in rural areas is expected to worsen.
The FAB department works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that agriculture outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the department, and FAB actively contributes to work managed by other departments. Accordingly, a capacity to work across departmental boundaries, forge coalitions, and influence multi-sector solutions is essential for achieving the major objectives of improving agriculture outcomes.
The Farming and Agribusiness (FAB) department is seeking to recruit an Extended-Term Consultant (ETC), based in Washington, DC, to monitor and support the regional operational and analytical activities of the Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP), with particular emphasis on the Project’s risk financing components. The consultant will provide operational oversight, analytical input, and technical coordination to ECOWAS and other regional institutions such as CORAF, and participating FSRP countries towards advancing the Project implementation. The consultant will also contribute to deepening the West Africa region’s use of innovative financial instruments, while reinforcing national and regional capacities to anticipate and respond to food security crises. Given the scale of the FSRP, amounting to US$1.052 billion, robust monitoring, proactive supervision, and close coordination are essential to ensure effective delivery and the achievement of intended development outcomes.
FSRP CONTEXT
After decades of progress, food security indicators and per capita food availability in West Africa have been deteriorating over the last years. The number of undernourished people has risen from 36.9 million (13.8% of the West African population) in 2005 to almost (projected) 50 million between June and August 2025, according to the Cadre Harmonisé 3.0 analysis.
The alarming trend reversal is caused by an unprecedented combination of growing food demand, volatile food production, and stagnant yields. Complex interactions between climate change, population growth, an eroding natural resource base, as well as an increasing incidence of conflict, are fanning these supply- and demand-side pressures that underlie the observed increase in food-insecure people. The ongoing pandemic has further aggravated the food security situation. According to the RPCA (The Food Crisis Prevention Network), 27.1 million people were projected to be food insecure during the lean season of June–August 2021, a new record high.
In response to these complex food security challenges, the African Food Security Leadership Dialogue (AFSLD) has been convened by AUC, AFDB, IFAD, FAO, and the WB to catalyze action for building resilient, productive, and sustainable food systems. The launch event in Kigali in August 2019 outlined a vision of a more resilient African food system achieved through joint action by partners under the leadership of African institutions, harnessing the power of science and technology through cross-sectoral approaches. Responding to the Kigali call to action, the World Bank is supporting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) through the Food System Resilience Facility (FSRF) and the Food System Resilience Program (FSRP).
The West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP), a large-scale investment program, aims to enhance food system resilience in West Africa in the short and medium term by financing interventions across three mutually reinforcing components, each led by one regional organization. The three components include i) Digital advisory services for agriculture and food crisis prevention and management, led by CILSS; ii) Sustainability and adaptive capacity of the food system’s productive base, led by CORAF; and iii) Regional food market integration and trade, led by ECOWAS. ECOWAS, which holds the political mandate for defining principles and objectives related to the region's agriculture and food sector, is leading the overall coordination of the program. With the program being designed as a multiphase programmatic approach (MPA), country accession to FSRP is phased according to country readiness and urgency. The first phase entered effectiveness in 2022 and comprised Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo. The second phase, commenced in June 2022, included Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Chad. The third phase includes Senegal and was approved in 2023.
The West Africa Food System Resilience Facility (FSRF) informs the preparation and implementation of FSRP, including through technical and logistical support. FSRF is a multi-partner technical advisory facility, which is organized around three pillars: (I) Strategy and Partnerships, consisting of support to ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF in the design of regional flagship initiatives and related partner engagement, (II) Evidence, Analytics and Delivery Mechanisms, consisting of the development of technical, policy and strategy notes to build the evidence base and close knowledge gaps, and (III) Learning and Capacity Building. Under Pillar (I), the first output of FSRF, A Blueprint for Strengthening Food System Resilience: Priority Intervention Areas, was published in May 2021. Capturing clients' shared understanding of the food system resilience agenda in West Africa, the report's findings have informed the design of FSRP components. In addition, four policy- and strategy notes are being developed under FSRF, including on i) food insecurity hotspots, fragility, and integrated landscape approaches; ii) a regionally owned trade scorecard to enhance implementation of trade policy; iii) regional risk architecture and financing mechanisms; and iv) digital climate Information and agriculture advisory delivery mechanisms.
Going forward, FSRF will focus on the completion of the policy and strategy notes mentioned above, additional work on impact evaluation related to FSRP, and the execution of capacity-building activities to support the program’s key regional organizations. By implementing a set of capacity-building and learning measures targeted to the individual needs of ECOWAS, CILSS, and CORAF, FSRF (pillar III) will strengthen the organizations' operational and technical capacity in support of the successful and effective implementation of regional-level activities planned under the program. In addition, FSRF will carry out additional work on developing a methodology for capturing the impact of FSRP on food insecurity parameters in areas targeted by the program. Last, FSRF will organize virtual and in-person learning events to share results from FSRF work to ensure knowledge uptake by clients and other stakeholders in the region.
Within the FSRP’s project components, risk financing activities include strengthening the capacity of ECOWAS’s Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) to respond to food crises. This includes exploring risk financing backstops for RFSR and providing technical assistance and training. The Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF) grant supports West African regional stakeholders in developing a risk financing product that can provide additional capital during emergencies for the RFSR. The design purpose of RFSR is to pool food insecurity risks at the regional level, allowing the pooled resources to be accessed when local and national response capacities and mechanisms are exceeded. Thus, the GSFF financing aims to develop and operationalize a risk financing product whose payouts would flow into the RFSR to backstop its resources in the event that severe food insecurity shocks occur in member states, leading to substantial outflows to a degree that compromises its ability to achieve its designed purpose.
Description of Duties and Accountabilities:
The primary responsibility of the Risk Finance Economist, ETC, will be to contribute to the development and implementation of the FAB department’s work program on regional food system resilience in West Africa through the Food System Resilience Program (FSRP) as well as risk finance activities supported by the Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF).
The ETC will report to the Practice Manager in charge of SAWA 4, who is based at World Bank Office in Washington, DC, and work under the daily supervision of the task team leader (TTL) of FSRF and FSRP in the delivery of the work program, assurance of quality, interaction with internal and external clients, including the government and private sector, and strategic partnerships.
The specific responsibilities of the ETC will include:
• Contribute as a core team member to the implementation of FSRP Phase I, Phase II and Phase III by (i) coordinating the joint efforts of all regional- and national-level clients, (ii) monitoring the preparation and implementation progress and ensuring the timely delivery of key milestones, (iii) ensuring the timely effectiveness of the phase ; (iv) organizing and preparing key events (such as missions etc.) and (v) providing technical inputs to key documents such as the Project Appraisal Document (PAD) and Project Implementation Manuals (PIMs);
• Support the cooperation with the FSRP Regional Steering Committee (RSC), responsible for the global supervision and oversight of FSRP, in cooperation with the TTL, and serve as the focal point for liaison with key partners, especially ECOWAS, CILSS, and CORAF.
• Support the organisation and facilitation of dialogues, technical discussions, and stakeholder consultations involving FSRP, including all regional-level and national-level clients, World Bank staff, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and other partners, as well as representatives from the academic community, civil society, and the private sector.
• Provide technical and logistical support to TTL of FSRF and FSRP and ensure the application of evidence derived from various studies in the implementation of FSRP.
• Collaborate on analytical initiatives exploring innovative approaches to predict food insecurity in the region.
• Prepare summary notes, technical briefs, and input papers to inform high-level consultations and donor engagements.
• Provide analytical and technical inputs to support the review of the ECOWAS Regional and Food Security Storage (RFSS) Strategy and reform the Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR), in close collaboration with stakeholders, including EBID, ARC, and ECOWAS. This includes reading global flagship and specific studies on ECOWAS RFSR and synthesizing these findings in the strategy discussions and document.
• Contribute to contingency planning and integration of risk finance within ECOWAS RFSR’s operational framework. This includes facilitating the design and implementation of a robust money-out system (rules/trigger-based framework) for the reserve, closing the risk-layering gap, as well as a strategy for sustaining the financing of RFSR’s broader risk transfer elements (money-in system).
• Provide technical support to incorporate risk finance and transfer architecture that will position RFSR as an efficient mechanism to manage and distribute regionally pooled physical and financial resources when local and national food security response capabilities are overwhelmed.
• Assist in the design and delivery of capacity building workshops and modular training for FSRP stakeholders (regional and national) on risk financing. Training topics will include fundamentals of risk finance and risk layering; overview of risk financing instruments; role of PPP in agri-risk finance, etc.
• Provide technical and strategic inputs to the Bank team for implementation of BE-funded risk finance and reserve-related activities, particularly as they relate to the Agricultural Sector Reviews.
• Take on other tasks as business needs arise.