Health Specialist

Health Specialist

Description

At the World Bank, a member of the World Bank Group (WBG), you’ll join a diverse, global community working across cultures, disciplines, and borders to address the world’s most pressing development challenges. With 1.2 billion young people reaching working age in the decade ahead, the challenge of job creation has never been greater. Through partnerships across 145 countries and more than 182 offices worldwide, we work with governments, private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to invest in people, strengthen markets, and deliver scalable, data-driven solutions that generate more and better jobs and improve lives. For more information, visit https://www.worldbank.org/en/who-we-are/ibrd

The MENAAP Region:

The Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan Region (MENAAP) serves twenty two countries, of which twelve are active/potentially active IBRD/IDA borrowers (Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, West Bank and Gaza, Tunisia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) and eight are users of the Region's non-lending services, mostly on a reimbursable basis (Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Malta, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). The mission of MENAAP is to foster sustainable growth with a focus on job creation and poverty reduction, economic and social inclusion, and good governance. MENAAP attaches importance to creating a supportive work environment based on the values of teamwork, transparency, trust, and client service, underlined by professional excellence. MENAAP places high value on diversity. MENAAP is organized in seven Country Departments (CMUs), the Office of the Regional Chief Economist, and the Development Effectiveness Unit (MAPDE).

Unit Context:
 
The MENAAP People Vertical (HMADR) team is led by a Regional Practice Director (RPD) and encompasses three units (Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP); Social Policy (SP), and Education and Skills (EduSkills). The MENAAP People strategy aims to enhance Human Capital in the Region to help MENAAP become a region that realizes its vast potential by harnessing its greatest untapped assets: the human capital of its population, including youth, women, and the elderly.

The Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice (HNP)

The World Bank Group 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. The HNP Global Practice (GP) is led by a Global Director, who has overall responsibility for the GP. For more information: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health

The HNP program in the MENAAP is very varied and includes: (i) a portfolio under implementation with a strong focus on health systems strengthening, including health financing, to achieve UHC; (ii) a growing portfolio of health emergency operations; (iii) investment operations in very fragile settings; (iv) analytical work and capacity building program on health emergency prevention, preparedness and response,  health financing, NCDs, pharmaceuticals, among others; (v) close regional and country partnership activities with WHO, UNICEF, the Global Fund, Gavi, the French Development Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, JICA, among others, and plans to develop further partnerships with the Islamic Development Bank and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank; (vi) a large and growing Reimbursable Advisory Services program in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries covering several areas of health policy, from public health, to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), to climate change and health. The MENAAP HNP Global Practice (HMAPH) is managed by a Practice Manager.

The Social Policy Global Practice (SP)

The SP GP delivers operational approaches and evidence-based solutions to help individuals and families manage risk, cope with chronic/transitional poverty, and access better livelihoods and jobs. These include strategy, analysis, financing and design of programs delivering social safety nets/social assistance (cash transfers, public works programs, social care services), social insurance (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, disability and survivor benefits), and labor market and youth employment programs and policies (public employment services, active labor market programs, labor market regulations and institutions). The SP GP unit in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan (MENAAP) (HMAPS) manages a growing operations portfolio of about 20 projects worth US$7 billion in net commitments and exciting knowledge program across the region. HMAPS is part of the MENAAP People department (HMADR), which also includes Health, Nutrition and Population (HMAPH) and Education (HMAPE).

The Education and Skills (EduSkills) 

The Education and Skills Global Practice portfolio in the MENAAP region spans a wide set of country contexts, from the Gulf Cooperation Council states to fragility-affected settings like Afghanistan, Yemen, and West Bank and Gaza, and is organized across seven Country Management Units. The portfolio addresses several interrelated priorities: reducing learning poverty, expanding access and equity particularly for girls and displaced populations, strengthening education systems through governance reforms, curriculum development, teacher training, and student assessment, and building workforce-relevant skills through TVET and higher education programs aligned with labor market demand. The GCC countries are engaged primarily through Reimbursable Advisory Services. Across the region, the practice is increasingly focused on digital skills and green transformation as structural drivers of future employment, and sector tailored skills training investments. Delivery in FCV-affected countries is supported through third-party monitoring and UN agency partnerships.

