State Program Manager & Multiple other openings

Over 4 decades of ensuring happier childhoods
CRY was born of a dream to ensure happier childhoods for all children.

In 1979, Rippan Kapur – an Indian Airlines purser – started CRY with 6 friends and just Rs. 50. Today, over 4 decades later, CRY works with 102 local NGOs across 19 states in India and has impacted the lives of over 3 million children.

Tenure: Position is contractual subject to renewal based on performance and continuation of the project.

Function/Division: State Program Manager

Project: Strengthen Institutional mechanism and systems to prevent Child Marriage, Child Trafficking and Unsafe Migration in West Bengal supported by UNICEF

Background of the Project:
CRY is partnering with UNICEF for the program implementation and subsequent scale-up of Adolescent Empowerment and Ending Child Marriage across the states of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Your Challenge:
At CRY – Child Rights and You, you’ll be using your professional skills and experience to help restore to underprivileged Indian children their basic rights to – survival, development, protection and participation. CRY has a holistic approach to development based on the child rights framework with community empowerment as a key ingredient. CRY also places strong emphasis on networking with other NGOs and advocacy efforts to influence macro policies for children.

The role and responsibilities of this position:
The State Program Manager is responsible for the overall implementation of the project at the state level and ensuring coordination with and between district coordinators as well as the State M&E Manager.

• Coordinating with UNICEF State Office to report progress and receive feedback
• Coordinating with UNICEF State Office to report progress and receive feedback
• Ensuring progress reports from the state M&E Manager is aligned to the result matrix
• Supervising the programme through regular field visits in districts and submitting progress reports
• Facilitating knowledge management efforts of the district by managing the knowledge repository, coordinating with district program officers in organizing knowledge banks and documenting the processes and success stories
• Assuring quality of work
• Taking up Any other work assigned by CRY’s Regional Office to fulfill the required deliverables

Team Management: Functions through Team

The State Program Manager shall play a key role in ensuring the deliverables agreed upon with UNICEF are met with. He/ She shall also be responsible for supervising the District Resource Persons and ensuring quality project implementation at the district level. The work shall entail the following:

• Providing technical support to District Resource Persons towards the implementation of the project in Rajasthan/ West Bengal/ Gujarat
• Facilitating the preparation of district-specific Strategic Action Plan for preventing child marriages in coordination with the district administration, District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) and the Women Development Corporation (WDC) / Department of Social Welfare etc
• Coordinating with State / District stakeholders and UNICEF to ensure effective administration of the programme
• Establishing a District task force and/or strengthen an existing one
• Developing guidelines and protocols for the task force
• Mapping the stakeholders, key influencers and CSOs with the District task force
• Participating in Review and Reflection Meetings of district-level work at the state level hosted by CRY and UNICEF
• Undertaking a needs’ assessment and vulnerability mapping of children and adolescents at the district level to identify issues
• Ensuring regular visits to monitor progress in each district
• Coordinating with UNICEF state office, CRY Regional office and all other project staff, to align project work plan and deliverables
• Facilitating monthly, quarterly and bi-annual review meetings with stakeholders, including WDC
  Guiding and assisting the dedicated workforce across all 13 districts to work as a composite group to accomplish the deliverables
• Monitoring of expenditure as per budget and meeting the standard audit requirements
• Managing performance of the district program Officers to ensure that the capacity building needs of the district team members are identified and addressed

You:

Educational Qualification:

Master’s Degree or equivalent in Social Science, Rural Development, Humanities, Development Communication
An LLB/LLM in Child/Human Rights would be an added advantage

Work Experience:

• At least 8 to 9 years’ of experience as a Senior or mid-level professional in the arena of child protection and Child Development
• Experience in adolescent program would be an added advantage
• Experience in working with multiple stakeholders, specifically government and civil society
• Experience in Team Management

Skill Sets:
An ideal State Program Manager must have strong written and oral communication skills with an eye for detail. He/She must have strong negotiation skills and possess a sound understanding of results-based management approach to programme planning, budgeting, review and monitoring systems is essential. The person should be able to think on his/her feet and must have high-quality presentation making skills.