Short-Term Consultant for Poverty and Equity Global Practice at World Bank (remote)
The World Bank Group (WBG)’s vision of a world free of poverty on a livable planet reflects a global landscape where developing countries have an unprecedented opportunity to end extreme poverty within a generation and build sustainable, resilient, and inclusive societies.
Despite progress in poverty reduction and human welfare in the last decade, extreme poverty and inequality persist at unacceptably high levels in many parts of the world. To eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity, clients will need to address several critical development challenges.
First, the last mile of ending extreme poverty will be the hardest to achieve. Global extreme poverty increased in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years as the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic compounds the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction progress.
Second, past welfare gains must be sustained in the face of challenges posed by slower global growth. This requires enhancing the microeconomic foundations of shared prosperity in developing countries by focusing on employment and productivity complemented by effective social safety nets.
Third, progress on shared prosperity necessitates equal access to opportunities. Many still lack the basic resources required to succeed in life. The benefits of globalization and technological progress must reach the most disadvantaged.
To meet these challenges, it is essential to use evidence to inform policy and hold governments accountable for results.
Poverty and Equity Global Practice (http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty)
The Poverty and Equity Global Practice delivers the following to our clients in support of these critical areas:
Advice and knowledge to help better understand the relationship between growth, poverty, and inequality.
Diagnostics to help identify key policies and multisectoral solutions that effectively reduce poverty and benefit the less well-off, helping to shape World Bank Group advisory, financing, and convening services.
Monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs to enhance the poverty impact of interventions and inform mid-stream correction.
Support for nationally owned, transparent systems and methodologies for tracking poverty and other welfare outcomes.
Capacity-building in countries and within the WBG to analyze distributional impacts of policies and programs and monitor welfare.
Innovative data collection and measurement methods that can help fill crucial data gaps.
Data portals and analytical approaches to support the analysis of poverty, distribution, and micro-macro links consistently across countries.
2. Scope of Work
The Poverty and Equity Global Practice in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) seeks to hire an International Short-Term Consultant (STC) to contribute to its analytical program.
The Consultant’s activities will support the Poverty and Equity Practice work for a fragile country context in the LAC region. The program revolves around data collection (household surveys) and documentation, analytics, as well as confidential dissemination of results and data products for internal World Bank teams and partner institutions.
The STC will support the team in the documentation and management of recently collected household surveys, as well as analytics and reports on socioeconomic conditions in the country. Starting in July 2026, the STC could also co-lead the implementation of a new round of household surveys, depending on mutual agreement and business needs.
3. Tasks
In particular, the STC will be responsible for the following tasks, to be completed by June 2026, with specific timelines to be coordinated with the survey team:
Deep Dives: Co-lead the production of deep-dive reports on poverty and equity and related socioeconomic conditions, using household surveys and other available data. This could involve the production of joint analysis with other international agencies working in the country. Exact topics and focus will be determined during the consultancy.
Data: (i) Support the finalization of a rapid report and methodological documents based on a recently collected household survey aimed at measuring household welfare, poverty, and socioeconomic conditions. (ii) Support data management, including data harmonization and cleaning, anonymization, among others.
Monitoring Poverty and Inequality Conditions: The consultant will support the production of the corporate biannual Macro and Poverty Outlooks, including the forecasting of poverty and equity figures.
4. Deliverables
The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:
All code, data, intermediate, and final products used to produce analyses, and their respective replication packages.
Final documents for the tasks described above, including reports and presentations. Deliverables could be in both Spanish and English, to be determined with the team.
The consultant is expected to work closely with institutions like the UN, IADB, and the IMF. The consultant is expected to contribute to the management and building of relationships with internal teams and external institutions.
5. Selection Criteria
Master’s degree in economics or related fields (such as Public Policy, Political Science, Statistics, or other related disciplines), with strong analytical and quantitative skills, and four years of relevant experience. A Ph.D. in economics or related fields would be preferred.
Expertise in quantitative analytics, including those involving household surveys. Management of additional sources of information (geo-coded information, raster data, etc.) is highly desirable.
Experience in LAC countries, especially in fragile contexts of high poverty and inequality.
Expertise in analytics on poverty and inequality, as well as poverty measurement. Expertise in related topics such as gender, exclusion, education, health, labor markets, migration, is also desirable.
Proven data collection expertise in large household surveys.
Strong skills in data management and programming in Stata are essential. Knowledge of other programming languages and software (such as R, ArcGIS, and Python) is a plus.
Proven writing and editing skills and ability to convey complex ideas in a creative, clear, direct, and lively style, both in English and Spanish.
Proven client orientation with strong interpersonal skills; sensitized to working in a diverse and multicultural environment.
Experience working with cross-functional teams.
Fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish.
6. Supervision
This consultancy will be supervised by Veronica Montalva (Economist) and Javier Romero (Senior Economist).
7. Duration
The consultant is expected to be hired for an initial period of 60 working days, starting in mid-August 2025. The timing and sequencing of outputs will be agreed upon in consultation with the team. The consultancy will end by June 30, 2026. The work will be performed remotely.
8. Application Process
Interested applicants should send a CV and a cover letter to Desiree Gonzalez (dgonzalez1@worldbank.org) by July 31, 2025.