E T Consultant

Contract

This is a World Bank Group grade: EC2 contract. More about World Bank Group grade: EC2 contracts.

E T Consultant

Description

The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It is a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. 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. Visit www.worldbank.org.

Europe and Central Asia Region

The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region of the World Bank is highly diverse, with countries of all income levels and wide differences in resource endowments, human capital, and institutional capacity. ECA has a strong lending pipeline as well as a large and growing portfolio of Reimbursable Advisory Services. Knowledge is critical to the Bank’s value proposition to client countries in the ECA region in both lending and advisory services.

Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice

The Social Protection and Jobs (SPJ) Global Practice is one of 16 Global Practices (GPs) in the World Bank. The World Bank is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for social protection and jobs, working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for specific social protection and jobs challenges. These range from increasing the efficiency and effectiveness with which public resources toward social programs are spent (via sound policy reforms and programs in relation to social assistance, social insurance, social services, and integrated social protection systems), to improving employment outcomes through labor market policy reforms and programs, often targeted at the poor and vulnerable, or youth.

ECA SPJ: The SPJ GP has an exciting, innovative, and growing portfolio in ECA. The ECA SPJ unit’s work is centered around three main themes: i) building well-composed, well-performing social protection systems; ii) promoting employability and jobs; and iii) adapting to demographic change. In addition, the ECA SPJ unit takes forward cross-cutting work on energy subsidy reform, service delivery, support to refugee populations and host communities, and social investment and governance.

Romania Social Protection: Selected Activities

In Romania, a large number of adults with disabilities are living in residential social services, characterized by practices that violate the rights of persons with disabilities set out in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In Romania, at the end of March 2022, 16,532 adults with disabilities were living in residential care, 7,798 of which were living in 74 residential centers with more than 50 beneficiaries. Extensive international literature and recent studies carried out in Romania indicate that residential centers tend to be characterized by a paternalistic approach to service delivery and depersonalization, a rigid schedule and routine, group treatment, isolation, and social distance, all of which lead to residents’ lack of control over everyday decisions and lack of freedom to choose where, how and with whom they live. Decisions to institutionalize a person based on their disability are a form of discrimination, indicating a failure to provide community support and services to persons with disabilities, who thus end up living segregated in residential centers.

Through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the Government of Romania made an ambitious commitment to reduce the number of persons living in institutions to 11,500 persons by 2026 against the baseline of 16,911 persons at the end of the year 2020. To meet this target, the Government bounded itself to (i) adopt the DI Strategy 2023-2030, which will be developed based on a comprehensive mapping of the individual situation of each person with disabilities living in residential services with the objective to (a) define an “independent living pathway” for each person with disabilities in residential centers, (b) provide support for deinstitutionalization and measures for the implementation of the “independent living pathway” for at least 8.455 until December 2026, and (c) reduce the total number of institutionalized adults with disabilities at the level of the target set for 2026; and (ii) approve Guidelines for Accelerating the Deinstitutionalization Process (DI Guidelines) of all adults with disabilities currently institutionalized.

The World Bank has been providing technical assistance to the Romanian National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in its efforts to ensure that adults with disabilities living in residential services in Romania transition to community-based support through a person-centered approach. During the next period, among others, the support will consist of (i) providing inputs into the evaluation of adult persons with disabilities and of the centers from five residential centers using deinstitutionalization guidelines; (ii) providing evidence for the revision of unit costs for residential and non-residential services to enable the creation of a system that would finance the support needs of persons with disabilities based on an individualized approach; and (iii) developing a proposal for a comprehensive training plan covering the implementation of related measures laid out in the DI Strategy 2023-2030.

According to current legislation, disability assessment and determination in Romania are based on a medical-psychosocial model, but in practice they mainly follow a medical model. The international literature is clear that a disability assessment should consider the full experience of disability that is lived by a person. The countries that have signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are in the process of reviewing their disability assessment systems to ensure that they comply with the CRPD, and frequently use the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a basis for their reforms. In Romania, Law No. 448/2006 establishes that the certification of a degree of disability is carried out based on medical-psychosocial criteria, and sets the role of the assessment committees for adults with disabilities as well as the complex assessment service. However, disability assessment in Romania has a strong medical emphasis and neglects the dimensions related to activities and participation. Moreover, key institutions at the county level have very limited capacity (knowledge and tools) to carry out a disability assessment, except for the medical component.

