Job Opportunity for EAII Advisors Senior Associate Program Management Unit (PMU) at Evidence Action in New Delhi

Position Overview

Job Title: Senior Associate, Program Management Unit (PMU)

Employment Status: Full Time

Position Location: New Delhi

About EAII Advisors

EAII Advisors, Evidence Action’s technical partner in India, supports the implementation of the school and Anganwadi-based National Deworming Day program, as well as iron and folic acid supplementation programs, across 11 states by providing technical assistance to applicable state ministries of health, education, and women and child development. Moving forward, EAII Advisors aims to expand its impact by collaborating with more state governments on these existing programs, as well as supporting new public health, water, & nutrition programming.

EAII invites applications for the position of Senior Associate, Program Management Unit (PMU) in New Delhi.

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 9 countries, with major offices and/or technical partners 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.

About India Safe Water Now

Evidence Action’s Safe Water Now program provides safe drinking water to over 10 million people across rural Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya. Recent evidence highlights that water treatment may be among the most cost-effective interventions available to save young children’s lives, reducing all-cause child mortality by about 25%. The Dispensers for Safe Water (DSW) program, based on research by a Nobel-winning economist, utilizes an innovative and human-centric design to deliver clean water at the source in rural settings, achieving usage rates which are 5x that of comparable interventions. Evidence Action recently launched a next generation technology, In-Line Chlorination (ILC) in Uganda and Malawi, targeting rural, peri-urban, and urban communities, which has the potential to be even more cost-effective. Over the past year, we’ve more than doubled our footprint in East Africa and are actively exploring opportunities for expansion into new countries.

In addition to its longstanding work in East Africa, Evidence Action, through its technical partner in India, EAII Advisors, is launching a major technical assistance program to help the government of India reach 17.5 million people across multiple states with safe water. This complements the Indian government’s effort to bring water access to every household in the country.

About the Position

Evidence Action is looking for someone to join our India Safe Water Expansion team as Senior Associate, Program Management Unit (PMU). Reporting to the Manager PMU, the Senior Associate PMU will be responsible for taking feedbacks and suggestions from Manager PMU and implementation on it in supporting our rapid programmatic scaling and support long-term initiatives, and materials development. Their long-term focus will require internal coordination with other Evidence Action teams and externally with other stakeholders. The Senior Associate, PMU must be capable of proactively identifying and addressing challenges and opportunities before they arise in thematic areas such as donor relations and process improvement.

The Senior Associate, PMU will be required to travel to state-based programs for about 20% of the time. Travel is primarily during business days, while occasional weekend engagements may be expected.

Responsibilities

Government Relations

• Occasionally represent Evidence Action and EAII Advisors Private Limited in engagements with central and state Jal Jeevan Mission representatives, state departments of water, NGO partners, suppliers, manufacturers, and others;
• Draft talking points as needed for India Safe Water senior leadership for key government engagements

Systems Development & Maintenance

• Review programmatic systems to ensure they are replicable, scalable, and prepared for the next stage of growth ultimately providing recommendations to program team leadership. Projects may include scaling models, cross-cutting team support, procurement plans, community engagement plans, and others;
• Support a centralized workflow – including work planning, collecting modeling inputs, and project coordination – across the Cost Effectiveness and India Safe Water teams;

Program Support

• Support the Manager PMU in ensuring the smooth functioning of the day-to-day operations of program and strategic initiatives;
• Take feedbacks from Manager PMU and complete the actionable;
• Develop standardized materials and processes for onboarding and training new hires.
• Ensure standardization of systems and processes, e.g. performance management, data collection and management, working closely with India Safe Water and EAII Team.
• Develop internal team materials as needed, e.g. PPTs to give updates to program senior leadership.
• Manage communications and coordination with other Evidence Action teams within India and globally, ensuring correct stakeholders are involved at the appropriate level for various workstreams.
• Coordinate communications with Central and State JJM representatives, external partners and internal team members Examples include: draft emails or memos to provide updates to partners, attending and taking notes during meetings to capture follow-up items, drafting agendas for meetings, etc.
• Support communication with established and potential funders, including the development of donor materials, preparation of talking points for meetings, etc.
• Oversee internal knowledge and information management systems and processes.

Flex Capacity

• This position will serve as flex capacity across topics and requirements as the India Safe Water program undergoes massive scale and new requirements may arise to include strategic planning, program transition, learning management, procurement, contracting, monitoring, learning, & evaluation, and others;

Requirements

Essentials

• Bachelor’s degree with relevant 3-5 years of strategy consulting, management consulting, program design, or operations planning experience;
• Strong project management and organizational skills; proven ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously requiring inputs from various stakeholders;
• Excellent spoken and written English.
• Ability to synthesize information clearly and draft high-quality written documents keeping to tight deadlines,
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to engage with internal and external stakeholders within India and globally;
• Proactively communicate relevant progress updates and bottlenecks requiring attention or support from leadership;
• Ability to develop recommendations based on qualitative and quantitative analysis;
• Able to work within a matrixed, complex organizational structure;
• Passion for the mission and values of Evidence Action and for creating value in international development;
• Prepared to travel to India to support government engagements, programs, and other requirements as necessary, up to 20% international travel.
• Experience of technical and advisory services to Governments or working with Governments on the development sector (preferably Water/WASH sector) at any level will be a bonus.

Disclaimer: The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and that additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time.

Benefits

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