Senior Environmental Specialist

Organization
World Bank
Location
Nairobi, Kenya
Job Type
Full-time
Deadline for Applications
10/23/2025
Where to Apply
https://worldbankgroup.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/34520?c=worldbankgroup&sq=req34520&referralToken=QOz4VYxLNUi8V6s4c9M7LA
Tags
Full-time

Senior Environmental Specialist

Job #: req34520
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Safeguards
Grade: GG
Term Duration: 3 years 0 months
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment
Location: Nairobi,Kenya
Required Language(s): English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date: 10/23/2025 (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 www.worldbank.org.

Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) Region

Home to about 700 million of Africa’s people, Eastern and Southern Africa is a geographically, culturally and economically diverse region of 26 countries stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South. Children under 18 make up almost half of the total population. The subregion boasts of some of the world’s richest human and natural resources and, apart from South Africa, the countries are predominantly raw material exporters.

The subregion harbors some of Africa’s protracted conflicts, rendering many of its countries fragile, while significant gaps in education, health, and skills development continues to keep people from reaching their full potential. This creates a huge development challenge, impacts heavily on the lives and livelihoods of people, and hinders regional integration and trade. But it also creates an opportunity to work closely with country leaders, civil society, development partners, and young people to chart a brighter course for the future. 

The World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region, comprised of approximately 1,200 staff, mostly based in 26 country offices, has been helping countries realize their considerable development potential by focusing on the following priorities:

• 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.

• Building up the Digital Economy: We are supporting Africa’s vision to ensure that every African individual, business, and government is connected by 2030 – a vision that, if realized, can boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year, and reduce poverty by 1 percentage point per year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

• Making Institutions more Efficient and Accountable: Our support helps governments strengthen public policy processes, manage resources effectively, and reinforce fair and reliable delivery of public services.

• 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.
• Supporting Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation:  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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) Region: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/eastern-and-southern-africa

Unit Description:

On October 1, 2018, the World Bank launched a new Environment and Social Framework (ESF) to help protect people and the environment in the investment projects that it finances. The effort, now about seven years under implementation, is one of several initiatives, including procurement reform, the gender strategy, and the climate change action plan, undertaken by the Bank to improve development outcomes.
The ESF brings the World Bank’s environmental and social (E&S) protections into closer harmony with those of other development institutions, and makes important advances in areas such as transparency, non-discrimination, social inclusion, public participation, and accountability – including expanded roles for grievance redress mechanisms. The ESF helps to ensure social inclusion, non-discrimination, and explicitly references human rights in the overarching vision statement.
As the World Bank Group (WBG) advances with modernizing its ESF approach, a new organizational arrangement has been agreed involving “Makers” (responsible for preparation, implementation support, and monitoring and problem solving) and “Checkers” (responsible for monitoring and risk-based oversight, and identifying and flagging challenges and problems that need to be addressed) to ensure a strengthened approach to risk management on E&S matters. The new arrangements also demonstrate a commitment to promoting “One WBG” and the key role that the Environmental and Social leadership in IDA/IBRD, IFC and MIGA, will play in this effort.

The Eastern Safeguards Unit (SAEM2) is one of the three units in AFE that manages E&S risks and covers two Country Management Units (CMUs): The Kenya CMU comprising of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Somalia; and the Tanzania CMU comprising of Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Position

This position is for the Kenya CMU and the selected specialist will be based in Nairobi, Kenya and will focus on environmental and social risk management, including on health and safety.
 
This position will focus on implementing the World Bank’s environmental and social risk management policies (including the Safeguard Policies and the Environmental and Social Framework, or ESF) and building national systems and capacity in this regard.  All World Bank-supported investment projects must meet ambitious environmental, social, health and safety standards. SAEM2 is responsible for providing technical support and oversight to all investment projects to meet these obligations.
 
The Senior Environmental Specialist will have the following key responsibilities:
 
· Ensure the effective integration into the design, appraisal and implementation of WBG-supported projects of environment, health and safety due diligence as defined by the World Bank Group (WBG) Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESF), World Bank Operational Policies on safeguards (for older projects that predate the ESF), WBG EHS guidelines, IF Performance Standards and other international good practice documents (e.g. Equator Principles).
 
· Provide guidance to clients and counterpart organizations in their preparation of project documents in accordance with the ESF and World Bank operational policies, including Environment and Social Commitment Plans (ESCPs), Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEPs), Labor Management Procedures (LMPs), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRMs), and Project Implementation Manuals (PIMs). Assist with handling timely and accurate disclosure procedures and public consultation requirements for all required environmental assessment and management instruments.
 
· Provide advice and mentorship to client and counterpart organizations for the preparation and implementation of environmental impact assessments, including strategic and cumulative impact assessments; environmental management frameworks and plans, including plans for monitoring, reporting and evaluation; public consultation plans; and specific plans related to natural habitats conservation, natural resource management, resource use efficiency, waste management, traffic safety management, pest management, forest management, biodiversity management, occupational health and safety, and dam safety and international waterways management, to achieve good international industry practice. Such advice will be based on analysis of baseline conditions, project scope, anticipated impacts and proportional mitigation measures, as well as national requirements, and will ensure compliance with WBG ESF and applicable operational policies.
 
· Organize and provide needs assessments, capacity building and technical training on environmental, health and safety risk management for national agencies and local governments, as well as public and private sector trainers and practitioners, with a particular focus on building national training capacity in these areas. Collaborate closely with other World Bank teams to integrate the development of environmental, health and safety risk management capacity into sectoral programs.
 
· Work closely with the AFE Regional Standards Coordinators and CMU ESF Coordinator responsible for assigning safeguards tasks and ensuring the quality of the safeguards work and environmental and social risk management in the Region.

 

Selection Criteria

 

It is expected that the successful candidate will meet the following selection criteria:

The following are required:

· Advanced degree (PhD or Masters) in environmental/natural sciences or environmental/civil engineering.
· A minimum of 8 years of full-time relevant professional experience in environmental management, with experience in the management of the environmental, social, health and safety risks of large infrastructure projects, extractive or industrial activities, and the application of WBG ESF and safeguard policies, including in the preparation of WBG environmental safeguard/risk management documents.
· Technical experience in the management of the environmental, social, health and safety risks of large infrastructure, e.g. roads and highways, dams, irrigation schemes and large water conveyance systems, would be highly beneficial.
· Demonstrated project management/operational skills, including occupational health and safety management and experience working with contractors with weak implementation capacity.
· Ability to work well with a range of stakeholders, including project-affected parties, government officials, non-governmental organizations / civil society, as well as project investors and their staff. Experience in capacity building for environmental, health and safety risk management would be beneficial.
· Strong interpersonal and communication skills. Diplomatic approach and ability to work under pressure.
· Experience working in developing countries, understanding the institutional and political context and exposure to the national environmental policy challenges. Experience working in FCV countries would be beneficial.
· Fluency in English is required (writing, speaking, listening and reading).
· Good analytical skills, ability to think strategically, analyze and synthesize diverse qualitative and quantitative environmentally related data and information.
· Willingness to travel extensively in Malawi, including to remote rural areas.