Job Opportunity for Program Officer South-South Cooperation, LTE at Gates Foundation in Delhi

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: that people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. By building a global and cultural workplace that supports greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — together with our employees and partners, we can help all people improve their lives from poverty and health to education. As an organization we offer full healthcare premiums coverage, generous paid time off, contribution to your retirement fund, several employee communities, and a commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do.

The Team

Program Advocacy and Communications Team.

Your Role

South-South Cooperation (SSC) is increasingly being recognized as an important strategy for developing countries to partner with each other to share knowledge, skills, expertise, and other resources. To advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important that the countries in the Global South partner with each other, to actively share knowledge, resources, tools, and technologies. The multilateral platforms such as the BRICS, SAARC, BIMSTEC, ASEAN, and G20 play a vital role in defining and driving regional cooperation and solidarity on economic and development issues. Further, there are global platforms such as the GAVI, Global Fund, CEPI, ACT Accelerator, COVAX, and SDGs that have significantly contributed to improving the lives of the people in the lower and middle-income countries by strengthened leadership by the global south. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has contributed significantly to the global health and development agenda by driving catalytic partnerships with the stakeholders across all these platforms.

Further, India will be taking the Presidentship of the G20 in 2023. India can benefit both its own development and become a unique partner for the rest of the developing world through the creation of an ecosystem that allows for cross-pollination of ideas and solution-sharing. This would combine the recent experiences from its own development process with the projection of its growing global footprint.

The BMGF’s India Country Office (ICO) aims to facilitate through its global and regional offices a cooperative, and constructive engagement of stakeholders in the global south so that there is accelerated and meaningful progress towards the SDGs. Our hope is to contribute to this knowledge exchange and diffusion of practices through our deep work in states in India, and through our global partnerships and networks, in the field of health, innovation, digital financial inclusion, gender economic empowerment, and agriculture development, among other priority issues. To realize this goal, we envisage that there will be an active collaboration needed internally with the foundation’s global and regional program teams and externally with important governmental and non-governmental (e.g. civil society, academia, think tanks, private sector) partners to strengthen South-South and global partnerships.

We are looking for a senior position in the Program Advocacy and Communications Team to foster partnerships internally and externally to accelerate the agenda toward South-South collaboration.

This role reports to the Deputy Director – Program Advocacy and Communications, ICO.
This is a limited-term position for 12 months. Relocation will not be provided.

What You’ll Do

The Delhi-based Program Officer South – South Cooperation will actively engage in understanding the emerging global and regional agenda around the priority issues; understand areas where the Foundation can contribute and facilitate the development of a roadmap for partnerships in the global south. This will require landscaping and mapping of potential collaborations across the region. The role would also require identifying partners for documenting innovations and good practices of development solutions across distinct verticals – health and nutrition, technology and digital inclusion, financial inclusion, biotechnology, livelihoods, etc – from states, domestically, and national capacities across digital public goods and health innovations.

Specifically, The Role Will Entail

• Helps in the development of the strategy and roadmap for the key priorities to be advanced for the India-led G20.
• Engages internally with the Foundation offices in Seattle and in the regions to help develop key priorities of relevance that need to be advanced through the Global South Cooperation.
• Identifies and documents innovations and good practices development solutions across distinct verticals of the Foundation.
• Helps develop position papers, agenda/issues central to Foundation’s priorities in the Global South.
• Helps develop core messaging and position for Foundation’s leadership participation in multilateral platforms.
• Engages with relevant ministries and departments in India, on issues that are of priority to advance Global South Cooperation.
• Assists in the creation of tangible outputs, including partnerships between countries, between governmental and non-governmental actors, to advance the G20 and the Global South Cooperation agenda.
• Assists in the preparation for meetings with other development partners working on the same priorities of advancing SSC. Further, ensuring follow-up action and outcomes from such meetings.

Your Experience

• A postgraduate degree, preferably in areas of foreign policy, political economy, and development studies.
• At least five years of work experience and strong understanding of issues involving the international development agenda, development cooperation, and the SDGs.
• Strong written and oral communication skills for a broad and diverse audiences, including experience preparing communication material with the complex subject matter.
• Knowledge of working directly with high-profile individuals, working in government, public affairs, and/or communications roles aimed at informing policy change.
• Ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, enthusiasm, and diplomacy both individually and as part of a complex team effort.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Application deadline: 31 October 2022

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.

Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request to hr@gatesfoundation.org.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.