ET Consultant - Medical Countermeasures Specialist

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; 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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

The World Bank Group (WBG) is a unique global partnership of five institutions driven by a bold vision to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. As one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, the WBG helps solve the world's greatest development challenges. In 2026, the WBG launched the Knowledge Bank - a WBG-wide institutional transformation that fundamentally reshapes how the institution generates, shares, and applies knowledge across its public and private sector work. The Knowledge Bank is organized around five cross-institutional Verticals - People, Planet, Prosperity, Infrastructure, and Digital and AI - each bringing together IBRD/IDA and IFC teams under a unified structure to develop enabling policies and scale proven solutions. The People Vice Presidency promotes investment in people, delivering knowledge for impact and public and private solutions to operational teams and clients across health, education and skills, social policy, and gender to build human capital and drive economic growth and job creation, using the Jobs Framework approaches that improve infrastructure, policies, regulations, and private capital.

Global Health Directorate

The Global Health Directorate leads the WBG''s health agenda, partnering with governments and the private sector to strengthen health systems, improve health outcomes, and accelerate progress to expand access to quality, affordable health care. It provides intellectual leadership, technical expertise, and operational support to country teams working across the full spectrum of health system challenges, supporting regional teams to deliver on the Bank''s corporate health commitments - reaching 1.5 billion people with quality, affordable health services and building resilience in 66 countries - while supporting the creation of more and better jobs.

The Directorate is led by a Global Director supported by two Practice Managers who oversee the Policy & Regulations (P&R) and Solutions and Impact (S&I) Units, as well as a Front Office responsible for strategy, partnerships, risk management, external and internal engagement, and talent and budget management.

The Health Policy and Regulation team within the Global Health Directorate is responsible for the normative, policy, and regulatory frameworks that underpin the WBG''s global health agenda. It houses four dedicated programs: Mission 1.5 Billion Health Beneficiaries (health service delivery, health financing, and healthy longevity); Policy and Regulation of Mixed Health Systems (PPPs, health sector value chains, and the Health for Jobs agenda); Mission 66 Resilient Health Systems (health emergency preparedness, response and resilience, climate change, and public health and disease prevention); and Nutrition. Together, these programs generate the evidence, norms, and policy tools that guide both WBG country operations and broader global health policy dialogue.

A Central Program Implementation Unit (PIU) reports jointly to both Managers and serves as the operational bridge between the two global units, managing portfolio and pipeline, Health Compacts, CPF upstream engagement, and regional outreach. Two cross-cutting layers - Methods, Impact Measurement and Innovation and Digital and AI - provide foundational technical support to all programs within the Directorate.

Opportunity

Within the Health Policy and Regulation team, the Resilient Health Systems team advances the World Bank's work on HEPPR, health system resilience, and emergency-ready primary health care (ERPHC) through knowledge generation, capacity building, and support to regional and country teams. In parallel, the Private Sector Policy and Regulation team focuses on improving access to health products and strengthening the efficiency of key health value chains. A critical pillar of both teams' work is strengthening pharmaceutical systems, including regulatory systems, procurement and market shaping, resilient supply chains, local manufacturing of medical products, and access to medical countermeasures (MCMs). This agenda has grown in strategic importance in the context of pandemic preparedness and response, as well as broader health security and equity objectives, including the Africa Initiative for Medical Access and Manufacturing (AIM 2030).

The Health Policy and Regulation team is seeking an Extended Term Consultant (ETC) to provide technical and analytical support across pharmaceutical policy areas-including regulation, procurement, supply chains, and local manufacturing-with a focus on World Bank operations, country diagnostics, and global knowledge work.

The objective of this assignment is to provide technical, analytical, and operational support to strengthen pharmaceutical systems, advance the local manufacturing agenda, and improve access to medical products. This includes support to World Bank country operations, country-level diagnostics, global knowledge generation, access to medical countermeasures, and coordination on the Africa Initiative for Medical Access and Manufacturing (AIM2030).

DUTIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Analytical Work and Knowledge Generation

• Contribute to the development of country pharmaceutical diagnostics, including assessments of regulatory systems, supply chains, and market dynamics.
• Support analytical work linking pharmaceutical systems to jobs and skills development, particularly in the context of local manufacturing.
• Support the development and finalization of at least two to three analytical or knowledge products (e.g., policy briefs, working papers, and technical notes) on pharmaceutical value chains and related systems topics.
• Contribute to the development of technical assessments and policy inputs on workforce development and skills requirements for pharmaceutical manufacturing, informing approaches to skills gap analysis and capacity-building interventions.
• Contribute to the organization of Community of Practice (CoP) and related knowledge and learning events.

Technical and Operational Support to Country Programs

• Provide technical inputs to World Bank country teams on pharmaceutical systems strengthening, including pharmaceutical and related industrial policy, regulatory systems strengthening and harmonization (including alignment with WHO standards, the Global Benchmarking Tool [GBT], and regional harmonization initiatives), procurement strategies and frameworks, supply chain and logistics systems, pharmaceutical skills and capacity development, and financing.
• Contribute to regional discussions on regulatory convergence, local manufacturing, and access to health products for routine and emergency contexts.
• Provide technical support for the design, appraisal, and preparation of World Bank-financed projects, including Project Appraisal Documents (PADs) and technical annexes related to pharmaceutical systems components.
• Contribute to the development of results measurement frameworks, including data collection, monitoring, and evaluation for pharmaceutical systems components of World Bank projects.

Medical Countermeasures

• Provide inputs to pandemic preparedness and response operations, particularly on access to MCMs, emergency procurement mechanisms, resilient supply chains, and stockpiles.
• Provide support to Bank teams to advance planning and financing for access to MCMs, including pooled procurement, as part of the broader health resilience and sovereignty agenda.
• Provide technical support to the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Team on access to medical countermeasures, aligned with the at-risk financing and emergency-ready primary health care agenda.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of simulation exercises (SIMEX) to improve access to MCMs during health emergencies.

Coordination with IFC on AIM2030 and Local Manufacturing Agenda

• Support the coordination of AIM 2030 operationalization, including facilitating meetings, technical consultations, and stakeholder workshops.
• Support World Bank-IFC collaboration on pharmaceutical sector development, contributing to analytical work on local manufacturing ecosystems, including the identification of investment gaps and capacity constraints across the value chain.
• Support the operationalization and implementation of AIM 2030 activities, including:
• Regional initiatives (e.g., regulatory harmonization, pooled procurement, stockpiling, and MCM planning).
• Country-level interventions (e.g., regulatory strengthening, supply chain development, and workforce skills).
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder engagement, including public-private dialogue and technical working groups, to align regulatory, industrial, and workforce development priorities with private sector investment and market needs.
• Support preparation of presentations, briefing notes, and internal and external communications for Front Office, as needed.

Stakeholder Engagement and Global Dialogue

• Participate in global and regional fora related to access to medicines and medical countermeasures (e.g., emergency approvals, stockpiling, and deployment).
• Engage with governments, development partners, and private sector stakeholders.
• Contribute to policy dialogue on pharmaceutical regulatory strengthening, procurement systems, and supply chain management.