Senior Fellows – Banyan Impact Fellowship 2023-24 – American India Foundation

Deadline for the application 16th August 2023

The American India Foundation is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth. AIF does this through high-impact interventions in education, health, and livelihoods because poverty is multidimensional. AIF’s unique value proposition is its broad engagement between communities, civil society, and expertise, thereby building a lasting bridge between the United States and India. With offices in New York and California, twelve chapters across the U.S., and India operations headquartered in Delhi NCR, AIF has impacted 16.51 million lives across 36 States and Union Territories of India. Learn more at www.aif-india.org

Duration: 12 months, September 2023-August 2024

Program: Banyan Impact Fellowship

Reporting: Program Head – India

Location: Remotely for most parts, with some in-person engagements

Nature of involvement: Part-time/contractual

AIF background
The American India Foundation is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth. AIF does this through high impact interventions in education, health, and livelihoods, because poverty is multidimensional. AIF’s unique value proposition is its broad engagement between communities, civil society, and expertise, thereby building a lasting bridge between the United States and India. With offices in New York and California, twelve chapters across the U.S., and India operations headquartered in Delhi NCR, AIF has impacted 16.51 million lives across 36 States and Union Territories of India. Learn more at www.aif-india.org

AIF Fellowship program
AIF’s Fellowship program shapes the next generation of leaders committed to positive social change while strengthening civil society in both the United States and India and identifying innovative solutions to tackle the most pressing challenges we face. It is the oldest program operating in AIF where fellows work on scalable projects across a range of thematic areas, including public health, education, livelihoods and many more with a special focus on women, children and youth. They aim to create knowledge for the
sector at large while contributing to SDGs and uplifting local communities.

What started as the AIF Service Corps in 2001 became the AIF William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India in 2009, in recognition of the former president’s role in creating AIF. In March 2021, AIF rebranded the program as ‘The Banyan Impact Fellowship’ to reflect the organizational mission, vision, and values moving into the third decade of action. It has been built upon its glorious past and will lead for the decade to come as a true catalyst for change. Since its inception, the program has supported 539
Fellows and built capacities of 238 partner organizations across 25 Indian states and Union Territories to scale impact. To learn more about the AIF fellowship, click here https://aif.org/fellowship/

Senior Fellows’ track at BIF
Senior Fellows at the Banyan Impact Fellowship are a crucial part of the program’s India service track, which facilitates voluntary service opportunities for a select group of socially-minded Indians and Americans across a range of projects in diverse Indian civil society organizations. Chosen after a rigorous process to lead, guide and collaborate with the current Fellows during their Fellowship journey, Senior Fellows (SFs) are highly-distinguished individuals, with vast experience of the Indian social, economic
and cultural context, along with cross-sectional knowledge and experience in various thematic areas like livelihoods, public health, education, arts & culture, sociology, sustainability, climate change, gender studies, entrepreneurship and other related fields. They are willing to initiate collaborations and support the current Fellows in facing technical and professional challenges in their respective services. The SFs also act as an advisory committee for the Fellowship team through consultations and advocacy, guiding
and assisting the program as a whole. The program seeks to leverage Senior Fellows’ knowledge, experience and resources for the overall development of the program, current Fellows’ capacity, adaptability to and understanding of the Indian context and special demands of the thematic areas they are working in. The track seeks to give the senior Fellows an opportunity to not only create a meaningful and demonstrable impact on the grassroots, but also a platform to showcase their own work and disseminate
knowledge.

Qualifications to become a Senior Fellow under Banyan Impact Fellowship

Following are the requirements to be selected as a Senior Fellow for BIF-

• SFs must be based in India during their entire association with BIF as a senior Fellow. Global exposure, especially in the US-domain, is a plus.
• SFs must have at least 12 years of work experience in the Indian social development sector in livelihoods, public health, education, arts & culture, sociology, sustainability, climate change, gender studies, entrepreneurship, human rights, social work, legal services, conservation, development sector and other related fields.
• Past or current affiliations with a government or non-government body overseeing work in the aforementioned sectors or working (in the past or currently) in a consulting capacity for such bodies, will be an added bonus.
• Connections and networks with media houses (traditional, digital or new-age) or prior experience in media will be an asset.
• Prior experience of mentoring Fellows under an educational or professional program will be an added bonus.
• Research experience/ Publications within Indian/ International Academic/ Development Journals/platforms would count as a bonus

