Extended Term (ET) Consultant (Economics)

Job #:	req39407
Organization:	World Bank
Sector:	Economics
Grade:	EC1
Term Duration:	1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type:	Local Recruitment
Location:	Lilongwe,Malawi
Required Language(s):	English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date:	11/17/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

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?source=malawi24.com/vacancies.

The Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) is the World Bank’s central reservoir of fresh insights into the most pressing challenges of development. It is led by the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group, who advises the President and senior managers, serves as the community leader for the WBG’s economists, and helps to keep the institution in the forefront of thinking about development policy. DEC constitutes one of the world’s largest teams of economists focused on policy solutions for developing economies.

A department of the World Bank’s Development Economics Vice-Presidency, DECDI’s purpose is to increase the use of impact evaluation (IE) in the design and implementation of public policy and to develop institutional capacity and motivation for evidence-based policy.

DECDI’s work focuses on:

• Evaluating programs at scale to answer policy-relevant questions;
• Developing innovative data systems and data analytics tools for real-time decisions;
• Using causal inference analysis to identify mechanisms to improve results;
• Building capacity to strengthen country institutions for evidence-based policymaking.

DECDI aims to overcome the challenge to identify true cause-and-effect relations in policy programs. By linking researchers to policymakers and feeding results back into policies, DECDI fosters systematic use of evidence, which informs adoption, mid-course corrections, and scale-up of policies. Through workshops and clinics with operational staff and government clients, joint research teams, active field coordination, as well as research products such as seminars, papers, and policy briefs, DECDI builds capacity while forming a wider community of practice.

DECDI accompanies impact evaluations during their entire life-cycle. It starts with assessing demand, identifying research questions, as well as supporting project implementation, high quality data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results.

With a portfolio of more than 220 impact evaluations, DECDI operates across all sectors in about 60 countries spanning the globe. The IEs test a variety of interventions and mechanisms to understand why policy succeeds or fails and how to improve policy design and implementation to obtain better results. By working proactively in collaboration with clients, DECDI employs experimental methods to infer causality whenever possible (79% of the portfolio). 17% of DECDI IEs utilize non-experimental methods, while 4% use a combination of the two.

DECDI is structured into 5 World Bank units:

• DECPL “Planet Impact Lab”
• DECPE “People Impact Lab”
• DECPR “Prosperity Impact Lab”
• DECID “Infrastructure and Digital Impact Lab”
• DECME “Behavior Science Lab”

More information can be found at https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/unit-dec/impactevaluation?source=malawi24.com/vacancies.

Duties and responsibilities

The ET Consultant will report to DECPE management and play a central role in executing and coordinating DECDI’s LEADS portfolio in Malawi, working with research and operational teams, government counterparts, and external partners. As needed, the position will also support broader CMU coordination, including liaison with relevant teams to the Tanzania CMU. Core responsibilities include:

Impact Evaluation Coordination

• Coordinate the Malawi LEADS portfolio across research and operational teams, government counterparts, donors, and implementing partners, while supporting broader CMU liaison-including with relevant teams in Tanzania-and cross-country learning as needed.
• Manage day-to-day implementation of impact evaluations, including work plans, timelines, deliverables, missions, and coordination of quantitative, qualitative, and process-evaluation activities.
• Support experimental and quasi-experimental research design, including randomization, sampling, and power calculations, and monitor field implementation to protect evaluation integrity and address operational bottlenecks.
• Supervise and mentor junior staff and consultants, review work plans, and provide technical and field guidance.
• Build partner relationships, identify operational questions and capacity needs, and organize training and workshops to support learning and dissemination.

Data and Research

• Manage the data-collection lifecycle, including survey design and programming, sampling, procurement, field supervision, protocol compliance, and quality assurance.
• Consolidate, clean, and document primary and secondary data; resolve data gaps and matching issues; and maintain analysis-ready datasets consistent with World Bank reproducibility standards.
• Develop analysis plans and conduct econometric and statistical analysis in Stata and/or R, producing tables, figures, and other inputs for research and policy outputs.
• Supervise research assistants, field coordinators and survey firms during data collection and analysis exercises; participate in statistical code reviews, and supervise the preparation of reproducible analysis and replication files; apply advanced methods where relevant.

Policy Communication and Dissemination

• Draft concise analytical and dissemination products-including briefs, reports, presentations, talking points, and blogs-tailored to World Bank, government, donor, and other partner audiences.
• Prepare CMU-facing portfolio updates, briefings, and management materials that synthesize progress, emerging evidence, operational implications, and priority follow-up actions across engagements.
• Support high-level events and stakeholder convenings by translating technical findings into actionable policy recommendations.
• Contribute to fundraising and new research opportunities through concept notes, proposals, and budgets.

Selection Criteria

• Education and experience: Master’s degree in economics, public policy, statistics, or a related field, with at least three years of relevant quantitative research and analytical experience.
• Impact evaluation: Demonstrated expertise in the design and implementation of experimental or quasi-experimental evaluations, including field-based research in developing-country settings.
• Data and software: Advanced proficiency in Stata and/or R and experience with SurveyCTO or comparable electronic data-collection platforms are required; Python and geospatial tools are advantages.
• Survey and analytical experience: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and analyzing complex household surveys, including data quality assurance and reproducible coding; experience coding collaboratively is highly desirable.
• Coordination and supervision: Proven ability to manage research activities and work effectively with policymakers, program implementers, survey firms, and multidisciplinary teams, including supervising, mentoring, or teaching others on survey- and data-related tasks.
• Country knowledge: Relevant work experience in Malawi and familiarity with its institutional and operational context are strongly preferred.
• Professional competencies: Strong initiative, judgment, organization, attention to detail, and ability to manage competing priorities independently while collaborating effectively in multicultural environments.
• Communication: Excellent written and oral English skills, including the ability to translate technical evidence for policy and operational audiences; proficiency in Chichewa is an advantage.
• Mobility: Willingness and ability to travel within Malawi and internationally, as required.

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

As per WBG policy, an Extended Term (ET) appointment is subject to a lifetime maximum of three (3) years. Former and current ET staff who have completed or are in the process of completing their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.

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.

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