Country context: Afghanistan

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, facing a severe and compounding human development crisis. Living standards are threatened by the ongoing drought, widespread food insecurity and recurrent disease outbreaks  — including poliovirus, one of only two countries globally where wild poliovirus remains endemic. The displacement crisis continues, with millions internally displaced and over 5.2 million returnees since 2023 placing additional strain on already fragile services. Despite conflict-related challenges, notable improvements in the coverage and quality of health services and health outcomes have been made over the past twenty years. The newborn mortality rate fell from 53 to 23 per 1,000 live births from 2003 to 2018, and the under-five mortality rate from 257 to 50 per 1,000 live births over the same period. Life expectancy has increased over the same period, from 56 to almost 64 years. Social protection systems are largely absent, leaving the most vulnerable, including women, girls, and displaced populations, without predictable support. At the same time, education, skills and employment crisis has deepened. Learning poverty is among highest in the world pointing to very low access to and quality of education: indeed, almost half of boys and over half of girls remain out of school at the primary level; system-wide bans by the Interim Taliban Administration (ITA)’s on girls’ access to secondary and tertiary education persist. Nearly half of youth are not in education, employment, or training, and female youth unemployment reaches 54%. Across health, social protection, education, skills and livelihoods, Afghanistan's human development indicators remain among the lowest in the region, demanding urgent, integrated responses. 

The health sector in Afghanistan is at an inflection point following the collapse of the Republic on August 15th, 2021, and the takeover by the Taliban, which subsequently established an interim administration. As this administration is not recognized internationally, support is provided off-budget through UN agencies and INGOs. The economic crisis triggered by the change of regime has exposed pre-existing vulnerabilities and undermined food security for most households. The public health system’s capacity for disease outbreak response and preparedness needs strengthening. Additional challenges include health packages that are not fully aligned with the current burden of disease in Afghanistan, insufficient healthcare staff, inadequate quality, fragmented health monitoring systems, weak health product supply chains, limited coverage for remote and rural populations, gender inequalities, and limited integration of the private sector. 

Afghanistan's social policy landscape is equally fragmented and under severe stress. There is no predictable or unified social protection system in place, leaving millions reliant on fragmented humanitarian support channeled through NGOs and UN agencies. Acute vulnerabilities are concentrated among women, female-headed households, persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons, and the growing population of returnees. Restrictive ITA edicts — including barriers to female education, mobility, and employment — have deepened gender inequalities and constrained access to services. In the absence of functioning state institutions, identifying, targeting, and sequencing support to the most vulnerable remains a critical operational challenge. Strengthening social protection systems, expanding access to integrated services, and addressing gender barriers are essential to halting further erosion of Afghanistan's human capital.

Human capital is also constrained by low education outcomes and narrowing operational space for public sector engagement. Learning poverty in Afghanistan stands at 93 percent. Approximately 4.2 million children are out of school, with higher rates among girls. Access to early childhood education (ECE) is virtually nonexistent, with less than one percent of children enrolled. Foundational literacy and numeracy deteriorate rapidly after children leave school, perpetuating intergenerational poverty and feeding directly into the labor market. The share of youth not in education, employment, or training (NEET) reached 44 percent in 2021, and employers consistently cite skills gaps as a binding constraint on growth. The operational space for engagement in public education has narrowed significantly since 2021, with restrictions on girls' participation in secondary and tertiary education — including Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and higher education — alongside ongoing curriculum changes and the envisaged gradual transition of the community-based education (CBE) model towards community-based schools. 

The World Bank has continued its commitment to protect the vulnerable, help preserve human capital and key economic and social institutions, reduce the need for future humanitarian assistance, and improve gender equality outcomes. It has taken a focused approach, engaging in four priority sectors in Afghanistan, including education, livelihoods, agriculture, and health, with the aim of sustaining basic services while closely monitoring the macro-fiscal and socio-economic status on the ground through analytical work.

A collapse of the health system was averted by channeling emergency funding through United Nations agencies to continue contracting with NGOs to deliver basic and essential health service packages. This was followed by the Health Emergency Response (HER) project, funded by the ARTF and the Global Financing Facility (GFF) through the World Bank. UNICEF is the implementing agency for the HER projects and will continue contracting with NGOs to deliver basic and essential health services under this mechanism through December 2026. In addition, the Bank team has been conducting a Human Development (HD) Programmatic Advisory Service and Analytics (PASA) to support the development of a Human Capital and Job Project to start in 2027.

