Open Positions – Azim Premji Foundation

Azim Premji Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that has been working for more than a decade now towards making deep, large scale and institutionalized impact on the quality and equity of education in India, along with related development areas. Any large scale educational change requires significant and sustained effort over many decades and can only be achieved through working at multiple levels as well as on several areas simultaneously. Today, the Foundation employs more 1000 people and has field institutes in 40+ districts across 6 states and 1 union territory(Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry) reaching more than 3,50,000 schools across the country. The Foundation, has institutes that are located in districts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Telangana

Livelihoods – Job opportunities

We are looking for various people to join us like cluster and panchayat coordinators, technical experts, program management and capacity-building resources, who can

• understand and identify the needs and scope of required livelihoods interventions in the area;
• work with local partner/community resource persons to establish community connections in the villages and provide programmatic support;
• enable better access to govt. welfare schemes & development programs;
• and drive effective implementation of livelihoods programs in the villages.

Details of these positions are provided below.

1. Cluster Coordinator – Livelihoods

Location: Raigarh district, Chhattisgarh and Gumla, Jharkhand

The Cluster Coordinators will be responsible for the team and all our livelihoods work in a cluster. A cluster would include some panchayats, and each panchayat would include a few villages. The cluster coordinator would need to

Responsibilities

• Nurturing the community-based organizations like SHGs, Farmer collectives, common interest groups, forest protection committees, and so on.
• Provide enabling support to the Frontline functionaries in the public – systems, Panchayats, and community resource persons in the villages.
• Be responsible for plan preparation and effective implementation of various livelihoods programs in the villages of a cluster- monitoring day-to-day operations and direct engagement with the community for mobilisation.
• Enable better access to the community to the welfare schemes and development programs of the govt.
  Orchestrate collaboration action with the team, partners, PRIs, associated government departments, and the community.

Skills and Attributes

• Ability to build, manage and enable a team to work with various stakeholders for livelihood promotion.
• Ability to empathize and dialogue with the vulnerable communities and facilitate small and large group settings towards a social change action.
• Mobilize partnership action to effectively implement the program in the area.
• Strong understanding of the community, geography, and the economic sectors, actors, and policies.
• Effective communication skills with the community, PRI members, partners, and relevant govt. depts.
• Program implementation skills – for the various livelihoods programmes in the cluster.
• Conduct data collection/surveys related to the program and maintain records /documentation.
• Mastery over at least one livelihood theme- livelihood institutions, natural resource mgmt., agriculture/ livestock promotion, forest mgmt., micro-enterprise, rights & entitlements, local governance, financial inclusion, economic independence of, women or similar livelihood themes.
• Travel within cluster and in/around block.
• Interest and passion to work in the social sector, with commitment and perseverance.
• Computer skills, proficiency in MS Office (Excel, Word).

Qualification & Experience:

>3 years relevant experience in community work – ideally livelihoods/rural development/watershed.
Post-Graduation in agriculture/rural management/ rural development/social work.
Fluent in Hindi, English.

2. Panchayat-Coordinators, Livelihoods

Location: Raigarh district, Chhattisgarh and Gumla, Jharkhand.

The Panchayat coordinators will be responsible for the team and all our livelihood work in a Panchayat. A Panchayat will include a few villages. There will be a community resource person in each of these villages. The panchayat coordinator would

Provide programmatic support to all the community resource persons within a Panchayat.
Act as group facilitator and trainer of various livelihood programs launched by the Foundation in the community
Direct engagement with the community in day-to-day operations of livelihood interventions and community mobilization.

