Senior Consultant, State Lead-SPMU, West Bengal – The/Nudge

The/Nudge is an action institute working towards a poverty-free India, within our lifetime. We partner with governments, markets, and civil society to build resilient livelihoods for all.  We are a collective of some of India’s best leaders and entrepreneurs from across the industry, academia, government, and development sectors, and our work is organized across three impact streams:

• Centre for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (CSDE): exists to enable underprivileged youth to lead flourishing lives
• Centre for Rural Development (CRD): exists to enable families to come out of extreme poverty
• Centre for Social Innovation (CSI): exists to nudge top talent to solve India’s biggest challenges

What are we solving for in the End Ultra Poverty program?

End Ultra Poverty (EUP) program is solving for households in ultra-poverty through a targeted, multi-faceted and sequenced model called the graduation approach which has demonstrated that ultra-poverty can be conquered.

At The/Nudge we have been piloting this program for the past 3 years and are in the process of catalyzing propagation of the same. Our purpose is to contribute to ending ultra-poverty in India. EUP will:

• continue to implement on its own to iterate the design for impact at scale
• enable more NGOs to adopt technical and capacity-building support
• enable govt to adopt by providing research, design, and implementation support
• continue to generate data on ultra-poverty and evidence on graduation approach to nudge governments to adopt at scale
• build technology solutions for NGOs and governments to adopt and implement at scale & with quality.

Position Overview:

The/Nudge is working with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, to help increase adoption of the graduation approach by targeting the poorest of the poor through community institutions in various states of India. As part of this effort, a State Project Management Unit (SPMU) is being set up at West Bengal to help the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) design and implement a special project targeting the ultra-poor through graduation approach integrated into the community institutions of NRLM. This position is for the SPMU at Kolkata and will report to the Head of Operations.

At The/Nudge you will:

• Support WBSRLM also known as Anandadhara in research and development of a strategy and program design to target the ultra poor through graduation approach built on top of community institutions enabled by the NRLM
• Support WBSRLM in implementation of action research of the graduation approach through a special project based on the strategy and design developed in consultation with key stakeholders
• Enable convergence of various state initiatives (social security, livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, social empowerment) and programs towards the end goal of graduating women and their households living in ultra poverty out of it.
• Own the implementation and outcomes of the special project
• Support WBSRLM and the NRLM review progress of the special project periodically in order to iterate and scale
• Support the mission on the use of data and technology to ensure continuous flow of data from the field
• Build relationship with key government stakeholders in West Bengal such that the special project is successful
• Build relationships with key government departments and support in successful adoption of strategies targeting the ultra-poor

The ideal candidate for the role has:

• about 12 years of experience and is a Postgraduate  / Graduate
• demonstrated a growth mindset – learning/improving constantly
• demonstrated success in starting and leading initiatives, working under uncertainty & able to articulate vision and secure buy-in from stakeholders
• excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills. Fluent in English & Bengali. Knowledge of HIndi is desirable
• strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• the ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholder groups in a fast-paced environment
• set aside personal bias to do what is right for the community
• experience in designing / managing multi-stakeholder development sector programs, designed around (or with) SHGs, Community Institutions and SRLMs
• an openness to travel extensively and live in designated districts/blocks/panchayats as per the needs of the program’s goals
• a passion to serve those in need, with humility & sensitivity

We aspire to be an inclusive and diverse organization and encourage qualified individuals irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity, to apply.