Job Opportunity for Advisor (Programs) at Evidence Action in Lucknow

Position Overview

Job Title: Advisor (Programs), Uttar Pradesh

Employment Status: Consultant

Term: 2 years

Duty Station: Lucknow

Number of positions: One

Last date for submission of applications: November 12, 2022

About Evidence Action

Evidence Action aims to be a world leader in scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest places. Last year Deworm the World reached 280 million people with deworming medications, partnering with governments to launch, scale, and sustain mass school-based deworming programs, including in India. Meanwhile, Dispensers for Safe Water provided 4M people across rural Africa with clean water, saving thousands of young lives. The approach relies on an innovative and human-centric design to deliver clean water at the source. These serve as just two examples of the work Evidence Action is undertaking.

In addition to running these scaled programs, Evidence Action leverages its unique Accelerator to develop the next generation of programs. These programs are rigorously tested to ensure exceptional scale, cost-effectiveness, and clear evidence of impact. In 2019 we launched an ambitious new strategy, intending to double our impact over the next five years, with much of that impact coming from new programs identified and scaled through the Accelerator.

Evidence Action has a presence across 7 countries, with major offices in Nairobi, Kenya; Delhi, India; and Washington, D.C. Evidence Action’s programs have been recognized by GiveWell, the Skoll Foundation, the Life You Can Save, Giving What We Can, and covered in the Economist, NPR, and the New York Times.

In India, Evidence Action’s technical partner EAII Advisors provides technical assistance to select state government’s ministries of health, education, and women and child development to implement the school and Anganwadi based National Deworming Day program and Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation program to improve children’s health, education, and long-term development. In the long term EAII Advisors aims to expand to provide technical support to more state governments and on other public health & nutrition issues too.

The India program invites applications for the position of Consultant (Programs)to be based at Lucknow office.

About the Position:

The Consultant (Programs) will report to the State Program Manager (SPM), Uttar Pradesh provide support to the State Program Manager for the successful implementation of the NDD program across all districts. The person shall work closely with the SPM to manage all aspects of the TA plans, including policy advocacy, program management, supply chain strengthening, capacity building, community mobilization, and monitoring and evaluation.

Requirements

Program Management and Technical Assistance

• Provide inputs to SPM in preparing program reports and updates for sharing Delhi Office frequently to monitor progress, identify and correct performance problems, and recommend solutions.
• Provide support to advocate for policy level integration of deworming efforts into other national/state health programs working with preschool and school age children.
• Support in developing Program Implementation Plans (PIP) for further sharing with state NHM, include NDD program activities and corresponding budget for programs as mandated by the Government of India guidelines on NDD.
• Assist the State team with the monitoring of process, performance and impact indicator envisaged for the NDD program.
• Work with state MLE to identify and analysing the data for further sharing with state NHM and key stakeholders.
• Submit periodic reports of achievement and constraints with the implementation of the NDD to the SPM.

Advocacy and Partnership Management

• Provide proactive support to advocacy efforts for the institutionalization of the NDD program in various platforms in Uttar Pradesh, ensuring that the policy and advocacy priorities are aligned to make deworming a sustainable intervention in the long term.
• Support SPM in cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders (including departments of Education, Women and Child development, Health and other concern departments) to ensure implementation of high-quality programs following standard protocols and evidence based operational practices.
• In coordination with the SPM, identify, engage and advocate with government stakeholders, at the state and district level for effective and sustained integration of interventions in annual work plans and Program Implementation Plans (PIPs).
• Will facilitate the state team in development of operational and work plans, creating operational program targeting, strengthening government monitoring and reporting systems to include deworming.
• Will support to advocate and coordinate with officials in stakeholder departments for inclusion of deworming and anaemia specific content in respective training and IEC material, operation manuals in the larger plans and program material under these departments.
• Support the State Program Manager in developing concept notes and proposals, work plan, budgets, resource guides, best practices and progress reports as appropriate.
• Will participate in weekly and quarterly review meeting with the state and national team

Strategic Planning

• Support SPM and the state team to plan and design NDD components to increase deworming coverage and reach in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
• Help identify and address bottlenecks and gaps to ensure higher coverage and increase cost-effectiveness across the NDD program.
• Closely work with SPM in planning for and organizing a broad range of advocacy efforts, such as dissemination meetings for sharing best practices, innovations, and coverage results.

Training & Communication

• Consult and coordinate with the SPM to develop protocols for training cascades and quality assurance checklist for training.
• Along with SPM coordinate with officials in stakeholder departments for integrated training of NDD with other school health-based programs for an efficient training cascade, while integrating supply chain and logistics for the NDD Program.
• Ensure appropriate utilization and sharing of IEC material, social media and mass media content developed by EAII with the support of state and district level team.
• Extend support and coordinate with stakeholder departments for carrying out activities related to community mobilization and awareness generation.
• Support in strengthening state governments’ reporting systems/tools and capacity to monitor key supply chain indicators and activities.
• In consultation with the SPM and state team, estimate the drug requirement and facilitate the timely procurement of supply for the programs.
• Build relationships and help liaise with state NHM and UPMSCL staff on procurement and quality testing activities.

Supply chain management and coordination

• Support in strengthening state governments’ reporting systems/tools and capacity to monitor key supply chain indicators and activities.
• In consultation with the SPM and state team, estimate the drug requirement and facilitate the timely procurement of supply for the programs.
• Build relationships and help liaise with state NHM and UPMSCL staff on procurement and quality testing activities.

Essential Qualifications, Experience, and Competencies

Essentials

• Post Graduate Degree/ diploma in science, social sciences, public health, health management or related disciplines.
• At least 12 years of relevant professional experience of providing technical assistance and managing programs related to public health and/or nutrition, maternal child and adolescent health with minimum of 5 years at state level.
• Good knowledge and understanding of public sector health systems with experience of working with Health Education, WCD departments.
• Proficiency in MS office (Word, Excel, Power point) and internet.
• Good spoken and written English and Hindi. Ability to synthesize information clearly and produce good quality documents keeping to tight deadlines;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to engage with internal and external stakeholders within the state;
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize findings and actionable recommendations for government and development partner stakeholders;
• Availability and willingness to travel within state up to 40% of the time.
• Flexibility and willingness to work on a range of tasks including new roles/ projects;
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, while also proactively communicating relevant progress updates and bottlenecks requiring attention or support from leadership;

Desirables

• Flexibility and willingness to work on a range of tasks including new roles/ projects;
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, while also proactively communicating relevant progress updates and bottlenecks requiring attention or support from leadership; 

Benefits

• Compensation: Competitive and commensurate with the individual’s credentials, experience, and previous pay scale.

All contracting arrangements will be made through EAII Advisors Private Limited. EAII is an equal opportunity employer. Employment at EAII is based solely on an individual’s merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. EAII does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, caste, creed, colour, religion, gender, origin, disability, marital status, or any other basis protected by law.

All candidates applying for the position should upload a resume along with cover letter mentioning current and expected salary.

We may end this search process earlier than the specified close date in case of exceptional candidates. Due to resource constraints, we will only be able to contact shortlisted candidates.

Note: Candidates already applied to Consultant (Program) role in the past need not to re-apply.