WBG Pioneer - Research Intern

Description

WBG Pioneers, the World Bank Group’s Internship Program, offers undergraduate and postgraduate students a high impact learning experience at the heart of global development. Participants gain hands on experience in a diverse and dynamic environment, contribute fresh perspectives and innovative ideas, and connect with international professionals working to end poverty on a livable planet.

WBG Pioneer

Background/Organizational Context

The World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project examines laws and regulations affecting women’s prospects as entrepreneurs and employees across 190 economies. Its goal is to inform policy discussions on how to remove legal restrictions on women and promote research on how to improve women’s economic inclusion. The Women, Business and the Law index serves as a road map for reform by capturing three interdependent pillars that together shape women’s access to jobs: laws, policies and institutions, and enforcement perceptions across ten topics: Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.

Duties and Responsibilities

Comparative legal research

• Conduct country and/or topic specific research on legislation impacting women’s economic empowerment in the context of WBL topics.
• Deliver updated information for WBL indicators, including assessing survey responses with primary data sources and following up with survey respondents until a final, verified country file is produced.
• Conduct broader research on specific indicator topics addressing women’s rights;
• Produce comparative data analyses related to the assigned set of indicators.
• Support the systematic archiving, organization, and maintenance of legal information and documents in the Women, Business and the Law database.

Applied economic research

• Organize and manage project tasks for the implementation of the Enforcement Perceptions Pillar data collection, tracking, follow-up procedures, and perception data analysis. 
• Prepare presentations and briefing documents for management and stakeholders regarding the WBL data collection cycle and results. 
• Support annual data and report production, documentation and writing, data analysis, and communication among other WBL teams to ensure data quality and reproducibility.  
• Conduct econometric analysis of WBL data and draft research outputs using WBL data, support dissemination. 

Stakeholder management

• Assist with contributor outreach, including administering surveys to local experts, leading new local partners’ recruitment, and collecting data on WBL topics.
• Maintaining and expanding partner relationships, implementing strategies to strengthen contributor engagement and retention. 
• Updating contributor data and reporting systems, developing acknowledgment materials, conducting quality assurance reviews. 
• Supporting the identification and engagement of Government Focal Points. 
• Assisting with the expansion of the National Statistical Offices contributor base, to strengthen WBL’s government engagement and partner outreach. 

Dissemination activities

• Preparing presentations, talking points, briefing materials, outreach documents, newsletters, training resources, etc. for workshops, webinars, stakeholder meetings, and dissemination activities for internal and external audiences. 
• Developing and implementing social media and communications strategies around key events, including written content and graphics. 
• Measuring reach of dissemination activities via media monitoring and reporting to support WBL’s communications goals and raise awareness of its work and research. 
• Supporting the planning, organization, and coordination of WBL hybrid events and dissemination activities, including the annual report launch. 
• Provide general support to the project, as required. 

Selection Criteria

• Applicant must be J.D., LL.M. or master’s degree candidate in Economics, Political Science, Public Policy, or equivalent.

• A minimum of 2 years of post-graduate relevant work. Ph.D. in Economics preferred. 

• Demonstrated research skills pertaining to gender issues and legal analysis; background in gender/women’s studies preferred; experience with comparative legal research and understanding of comparative family law, labor and employment law, and/or violence against women laws preferred.

• Demonstrated research and econometric analysis skills on comparative policy issues and understanding of substantive issues in one or more of the areas covered by the WBL report.

• Background in, or experience working on, women’s health, rule of law, or rights of vulnerable groups including women with disabilities is a plus.

• Excellent command of Stata, Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, is required. Excellent command of R is desirable. 

• Excellent analytical skills. Ability to identify relationships and linkages between components covered by the report and demonstrated ability to synthesize information from different sources into cohesive format. 

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are essential. Professional fluency in Arabic, French, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish is preferred. 

• Highly experienced in managing complicated workflows and competing timelines to keep a team organized and meeting deadlines. Ability to provide deliverables on time, to communicate any concerns related to the timeline of the assigned tasks; to provide regular status updates. 

• Ability to deal sensitively in a multicultural environment and operate effectively as a team member.

No-Fee Internship Eligibility
This position is offered under the WBG Pioneers No-Fee Internship Track. Students may be offered a no-fee STT appointment provided that they either: (a) are enrolled in a Master's, PhD, or similar graduate program during the entire internship (or are in the fifth year or higher of a degree program in countries where higher education is not divided into undergraduate and graduate stages) and provide an official letter from their university confirming that the internship fulfills academic requirements for at least one term of study; or (b) are enrolled in undergraduate or graduate studies and receive a stipend from their university at least equivalent to the minimum STT T1 fee level in effect at the start of the assignment, as confirmed by an official university letter.

Note: Please limit your applications to a maximum of three positions. Applications exceeding this limit will not be considered.

WBG Culture Attributes:
1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

The World Bank Group values diversity and encourages all qualified candidates who are nationals of World Bank Group member countries to apply, regardless of gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.  Sub-Saharan African nationals, Caribbean nationals, and female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.