Background / General description: Innovation and partnership bond the five institutions of the World Bank Group (WBG): the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It uses financial resources and extensive experience to help our client countries to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, and improve quality of life. To ensure that countries can access the best global expertise and help generate cutting-edge knowledge, the World Bank Group is constantly seeking to improve the way it works. Key priorities include delivering measurable results, promoting openness and transparency in development, and improving access to development information and data.
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a global multi-donor partnership dedicated to advancing financial inclusion for the poor. CGAP develops innovative solutions to address barriers to financial inclusion through practical research and active engagement with financial service providers, policy makers, and funders.
Established in 1995, CGAP initially played a critical role in building a sustainable microfinance industry, facilitating consensus around good practice standards and helping to professionalize the field. Starting in the mid-2000s, CGAP focused on promoting a diversity of financial services and providers and in particular technology and business model innovations that have the potential to dramatically increase the scale and lower the costs of financial services for poor people.
Today, CGAP is widely recognized as a leading global resource on financial inclusion through its high-level advocacy, research and knowledge sharing on client demand, support for product and business model innovation, policy advice, and guidelines and standards for donor effectiveness.
CGAP is supported by more than 30 partners including bilateral and multilateral development agencies, development finance institutions and private foundations committed to advancing financial access for the poor. CGAP is housed in and administered by the World Bank.
CGAP's structure comprises its Council of Governors (CG), the membership and governance body of CGAP, its Executive Committee (ExCom), which operates as CGAP's Board, and its Operational Team. The Operational Team, led by a CEO, is responsible for implementing CGAP's work in partnership with a wide range of private, social, and public sector organizations
CGAP is guided by a five-year strategy and annual workplan. The current five-year strategy, CGAP V, covers the period July 1, 2013 - June 30, 2018 and was developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. CGAP V was endorsed in May 2013 by the CG and focuses on the following five priority areas
Implementation of CGAP V is carried out by the Operational Team through a 'portfolio of initiatives', including the Digital Finance Frontiers Initiavive (DFF), designed to achieve the market development outcomes articulated in its new five-year strategy.
Millions of people around the world use mobile phones to exchange money and make payments in a real-time, convenient and affordable way. The GSMA, the global association of mobile telecoms, estimates there are more than 60 million active mobile money accounts in more than 84 countries, and these figures continue to grow. Payments solutions that digitally connect large number of people make it efficient to process frequent low-value transactions, which enable services like credit, savings and insurance to be viably offered to customers that are poor.
In markets such as Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, payments platforms that have gained significant scale have become the channel by which many financial providers deliver financial solutions (beyond payments) to market, with the potential to improve the lives of many people, especially poor.
Affordable, convenient, and secure financial services provide a fundamental tool for improving a family's well-being and productive capacity. It empowers poor households to build financial assets, and reduces their vulnerability by helping them deal with risks and financial shocks.
CGAP's Digital Finance Frontiers (DFF) Initiative works to develop new, viable business models that leverage digital channels to bring a variety of financial services to poor people. It does this by driving firm-level demonstrations showing how digital financial services such as credit and insurance offerings can be delivered leveraging digital payments.
CGAP holds that the digital frontier will be developed by a series of game-changing attributes. This includes how providers can interact in real-time with their customers over voice, SMS or in applications. User experiences could also change dramatically as smartphones enter the market allowing low-income users to use their intuition to explore new services and build trust. New forms of digital finance may enable informal peer groups (such as ROSCAs) to more easily connect across affinity groups and families or friends remotely providing more convenient forms of finance.
The DFF agenda involves three objectives: (1) Develop 'proof points' that show the potential of digital channel attributes to enhance the delivery of digital finance solutions. Some of these digital attributes are discussed here.
(2) Drive experimentation of new applications that expand the range of solutions that successfully serve the needs of poor people. This is an ambitious work stream that strives to leverage recent advances in a) the industry's understanding of poor peoples' financial needs and how the poor manage their finances, b) what technology can enable; and c) the role that individuals can and do play in securely providing a range of services to the community (think Uber, Airbnb, P2P lending).
(3) Characterize the opportunity and challenges, and synthesize lessons globally in digital finance frontiers.
The incumbent will report to the Lead of CGAP's Digital Finance Frontier (DFF) Initiative and work closely with the existing (DFF)team.
Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.
Duties and Accountabilities: The Financial Sector Specialist, Digital Finance Frontier (DFF) will be part of the DFF team, and will work primarily on the DFF agenda. Although as with all CGAP staff, he/she will also undertake as needed some work related to other initiatives at CGAP. The selected candidate will be based in Washington D.C. Given the global nature of CGAP's work it would be expected that he/she travels at least 30% of the time.
He/she would be expected to actively participate in team meetings/workshops, contribute ideas, lead problem solving discussions, challenge and be challenged by others. He/she would be expected to also take a share of general administrative tasks associated with our work.
The scope of work would be aligned to the DFF objectives. Specifically, his/her tasks would include:
Selection Criteria
Minimum Education/Experience: Successful candidates for the position of Financial Sector Specialist, Digital Finance should have Master's degree in technical area, economics, business administration or other relevant field and at least 5 years of professional experience related to the provision of financial services (direct provision of financial services; consulting; or international development)
Preferred Education/Experience: Master's degree with 7 years experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience. This is for Career Development Portal System testing!!
Required Competencies: Lead and Innovate - Develops innovative solutions.
Make Smart Decisions - Interprets a wide range of information and pushes to move forward.
Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries - Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly receives diverse perspectives.
Deliver Results for Clients - Proactively addresses clients' stated and unstated needs.
Create, Apply and Share Knowledge - Applies knowledge across WBG to strengthen solutions for internal and/or external clients.
Other Selection Criteria
Successful candidates for the position of Financial Sector Specialist, Digital Finance also should have demonstrated experience in the following areas:
Personal skills:
The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.
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