Expectations and Deliverables

• SFs will take steps to not only enhance the capacity of the current Fellows by giving them context-specific and field-specific knowledge, intel and guidance, they will also be expected to connect them with right resources and networks, including the ones SFs are a part of.
• SFs will amplify the impact and outreach of the Fellows they are mentoring. This includes guiding them to appropriate conferences, seminars and publications. SFs will also try to get Fellows’ work published in journals and/or media outlets, guiding them through the process.
• SFs will not just empower the Fellows but also suggest steps so that the Fellows can derive more meaning out of their work. They will also assist current Fellows through project navigation.
• The current Fellows will be given very clear guidance that they are supposed to reach out to Senior Fellows for broad mentorship, not personal matters or counseling. For your reference, AIF has a licensed counselor on retainer who is available to the Fellows throughout the year.

Orientation: The orientation for the 2022-23 BIF class will be held in September 2023. For 2 days notified by the BIF team in advance, SFs will mandatory attend the same. Throughout Orientation, there will be a variety of components including an introduction to AIF, the expectations of the Fellowship, a Host Organization Conference, and experiential sessions with different NGOs and social enterprises. On the aforementioned two days, SFs will be introduced to the current batch and will be given time to present an hour-long interactive session. In this session, they can talk about their experiences and learnings from their respective specialized field in the Indian development sector and how the Fellows can benefit from the same. They will also get to meet the Fellows they will be mentoring and have detailed discussions about their projects and how they can go about them, rooted in the specific geographical and thematic context.

Connections – Throughout the year, SFs will connect with their mentees at least once in a fortnight during the first 2 months and then once in a month thereafter. SFs can conduct site visits to meet their mentees at their host organizations and see some of the projects they are working on. For site visits, the BIF team will be happy to assist the SFs for scheduling (taking in consideration
availability of all concerned parties) and logistics.

In-person interactions – While connections with Fellows can be virtual, in-person attendance at our three conferences, namely Orientation (September 2023), Midpoint (tentatively in February 2024 and Endpoint (tentatively in June 2024) is required. SFs will be required for a duration of 3-4 days each time and exact dates will be notified in advance. In case the commencement of the
Fellowship class gets delayed, Orientation will be conducted in October 2023.

• Dissemination of knowledge – The SFs must attend at least two seminars, workshops, symposiums or conferences, presenting their work or experience in the relevant field, while representing AIF.
• Fellowship Blog – The AIF-BIF Fellowship has a very active blog, where the Fellows share their learning and experiences throughout the Fellowship period. This blog plays an important role in AIF’s social media strategy, and Senior Fellows will be expected to contribute to the blog at three different points throughout the 10-month period, detailing their Fellows’ work or commenting on the current issues, challenges and opportunities in the specific sector they specialize in.
• Guiding and assisting – As mentioned before, the SFs will act as an advisory committee for the Fellowship team through consultations and advocacy, guiding and assisting the program as a whole, especially with regard to AIF/BIF brand building.
• Organizing and directing thematic conferences – The BIF team organizes various thematic conferences and seminars throughout the year, wherein SFs will take primary roles, including guidance on how to take these forward creating more opportunities as well as the resource persons (domain experts, professionals and civil society members) to invite. SFs will also curate virtual sessions for Fellows involving sectoral experts and discussing sector/theme specific topics and insights.
• Contribution to BIF publications – All the SFs will contribute information-centric articles or papers for the BIF publications. These pieces can be co-authored by a SF and their mentees, taking into perspectives of industry experts, donors etc, and will relate to a particular aspect of the Indian social development sector. The SFs will also amplify these publications for maximizing
  impact and brand recognition, along with bringing other authors and content contributors on board.
• Leading and delivering projects – SFs will ideate, strategise and deliver one key project, in consultation with the BIF team, as per programmatic requirements and long-term vision and objectives.

Important notes –

• Attendance at Orientation, Midpoint and Endpoint is mandatory.
• In all events including Orientation, Midpoint, site visits and Endpoint, (travel, food and accommodation) expenses for the same will be borne by AIFT.
• icy. Senior Fellows must adhere to the ASH policy and Child Safeguarding policy when executing work for AIF and its affiliates.

Remuneration

• Senior Fellows will be an integral part of the AIF and BIF team during the year and will be treated as senior consultants. They will be adequately compensated, with payment made in three installments during the course of the Fellowship period.

To apply
Please send an updated CV, two recommendations and a cover letter explaining how you will benefit the current Fellows and the program, by 16th August 2023, to fellowship@aif.org, with the subject line “Application for Senior Fellows’ track at BIF”. Applications will be reviewed and interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis.

Click here to know more and apply