The World Bank in Afghanistan: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/overview 

A role in an FCS (Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations) location will be a truly impactful experience!

Fragility, Conflict, and Violence: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/fragilityconflictviolence 

Roles and Responsibilities 

HMAPH is seeking a Health Specialist based in Kabul, Afghanistan, to provide technical and operational support to the Human Capital and Jobs (HCJ) Program, the Health Emergency Response (HER) Program, Education Emergency Response in Afghanistan (EERA) Project and Human Development Analytics. The selected candidate’s primary focus will be to provide operational and analytical support for implementing the health-related components of the HCJ program and to support the Education and Social Policy teams in the delivery of early child development (ECD), community based education, distance learning, safety nets, skills and employment as well as certification programs, and social delivery systems leveraging lessons learned from ongoing World Bank projects. 

The Health Specialist will also support the implementation of the broader World Bank HNP, SP and EDUSKILLS programs in Afghanistan, including engaging with relevant technical counterparts in the Interim Taliban Administration (ITA), with local and international implementation partners and donors. The selected candidate will also support the Programmatic Advisory Service and Analytics (PASA) activities, including contributing to the generation of innovation and knowledge in the HD sector, engaging on the human capital agenda, and collaborating with other sectors to enhance the impact of upcoming projects in Afghanistan. 

The Health Specialist will report to the HMAPH Practice Manager and work in close collaboration with the project Task Team Leader(s) (TTLs). The Health Specialist’s work program will be roughly split 60-40 between the Health and Education/Social Policy sectors. His/her support will go beyond HCJ, and s/he will cover technical dialogue across Human Development sectors.

Specific duties are outlined below.  

Support to Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Portfolio (60%)

Current HNP Portfolio and Analytical Projects

• Support the Task Team for the Afghanistan Health Emergency Response (HER) Project with implementation and supervision activities.

• Lead on several technical components of the HER Project (Quality of Care, localization of medicines)

• Support technical engagement with donors and the Interim Taliban Administration's Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on health system cost-burden sharing.

• Draft technical reports and develop analytical products for the Afghanistan Human Development PASA. 

• Engage with TTLs, the CMU, and development partners in technical discussions to advance financing and pivot strategies. 

Support on HNP components in the HCJ Program 

The objective of the HCJ Program is to protect human capital and promote employment through private sector-led approaches, with a focus on youth and women and will be implemented by UNICEF, AKDN and WFP. 

• Provide technical and project management support to the TTLs, implementation partners, and the Country Management Unit (CMU) to support a gradual pivot toward private-sector provision and to align donor priorities;

• Liaise with implementation partners for the delivery of basic health and nutrition services of the HCJ Program

• Engage in policy dialogues and conduct assessments to support system development and capacity building, particularly to enhance health system strengthening, including medicine localization agenda

• Collaborate with counterparts from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to ensure alignment in the delivery of health services under the HCJ Program and the ADB’s NOURISH project. 

• Support TTLs in drafting and reviewing key project documents, such as the project operations manual and the project appraisal document, and compliance reports, during the program's implementation. 

• Engage with the World Bank’s HNP Global Unit to provide updates on corporate indicators and scorecard targets, including the global target to deliver quality, affordable health services to 1.5bn people by 2030.


Support on Education and Social Policy Portfolio (40%)

• Provide inputs and support to the TTLs of the Education and Social Policy programs, particularly in implementing the ECD, community based education, distance learning, safety nets, skills and employment and certification programs as well as social delivery systems. 

• Maintain active policy dialogue with ITA counterparts and international and local partners on education, cash programming and safety nets, employment support mechanisms, and social protection delivery systems, including beneficiary identification, targeting, and grievance redress.

• Contribute to engagement on the human capital agenda, particularly regarding gender and inclusion, to address gender-based violence, provide psychological support, and strengthen community-based platforms. 

• Support program TTLs in fostering synergies across Afghanistan portfolio, and within HCJ Component 1 (Sustaining Human Services) and Component 2 (Improving Youth Skills and Employment), including coordination among the multiple implementing partners.

