Education Finance Specialist/Economist

Democracy International; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A global development organization is seeking an Education Finance Specialist/Economist for a 10-month consultancy to develop funding policy for education in Liberia. The candidate must have extensive experience in public finance and education sectors, and will work closely with the World Bank to ensure compliance and provide strategic leadership.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in economics, public finance, or quantitative education policy.
• 10+ years leading public-expenditure analysis in low-income countries.
• Demonstrated ability with datasets for financial tools.
• Experience managing desk reviews and workshops.
• Strong English report-writing and team-leadership skills.
• PhD in economics or public finance.
• 12+ years’ experience, including work in Liberia.
• Familiarity with GIS/remoteness costing and equity-weight design.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and technical leadership for the project.
• Liaise with the World Bank and key stakeholders.
• Oversee quality assurance of outputs.
• Lead regular reporting processes.
• Ensure financial controls and compliance.
• Run validation workshops.
• Present revised policy and draft implementation guidelines.

Job description

Overview

Position: Education Finance Specialist/Economist

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Job Id: 1098

Number of Openings: 1

DI is seeking to hire an Education Finance Specialist/Economist for an anticipated 10-month consultancy to develop an equitable funding policy and implementation guidelines for Liberia’s Ministry of Education (MoE). The work is funded by The World Bank. Liberia already has guiding principles for subsidy allocation that stress fairness, equity, and transparency. The 2021 Girls Education Policy mandates the MoE to allocate at least 5 percent of its annual budget to Girls’ Education. The first major step toward this end was the allocation of US$100,000 in the MoE fiscal year 2025 national budget, which accounts for about 2 percent of its overall annual budget. Building on these foundations, the MoE seeks specialized support to design a data-driven Equitable Funding Policy, develop accompanying Implementation Guidelines, and prepare an approved Policy that satisfies the System Capacity Grant trigger under the Global Partnership for Education. This position will be based in Monrovia, Liberia and will be contingent on award and funding.

Responsibilities

• Provide overall strategic and technical leadership for the project;
• Serve as primary liaison with the World Bank and other key stakeholders;
• Oversee the quality assurance of all outputs, including desk reviews and other analytical products;
• Lead regular reporting processes;
• Ensure financial controls and compliance with DI and World Bank rules and regulations;
• Run validation workshops with counties and civil society;
• Present revised Policy & draft Implementation Guidelines for endorsement.

Qualifications

Mandatory

• Master’s degree in economics, public finance, or quantitative education policy;
• 10+ years leading education-sector public-expenditure analysis, resource-allocation or finance-reform assignments in low-income countries, including at least one in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Demonstrated ability to turn incomplete administrative datasets into pragmatic costing or scenario tools (no separate economist required);
• Proven record managing desk reviews, approximately 30 key-informant interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops;
• Excellent English report-writing, team-leadership and donor liaison skills; prior engagement on World Bank or GPE projects;
• PhD in economics or public finance;
• 12+ years’ experience, with prior work in Liberia or neighbouring countries;
• Familiarity with GIS/remoteness costing and equity-weight design to strengthen formula simulations.

Reporting

• This position reports to the World Bank System Capacity Grant Lead, MoE and the Vice President of Strategy and Technical Leadership.

Application Process

Interested applicants must submit a CV. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the position will be filled as soon as a qualified candidate is identified. DI will only contact candidates of interest.

Ethics and Equal Opportunity

Democracy International maintains the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.

About the Organization

DI provides technical assistance, analytical services and project implementation for democracy, human rights, governance and conflict mitigation programs worldwide. Since its founding in 2003, Democracy International has worked with civil society organizations, political parties, election-management bodies, government agencies, legislatures, justice-sector institutions, and others in 80+ countries. DI welcomes and supports a diverse and inclusive work environment and is committed to equal employment opportunities (EEO) for all applicants. We make employment decisions based on organizational needs, job requirements and individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, personal appearance, military status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, political affiliation, educational status, unemployment status, place of residence or business, source of income, or reproductive health decision making. Harassment or discrimination based on these characteristics will not be tolerated. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities.