Senior Health Specialist, Washington DC

Senior Health Specialist Job #: req38016 Organization: World Bank Sector: Health/Nutrition/Population Grade: GG Term Duration: 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: International Recruitment Location: Washington, DC,United States Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Closing Date: 8/28/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work 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.  For more information, visit

The People Vertical
The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social policy and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries. 

The People Vice Presidency (HDVP) at the World Bank Group is made up of the Departments for education; health and social policy.  Additionally, the HDVP houses the gender group.  As such, HD is central to the World Bank Group’s goals to end extreme poverty by 2030 and raise shared prosperity. 

The primary challenges of health development relate to health, nutrition, and demographic transitions, through an agile short-term response, and a sustainable and inclusive longer-term response that tackles inequitable opportunities and outcomes in the health sector globally, regionally and within countries.  The fundamental challenge is to preempt, prevent and mitigate the developmental impact of these challenges now and into the future.  Specific challenges include: providing equitable, efficient, accountable and sustainable financing of health coverage; providing equitable, quality, appropriate and scaled-up delivery of priority public health services according to need; mobilizing the appropriate quantity and quality of key health systems inputs related to health workers, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare technology and facilities; and strengthening models of governance for the health sector that recognize core functions for government, responsibilities/accountability of key actors and enhance competencies for governance across levels (local, national, regional and global) and sectors (public/private/civil society, as well as government sectors such as education, transport, social protection, etc.).

Health Department
The World Bank Group (WBG) 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. For more information:

The Health Department is led by a Director, who has overall responsibility for the GP and also serves as the Director for the GFF. The Department works with and across multiple sectors, in recognition of the fact that Health outcomes often depend on actions that lie outside the health sector.  Accordingly, a capacity to work across GP boundaries, forge coalitions and influence multi-practice solutions are essential for achieving the major objectives of improving health outcomes.

Unit Context

Global Financing Facility 

The Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership housed at the World Bank that is committed to ensuring all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Launched in July 2015, the GFF supports 36 low and lower-middle income countries with catalytic financing and technical assistance to develop and implement prioritized national health plans to scale up access to affordable, quality care for women, children, and adolescents. The GFF also works with countries to maximize the use of domestic financing and external support for better, more sustainable health results. The GFF is focused on prioritizing and scaling up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition through targeted strengthening of primary health care systems – to save lives and as a critical first step toward accelerating progress on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The GFF has pioneered a shift from traditional development approaches to a more sustainable way forward where governments lead and bring global partners together to support a prioritized, costed national plan. Through this partnership, the GFF aims to mobilize additional funding through the combination of grants from a dedicated multi-donor trust fund (the GFF Trust Fund), financing from International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the crowding in of additional domestic and external resources. To date, the GFF has mobilized more than $2.5 billion in trust fund resources.  This approach and these resources have catalyzed high-impact investments for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition in the world’s most vulnerable countries. More information is available at:

The GFF partnership is led by the GFF Director; the day-to-day management of the GFF team is the responsibility of the GFF Manager. The GFF secretariat, which is based at the World Bank and is situated in the Health Department, works to deliver on the GFF objectives. This includes working with countries to develop quality investment cases, managing the GFF Trust Fund, technical assistance to regional teams, and supporting the GFF Investors Group, the governance mechanism for the GFF.

Background
With a mission to end all preventable deaths among women, children and adolescents, one of the prominent areas of focus for the GFF is maternal and newborn health.   The GFF partners with the countries with the highest burden of maternal and neonatal mortality and stillbirths in the world by supporting country led prioritization of health systems and health financing reforms to accelerate progress in mortality reduction.  
The Senior Health Specialist/MNH will oversee the GFF’s co-financing and technical assistance to countries to achieve this acceleration; will represent the GFF in key global MNH partnerships and events; contribute to GFF, World Bank and external learning and knowledge management activities around MNH; and work closely with the other units within the GFF Secretariat to advance MNH programming aims.   

Duties and Accountabilities

• Provides advice to country clients, World Bank task teams and the GFF secretariat team on evidence-based and scale-able approaches to address issues related to maternal, newborn and child health and stillbirth prevention (MNCH); Translate technical evidence and best practice into high quality investment case and large scale World Bank program development in the context of a health systems approach to RMNCH-N. 
• Supports the development of relevant metrics and evaluation approaches to enable results and performance-based financing approaches which can be used to improve MNCH performance with a focus on service quality.
• Advises on GFF collaboration with internal and external stakeholders on MNCH, including links to education, social protection, and labor market opportunities.
• Contributes to knowledge products including development and dissemination of tools, analytical work, country case studies and workshops at regional and global level, in collaboration with the other teams within the GFF Secretariat.
• Support the GFF in routine reporting to stakeholders and responding to ad hoc requests for information on MNH and stillbirth prevention programming across the GFF portfolio and in ensuring the successful operationalization of the GFF strategy, Transform 2030: Transforming health Systems, Saving Lives.
• Represents the GFF on global MNH donor and technical partnerships and at relevant events.
• Serves as a GFF Focal Point in one to two partner countries to support the country led processes of investment case development and implementation and stakeholder alignment through a functional country platform.  Engages with World Bank regions, country management units and task teams in the development and implementation of IDA/IBRD operations in support of the investment case and facilitates Bank access to GFF trust funds in support of strategic technical assistance, advisory services, and analytics.

Selection Criteria

• Doctorate degree in medicine, public health or related field with a focus on Maternal and/or Newborn Health, or demonstrable equivalent expertise gained through work experience.
• At least 10 years of work experience in MNCH in low income and complex settings with specific knowledge and experience implementing evidence based MNCH tools, interventions, approaches, into large scale programs.  Experience at integrating MNCH into World Bank operations would be an advantage. 
• Experience working at or in support of primary health care, particularly the front-line provision of high-quality services.
• A firm understanding of primary health care in the context of broader health systems and health financing reforms.
• Experience working across sectoral, practice and disciplinary boundaries and with multiple stakeholders – both public and private – in building collaborative alliances for results.
• Track record of successful partner engagement and collaborating within teams and across organizations to deliver high quality products.
• Experience and knowledge of the World Bank’s operations and business processes is an advantage.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; Ability to speak French an advantage.

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.