Knowledge and Community Lead

This is a fixed-term contract until September 1, 2026.

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

Team description

The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Together with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Forum is part of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, a pioneering global initiative to bring together government donor support with business community skills and experience to accelerate the implementation of trade facilitation reforms that deliver commercially meaningful impact, growth and development.

Reporting lines and interactions

The role is based in Geneva within the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation team. The incumbent reports to the Deputy Director, Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation. Internally, he/she works with colleagues in the Alliance team based at the Forum and International Trade and Investment

Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics. Externally, he/she works with a broad range of stakeholders, including Alliance host organisations and implementing partners, private sector partners, donors, universities, and multilateral and non-governmental organisations.

Breakdown of main responsibilities:

The Knowledge and Community Lead, Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation will support the implementation of the Alliance Knowledge and Community engagement Strategy. This includes taking a leading or supportive role, as the case may be, in the roll out, management and updating of the tools and activities defined in the strategy (i.e. Knowledge exchanges, lessons learned repository, knowledge on-demand, gender guidelines and knowledge papers among others).

The main goal of the Knowledge Lead is to support the design and implementation of successful trade facilitation reform projects as well as conducting research on strategic topics and leading on community engagement. Community engagement is about supporting the delivery of the Alliance’s objectives through building, maintaining and deepening relationships with public and private stakeholders.

Specifically, the Knowledge and Community Lead will undertake the following activities:

Internal Knowledge Management:

• Revitalize and manage the Alliance's knowledge management strategy, offering innovative ideas for both internal and external knowledge generation, management, and engagement.
• Facilitate internal knowledge exchanges within the Alliance by proposing and implementing mechanisms to address challenges and specific topics in trade facilitation.
• Compile data and information from all functions to create a diverse range of knowledge documents, including analytical research pieces, communication materials, technical papers, guidance, and tools. Act as a liaison across various organizations, ensuring comprehensive capture and production of all knowledge generated by the Alliance.

External Knowledge Management

• Collaborate with external stakeholders to disseminate Alliance knowledge and develop knowledge papers, while also soliciting feedback and ideas from Alliance staff for knowledge documents.
• Co-author and develop research publications, blogs, podcasts, and other knowledge materials in collaboration with Alliance stakeholders.
• Conduct research on emerging topics, with the support of other workstreams, ensuring Alliance perspectives are integrated alongside expert insights in the field.
• Conduct applied research on a range of pertinent topics for the Global Alliance, including but not limited to gender, SMEs, sustainability, and innovation in trade facilitation, with the aim of informing project design and implementation.
• Strengthen project gender mainstreaming guidelines and SME engagement guidelines by conducting comprehensive reviews of existing mechanisms and develop internal standards to foster inclusivity in interventions based on the findings of the research.
• Develop presentations and briefs for the Alliance Management Team as needed.
• Represent the Alliance in external forums to share knowledge and best practices or attend such events to acquire new knowledge and best practices.

Community Engagement Management

• Collaborate with the ICC Private Sector Engagement team and PEMs to identify and engage priority target companies within the Forum’s networks for Alliance membership.
• Work with the Forum’s regional teams to support high-level government engagement for Alliance project development and implementation, sharing the Alliance’s content and impact.
• Build networks across various Forum platforms and initiatives, to create concrete linkages with the Alliance’s work.
• Coordinate and develop the Alliance’s approach, sessions and participation in Forum and externally organized events and meetings.

The successful candidate will be assessed on the ability to:

• Foster internal collaboration with the goal of sharing knowledge, lessons learned and best practices across the Alliance.
• Collaborate with Alliance project teams in identified areas to provide content expertise.
• Effectively research across a wide range of topics while being able to provide an actionable and concise summary of key findings
• Support change management initiatives that contribute to adapting the organizational culture, streamlining organization-wide processes and other efforts to enhance communication and collaboration.
• Capacity to liaise across a variety of stakeholders and support with alignment and leadership to build and nurture a trade facilitation community across the Alliance’s objectives and workstreams.

Preferred requirements and experience:

• Master’s degree in trade policy, political science, international affairs or related discipline; understanding of trade facilitation a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years’ professional experience in an international environment.
• Experience conducting applied research, particularly in fields like international development, trade facilitation, gender equality, SME development, and sustainability, with the capability to analyse complex challenges.
• Excellent communication skills and command of English.
• Strong analytical, writing and organizational skills. Experience in change management a big plus.
• Team-player who enjoys creative thinking while being analytically savvy and well structured.

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!