• Collaborate with the project team to develop a unified theory of change and results framework for the HCJ project, and provide support for potential project restructuring or refinancing throughout the program lifecycle. 

• Engage with implementing partners to support beneficiary targeting and profiling, ensuring coordinated outreach to the most vulnerable across human capital sectors.

Selection Criteria

• Graduate degree in public health, demographics, health economics, health policy, epidemiology, health system administration, or professional degree (medicine, nursing) (Master’s degree required, PhD or equivalent would be an asset). Candidates without a core qualification in at least one of these domains will not be eligible for this role. 

• A medical degree would be an asset.

• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in the areas of public health, health system management, or health economics, in preparation and supervision of major Bank-funded projects, and/or Trust Funds, or similar experience from other multilateral development institutions.

• Prior experience of working with/on health systems in Afghanistan and strong knowledge of and experience with various aspects such as institutional setup, health policies and programs, challenges, and priorities. 

• Demonstrated expertise in social protection, safety nets, and education policy, including experience with cash transfer programs, employment support mechanisms, or early childhood development; prior exposure to delivery systems and beneficiary targeting in fragile or conflict-affected settings is a strong advantage.

• Demonstrated expertise in policy dialogue and the ability to interact effectively with a range of stakeholders at various levels.

• Prior experience in an international development institution (public, NGO, or private sector) or academia is preferred.

• Consider climate change, gender, and other cross-cutting issues in the project approach.

• Possess political judgment, diplomatic acumen, and negotiating skills.

• Demonstrate sound knowledge of WBG’s Twin Goals and the complementarities among different WBG member institutions.

• Demonstrated track record of synthesizing complex analytics and results into user-friendly outputs, including PowerPoint presentations, Policy Briefs, and Working Papers. 

• Proactive and results-focused work style with strong problem-solving capabilities.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and oral Dari or Pashto skills are essential, with the ability to prepare documents on complex subjects, speak and write persuasively, and present ideas clearly and concisely.

In addition to the above, the successful candidate is expected to demonstrate the following WBG competencies:

• Integrative Skills: Understands core issues and knows where to get additional expertise when needed. Task team member in integrative products and provides analytical written inputs.

• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena: Understands the policy-making process and the role of the health sector in that process.  Is able to find relevant information and examine similar policy questions in multiple regions and to distill operationally relevant recommendations and lessons from this analysis for clients.

• Policy Dialogue Skills: Identifies and assesses policy issues and communicates findings/points of view verbally and through economic reports and papers.  Plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders as part of Bank teams.

• Lead and Innovate: Encourages and works with others to identify and implement relevant solutions. Identifies opportunities in changing circumstances and energizes others to continuously improve, using intentional strategies to boost morale, team spirit, and productivity in context of WBG's values and mission. Helps others to understand problems, client needs and the underlying context. Ability to adapt to changing circumstances. 

• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries: Collaborates across organizational boundaries, internally and externally with a sense of mutuality and respect. Consistently engages others in open dialogue, brings out any conflicting viewpoints and incorporates viewpoints into solutions, giving credit where credit is due. Leverages expertise of all team members to ensure successful outcomes. Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.

• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge: Ensures systematic sharing of good practice and learning from lessons from across WBG, clients, and partners. Is known across WBG in their subject area and is sought out by WBG colleagues to advise, peer review, or contribute to knowledge products of others. Seeks mentoring opportunities with more experienced staff to deepen or strengthen their professional knowledge and mentors junior staff. Leads in the sharing of best practice, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.

• Make Smart Decisions: Applies critical thinking and seeks inputs and experience from others to recommend a course of action consistent with the WBG's strategy. Evaluates risk and anticipates the short- and long-term implications of decisions. 

• Client Orientation: Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.

• Drive for Results: Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.

• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion: Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.

As the World Bank Group continues to evolve, we value candidates who:

• Demonstrate the ability to collaborate effectively across teams, disciplines, cultures, and institutional boundaries.
• Responsibly leverage digital and AI-enabled tools to enhance productivity, learning, and decision-making.
• Bring experience working in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) contexts and are encouraged to highlight relevant experience in their application materials, where applicable.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC including our values and inspiring stories.