Senior Program Officer, Immersion and Learning Exchange Program – BRAC

Apply by 31st Dec 23

BRAC is one of the world’s largest development organizations, dedicated to empowering people living in poverty. Working across 12 countries in South Asia and Africa, BRAC touches the lives of more than 120 million people worldwide. BRAC takes a holistic approach to alleviating poverty with programs that include microfinance, education, healthcare, food security programs, and more.

The BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) seeks to hire a Senior Program Officer of Immersion and Learning Exchange Program (ILE) to provide leadership of the program, a government to government exchange allowing government delegations from around the world to visit the world’s largest high quality Graduation program, SJY JEEViKA in Bihar, India. The program is a critical part of the strategy of a growing team that provides technical assistance around the Graduation approach to various partners, ranging from governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs, and in-country technical team members.

Reporting to Country Lead,India with the oversight from CEO, JEEVIKA, Rural Development Department, Govt. Of Bihar, India. This role will lead all aspects of the Immersion and learning exchange program to deliver the UPGI scale-up strategy. This position is based in Patna, Bihar,India  or Delhi with significant travel to Patna and will also work closely with the Global Policy & Partnerships team of BRAC.

This role supports the BRAC UPGI & JEEVIKA- Bihar Rural livelihoods Promotion Society, Rural Development Department, Govt. of Bihar in leading and managing the Immersion & Learning Exchange Programme which expects to host ~15-25 delegations per year (both national and international) to do field visits of the JEEViKA Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana and engage with relevant government counterparts. The program will require significant international engagement with high level visitors from governments around the world, a strong attention to protocols, stakeholder engagement, and overseeing visitor logistics.

Primary Responsibilities

• Leadership and Team Management: Lead a team of professionals at state and field levels responsible for global learning and development, providing guidance and support. Work across partners and internal teams to manage the global budget of the Immersion and Learning Exchange Program (ILE), seeking appropriate approvals and overseeing the implementation partner/s for the program. Manage end-to-end logistics for all delegations, from expression of interest in a visit through to follow up feedback after the visit, and make sure that processes are documented and streamlined.
• Knowledge Sharing: Promote knowledge sharing and cross-learning among delegates from different regions or countries. Work across appropriate BRAC teams and partners to curate the content for visits that achieve the government delegation’s objectives. This includes assessment of the visiting government’s appetite for adopting graduation policies and curating the learning content to maximize outcome, adapting content as needed in real time.
• Facilitate learning & exchange events: Supervise all aspects of learning and exchange events, encompassing the establishment of immersion sites, logistical coordination for delegates, and facilitation of communication among various stakeholders. Ensure that all the right protocols are followed and documented – from the invitations to the arrival, greeting, and departure. Ensure pass off of relationships and follow ups to appropriate BRAC teams.

Qualifications

• At least 10 years’ experience working in project management or operations;
• An advanced degree in rural management / rural development / sustainable development / mass communication/ public policy, business management, finance or allied fields.
• Experience in coordinating cross-collaboration and programmes among different stakeholders and partners.
• Creative problem-solving ability and adaptability to changing workflow/team needs;
• Excellent written and spoken Hindi and English language and communication skills.
• Knowledge of the requirements of major institutional donors, including budgeting, eligibility issues, compliance management, and reporting;
• Strong attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and ability to analyze trends
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Working experience in rapidly growing organizations will be an added advantage.

About the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

The Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (“UPGI”) is a global unit of BRAC that was founded in 2016 to build off of the success of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh. BRAC UPGI aims to position the Graduation approach as a key driver to eradicating extreme poverty worldwide. It does this by:

• Advocating for uptake of the Graduation approach by policymakers, national governments, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental organizations; and
• Effective adaptation and implementation of the Graduation approach in countries around the world, supported through technical assistance and capacity strengthening for external stakeholders.

In 2002, BRAC pioneered the Ultra-Poor Graduation (“Graduation”) approach in Bangladesh – a holistic intervention to help people lift themselves from extreme poverty – after recognizing that existing poverty alleviation programs were not reaching the poorest people. Through the provision of livelihood assets, cash transfers, and continued mentoring and training, the Graduation approach addresses participants’ multidimensional needs within the local context and ‘graduates’ people from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods.

Graduation is an evidence-based, scalable intervention proven to break the poverty trap for the long term. So far, BRAC’s flagship Graduation program has impacted over 2 million Bangladeshi households—totaling over 9 million people. To help eradicate extreme poverty, BRAC UPGI is working to scale globally by integrating Graduation into existing government programs and helping 21 million more people lift themselves from extreme poverty by 2026.

But BRAC UPGI cannot do it alone. This is beyond the means and capacity of a single organization- no matter how ambitious or innovative. Sustainability and scale demands change at the system level with active government engagement. BRAC UPGI is committed to creating effective solutions that leverage the available resources and existing programming to achieve the long-term benefits demonstrated by graduation. The organization is partnering with governments, as well as multilateral institutions, NGOs, and civil society, in countries where BRAC UPGI thinks it can have maximum impact and drive greater uptake for graduation.

How to Apply
This is an outstanding opportunity to support a highly effective, collaborative, and innovative non-profit. BRAC International offers a competitive salary and benefits package.

External candidates: Please email your resume, detailed cover letter, and gross annual salary expectations to BRAC International.

Internal candidates: Please email your resume, detailed cover letter, and gross annual salary expectations with the PIN to internal.bi@brac.net.

Only complete applications will be accepted, and short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Application deadline: The application deadline is 31st December, 2023.

BRAC is committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share the same commitment. We believe every stakeholder and every member of the communities we work with has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation – regardless of age, race, religion, and gender, status as an individual with a disability or ethnic origin. Therefore, our recruitment process includes extensive reference and background checks, self-disclosure of prior issues regarding sexual or other misconduct and criminal records and our values are a part of our Performance Management System.

BRAC is an equal opportunities employer.