The World Bank has been providing technical assistance to improve the capacity of the Romanian National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through technical support for assessing and updating the disability assessment system. More specifically, the advisory services aim at providing the necessary support to (i) systematize the legislation in the field of disability assessment in Romania by revising it vis-à-vis modern approaches of evaluating disabilities (mostly those following the ICF framework) and (ii) foster a change in paradigm (from impairment to disability approach) by building capacity of the public servants involved in the disability assessment process at all levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

ECA SPJ is seeking an Extended Term Consultant who will work full time, mostly on the active Reimbursable Advisory Services (RASs) to support the Romanian National Authority for the Rights Protection of Persons with Disabilities. During this period, the ETC is expected to cover two main types of tasks: (i) supporting the deinstitutionalization agenda and the development of services for persons with disabilities (about 50% of their time) and (ii) supporting the disability assessment reform (the remaining 50% of their time).

The selected candidate will be based in Bucharest and will report to the ECA SPJ Global Practice Manager and to the relevant RASs Task Team Leaders (TTLs) on day-to-day tasks. The selected candidate will work in close collaboration with staff based in Bucharest as well as DC.

The duration of the contract is one year, renewable depending on business needs and performance.

The selected candidate is expected to support the implementation of reimbursable advisory services in the disability area, particularly the “Support for Speeding up the Transition of People with Disabilities from Residential Institutions to Community-based Services” RAS, “Modernizing the Disability Assessment System in Romania” RAS, and “Supporting the Operationalization of Social Protection Reforms in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan” RAS, including but not limited to the following activities:

• Perform operational tasks that will be required for the good delivery of the RAS’s, such as preparing progress reports according to the legal agreement timelines, preparing mission announcements and agendas, participating in and contributing to Review meetings, preparing Terms of Reference for consultants, tracking the workflow and overall progress with deliverables under the work program and alerting the TTLs/core team for any delays or deviations, etc.

• Contribute to the ongoing policy dialogue in the area of disability with the Government of Romania, and conduct day-to-day dialogue for operational tasks with the Client.

• Work collaboratively with the TTLs and colleagues in the preparation of the analytical work carried out by the team as needed for the delivery of the outputs under the disability-related advisory services, including preparing research instruments for collecting quantitative and qualitative data, coordinating local experts for data collection, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data and reporting data.

• Contribute to supporting the Client in technical activities related to deinstitutionalization and the development of community-based services, including piloting deinstitutionalization plans for five residential centers for persons with disabilities, preparing a comprehensive deinstitutionalization training plan, analyzing costs of social services for persons with disabilities to inform the revision of their unit costs, and piloting the implementation of the unit costs.

• Contribute to supporting the Client in technical activities related to the disability assessment reform, such as the drawing up of a report on the recommendations of a complex assessment procedure of persons with disabilities, a pilot on recommendations on disability determination and needs assessment, and technical recommendations to facilitate specific expertise in disability assessment for court cases.

• Support the TTLs and the teams in preparing the outputs to be disseminated to different audiences, and then in disseminating them (through workshops, conferences, social media, or dedicated websites).

• Perform other tasks as needed.

Selection Criteria

• Academic qualification: A Master’s Degree (Ph.D. would be a plus) in relevant disciplines (social policy, economics, public policy, sociology).

• Research and analytical skills: Demonstrated knowledge of social research related to social research design and analysis with an emphasis on social protection and poverty reduction (at least five years of experience).

• Conceptual skills: Demonstrated knowledge in social protection (social assistance and social services) programs and projects, including in providing technical assistance to Government agencies on these topics (at least five years of experience).

• Knowledge on disability: Demonstrated knowledge of (i) the deinstitutionalization agenda and the development of community-based services for persons with disabilities and (ii) the disability assessment and needs assessment reform.

• Communications skills and teamwork: Ability to (a) deal sensitively in multi-cultural environments to work in a team environment; (b) work effectively and independently as a team member and as a (co-) leader alike, including in multi-sectoral teams; (c) share and disseminate relevant information with colleagues, clients and managers alike; and (d) interact effectively with a range of stakeholders within and outside the Bank, with a strong client orientation.

• Knowledge and experience in development: Ability to understand Romania’s policy-making process and distill operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients.

• Policy dialogue skills: Ability to identify and assess policy issues and to play an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability in time management: Ability to handle multiple tasks effectively, meet deadlines, manage uncertainty, and adjust to a changing work program.

• Ability to have good relationships with clients: Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain productive, professional relationships with government counterparts, donors, civil society, and other stakeholders.

• Willingness to work on other ECA countries.

• Ability to travel without restriction.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

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Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable for an additional one year, at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET Appointment of two years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their second-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.