Senior Hydropower Specialist

After a decade of declining lending, the World Bank Group’s hydropower lending pipeline is now showing renewed strength. The World Bank has recently approved major projects in Africa and Asia, along with rehabilitation projects in Eastern Europe. Projects range from small local plants and rehabilitation of existing facilities to multipurpose transnational projects and pumped storage. Consistent with industry-wide growth trends, Bank approvals for hydropower have risen from $250 million/year in 2002-04 to $500 million/year in 2005-07 and more than $800 million in FY08. Forty-four hydropower projects approved since 2003 support almost 9700 MW of capacity. 

Scaling up hydropower is not limited by physical or engineering potential.  The challenges lie in defining hydropower’s strategic value in each country/basin and managing risks.  This requires careful attention to project preparation and supervision as well as improving the enabling environment.  This in turn requires adequate resources, knowledge and skills across multiple stakeholders. 

The World Bank Group has a clear role to play in maximizing the development potential of hydropower resources.  It must lead its own scale up through direct investment in development-driven, quality projects, executed in a timely manner. Along with lending, the Bank provides technical assistance, knowledge sharing, policy dialogue, economic and sector work, and support for project preparation.  It has a niche in addressing complex projects that demand transparent and well based trade-offs and integration of environmental and social values.  In addition, its role in policy dialogue and integrating across players embraces the evolving roles and partnerships of the public and private sectors. 

This “new business” of hydropower requires an infusion of human and financial resources. A multi-disciplinary, cross-regional team will need to be in place across the World Bank.  While driven by regional operations, the overall hydropower program is coordinated by a small team in the anchor Energy, Transport and Water (ETW) Department of the Sustainable Development (SDN) Vice Presidency.  The team is managed by the Sector Manager of the Water Unit (ETWWA), and overseen by the Sector Director for Energy, Water and Transportation and the Energy and Mining, and Water Sector Boards.  The hydropower team works closely with the other departments of the SDN, reflecting the basic multi-disciplinary nature of hydropower development and operations.

The anchor team itself is a cross-disciplinary team with practical industry experience addressing the needs of the sector and modeling SDN’s emphasis on integration across economic, social, technical and environmental aspects of development.  The team encompasses expertise in engineering, energy, water resources management (including environmental and social linkages) and economics.  Above all, it is a team with practical and extensive experience in the development and management of hydropower projects.

The hydropower team’s functions group into: 
1. Support to regional operations:  reviews of project assessments, analytical work, etc. of regional teams, bringing objective and expert perspectives to proposed initiatives; risk assessments on corporate projects; direct participation in regional projects, with an emphasis on strategic support (e.g., to supplement regional capacity, provide specialized expertise, link with Bank-wide issues and developments)
2. Policy and program management:  as lead coordinators of the World Bank Group’s business plan for hydropower, the anchor team is responsible for monitoring the inventory of hydropower projects, providing hydropower perspectives in corporate initiatives (e.g., climate change), external relations and communications, and knowledge management.
3. Analytical work:  own-managed work in key areas of hydropower project development and/or as part of a regional team undertaking similar work to better understand or implement good practice in sustainable development, as guided by the hydropower business plan and needs of clients.

Significant experience in hydropower is invaluable as the Bank scales up efforts in developing sustainable hydropower world wide. The World Bank anchor unit is seeking to strengthen its hydropower team with full-time dedicated experts to meet growing demand and opportunity.

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 3 year renewable term appointment.