Senior Thematic Lead

**Job #**:

- req31217

**Organization**:

- World Bank

**Sector**:

- Education

**Grade**:

- GG

**Term Duration**:

- 3 years 0 months

**Recruitment Type**:

- Local Recruitment

**Location**:

- Paris,France

**Required Language(s)**:

- English

**Preferred Language(s)**:

- French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic

**Closing Date**:

- 2/5/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

**Description**
- Are you a very passionate advocate for education? Do you want to make a difference in the lives of children? The Global Partnership for Education Secretariat (GPE) would like to hear from you.

**Who We Are**
- GPE is a shared commitment to end the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better world. We bring together governments, teachers, civil society, donors, United Nations agencies, development banks, businesses and private foundations to transform education systems so that every girl and boy can have hope, opportunity and agency.

**What We Do**
- GPE helps low
- and lower-middle-income countries to build stronger education systems so that all children can get the education they need to thrive. We currently support nearly 90 countries where the needs are greatest and focus on reaching the children who are the most vulnerable, including girls, children with disabilities and those affected by extreme poverty or conflict. Our unique approach works. Since 2002, 160 million more children in GPE partner countries have set foot in classrooms for the first time, more than half of them girls. GPE is also the largest provider of education grants in the global COVID-19 response, providing partner countries with vital resources to ensure that learning can safely continue.

**How We Work**
- Now, GPE is working to help governments transform their education systems to get the most vulnerable children in school, improve teaching and learning, and build equitable, inclusive and resilient education systems fit for the 21st century. Between 2020-2025, GPE will support transformative change in up to 90 countries and territories, which are home to 1 billion children. Transforming education is about creating lasting changes and achieving impact at scale. GPE sets out to deliver this transformative change by convening partners, mobilizing funds and catalyzing reforms to help partner countries accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality.

**Raise Your Hand**
- In July 2021, the Global Education Summit put GPE firmly on the path to be fully-funded by 2025, by raising a record US $4 billion from donors for GPE’s Raise Your Hand campaign. At the Summit, Heads of State and Government from partner countries made historic commitments to education financing and GPE also mobilized an unprecedented number of pledges from businesses, private foundations and development banks.
- A fully funded GPE would support transformed education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, enable up to 175 million children to learn and help get 88 million more girls and boys in school by 2025. In the longer term, this investment could add $164 billion to economies in GPE partner countries, lift 18 million people out of poverty, and protect 2 million girls from early marriage.

**Governance And Organizational Arrangements**
- The GPE Board of Directors includes ministerial-level board members and alternates representing 20 constituencies that reflect the Partnership’s breadth. The Board Chair is HE President Jakaya Kikwete and the Board Vice Chair is Christine Hogan. The Board of Directors, with its three standing committees, provides policy and strategic oversight and approves or delegates funding decisions.
- The GPE Secretariat, with 160 employees and hosted by the World Bank, is responsible for translating the policies and strategies set by the Board into practical support for partner countries, coordinating with diverse stakeholders and galvanizing global support for SDG4. The Secretariat’s headquarters are in the World Bank’s offices in Washington, D.C. and the European office is in Paris with a satellite office in Brussels and a support office in Chennai.

**ABOUT THE TEAM**

The Strategy, Evidence, Quality and Learning (SEQL) team was created in July 2024 and is headed by GPE’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO). SEQL’s mission is to strengthen GPE’s sector leadership and impact, globally and locally, and strengthen the technical capacity of the Secretariat and partners to bring about system transformation. SEQL’s core functions are (i) Technical excellence - to be well informed on global trends, best practices, knowledge and innovations in education, and provide leadership in areas where GPE has a clear added value. (ii) Quality assurance - to host an independent quality assurance function. (iii) Learning and adapting - to translate relevant knowledge into sta