Work with community and PRI to enable better access to livelihood and welfare schemes and development programs of the government
 
Skills and Attributes

• Institutionalize development planning, implementation, and tracking in CBOs and PRI bodies.
• Work with local partner/community resource persons to establish community connect in the villages within the Panchayat.
• Nurture relationship with stakeholders and trigger civic engagement between community institutions and the wider systems-block, banks, markets, etc.
• They will work under the overall leadership of the Cluster Coordinator.
• Effective communication with the community, PRI members, partners, and relevant government departments.
• Program implementation skills for effective implementation of various livelihood programmes in the Panchayat.
• Travel within cluster and in/around block.
• Interest and passion to work in the social sector, with commitment and perseverance.
• Computer skills and proficiency in MS Office (Excel, Word) would be an advantage.

Qualification & Experience:

• 1 year relevant experience in community work – ideally livelihood/rural development/watershed/agriculture/social work and similar themes
• Graduation in any discipline with work experience in relevant area.
• Fluent in Hindi, Local language/dialect will be an added advantage.

3. Technical Experts, Livelihoods – Agriculture/Livestock/Watershed/Welfare

Location: Region level – Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand

The technical expert Resource will be responsible for providing technical inputs/support to the program in their areas to the program teams in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

The work will involve

Collaborating with the local government teams and sectoral stakeholders to attract investments, improve existing government programs, knowledge exchange, set standards, and access to market signals.

• Understanding, identifying, and analyzing the scope for interventions in the domain suitable for the program areas.
• Providing technical inputs, in designing the programs and capacity building of thematic CRPs.
• Support in evolving matrix to measure the outcomes of the programs.
• Conduct value chain studies in the theme and propose value propositions.
• Support the teams in building their technical capacity to enable them for effective implementation of the program.
• Facilitating the creation of system, processes, and protocols as needed to establish the activity.
• Create and support with capacity building resources & IEC materials in various training modules/ programs /workshops and building a learning platform that can be leveraged by the local stakeholders.
• Demonstrate certain community process, best practices, physical structures, models, and so on.
• The technical expert Resource will be responsible for providing technical inputs/support to the program in their areas to the program teams in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

The work will involve

Collaborating with the local government teams and sectoral stakeholders to attract investments, improve existing government programs, knowledge exchange, set standards, and access to market signals.

Responsibilities

• Understanding, identifying, and analyzing the scope for interventions in the domain suitable for the program areas.
• Providing technical inputs, in designing the programs and capacity building of thematic CRPs.
• Support in evolving matrix to measure the outcomes of the programs.
• Conduct value chain studies in the theme and propose value propositions.
• Support the teams in building their technical capacity to enable them for effective implementation of the program.
• Facilitating the creation of system, processes, and protocols as needed to establish the activity.
• Create and support with capacity building resources & IEC materials in various training modules/ programs /workshops and building a learning platform that can be leveraged by the local stakeholders.
• Demonstrate certain community process, best practices, physical structures, models, and so on.

Skills and Attributes

Subject matter expertise in Agriculture/watershed/ Livestock/Community Institutions (IB/CB) coupled with the on-ground experience of the livelihood promotion in rural areas of India.

• Knowledge of livelihoods/rural development/natural resource management program and the latest policies and procedures in these areas as stated by the government.
• Design actionable programs suited to the needs of the area and in alignment with the objectives of the program.
• Effective training skills to be able to groom cadres, engage effectively with relevant departments, internal teams within the Foundation, and partners.
• Ability to exchange knowledge and draw support from experts, research organizations, and universities.
• Travel within program areas, sub-block level, located in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand would be required.
• Interest and passion to work in the social sector, with commitment and perseverance.
• Computer skills and proficiency in MS Office (Excel, Word) would be an advantage

Qualification & Experience:

• >3 years of experience on the ground – Agriculture/watershed/Livestock/Welfare.
• Diploma/Bachelor/Master in agriculture/horticulture/veterinary science.
• Fluent in Hindi, and English. Local language/dialect will be an added advantage.

Application Procedure: Send us your application with the following documents to livelihoods.raigarh@azimpremjifoundation.org. Please mention the role you are applying for in the subject line.

Your Curriculum Vitae.
The completed Application Form.