The Energy & Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank launched in 2014 the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Electricity Utilities Benchmarking Initiative. The objective of this initiative is to inform government policies on the performance of electric utilities using regional and international comparators with regard to technical, operational, commercial, and financial key performance indicators. This initiative aims at meeting the recurring demand from regulators, utilities, and regional organizations to obtain reliable information on regional peers regarding basic operational and financial performance indicators of electricity utilities.
The countries covered in this exercise are Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen. A key component of this initiative is to develop a database of key performance indicators of electricity utilities in the MENA region. In order to develop this database, a data and indicators manual has been prepared, which identifies and defines the list of socio-economic, regulatory, organizational, financial, technical and commercial data and indicators to be collected from utilities. The final choice of data and indicators was based on a review of international experiences of similar data collection and benchmarking exercises.
A toolkit to facilitate the collection and processing of data as well as web architecture for hosting the database has been designed in parallel. The data collection is expected to finalize in March 2015. In addition, the team has collected key financial and operational data from annual reports, financial statements and other reports of electricity utilities in the region and generated a database of more than 50,000 observations. In the coming months, the team will (i) finalize the MENA Electricity Utility Benchmarking Database, (ii) analyze the data through several methodologies, and (ii) prepare a report that documents the key trends and development in utilities performance in the MENA region.
Objective
The World Bank requires the services of a Research Associate on a Short Term Consultancy (STC) basis to lead the finalization of the database of key performance indicators, to undertake analytical tasks with the data collected, and to support preparation of the final report.
Scope of Work
1. In coordination with team leaders, support validation exercise for the data collected from annual reports, financial statements and directly from the utilities. This will include triangulating the collected data among different sources and communicating directly with World Bank country teams and/or utilities, identify updates that are needed, and tracking these updates through to ensure they are completed in a timely fashion.
2. Identify data gaps in existing database and, if appropriate, search additional sources of data for any data gaps.
3. Perform various analyses of data in database.
4. Provide additional research support required by the study team.
5. As required and in discussion with the team leaders, draft selected sections of the final report
6. Assist in the conceptualization and organization of a final workshop with stakeholders
Desired Skills and Experience
• Master’s degree in economics, public policy, finance, engineering or other energy related field. Work experience in the areas described above may be substituted for the master’s degree.
• At least 3 years of relevant work experience.
• Highly competent with MS Excel.
• Past experience with large datasets a plus.
• High level of energy, initiative, attention to detail, and flexibility in quickly adjusting to changing work program requirements.
• Familiarity with indicators used to measure the performance of electricity utilities.
• French and Arabic language skills are a plus.
For more information and to apply, please go to https://wbgeconsult2.worldbank.org, click on the tab “Business Opportunities” at the top of the page, and look for Selection Number 1172048. Applications should be submitted by February 16, 2015.
