Job Opportunity for Programme Associate – Uttar Pradesh, Powering Livelihoods at CEEW in Lucknow

Designation offered

Programme Associate – Uttar Pradesh, Powering Livelihoods

Reporting to

Programme Lead, Powering Livelihoods

Location

Lucknow

Purpose

In 2020, CEEW has embarked on the initiative ‘Powering Livelihoods’, in association with Villgro, with an aim to catalyse a transformation of India’s rural economy with clean energy solutions. The $3 million initiative aims to provide capital, technical, and sectoral growth support to social enterprises deploying clean energy-powered livelihood appliances to help them undertake large-scale commercial deployments with an explicit gender lens integration.

The team has recently formed partnerships with Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihoods Mission, its nodal agency Prerna Ojas and some other similar organisations operating in the state of UP to further the objective of the programme and unlock the potential to integrate DRE technologies in all rural productive use applications, especially keeping rural women at the centre point. Our engagement with UPSRLM especially focuses on 1) Developing and administering a robust information, education and communication programme for building capacity and awareness around DRE technologies and 2) Providing strategic and technical inputs to them on potential measures to adopt these technologies as part of their livelihood solutions promotion activities including identification of the right location and conditions/as per the technology, mapping existing intra departmental support available for these technologies.

As the programme associate – UP, the selected candidate will be the focal point of contact for UPSRLM, Prerna Ojas and our other stakeholders in the state and will be responsible to manage the engagement and project completely. The person will be ensuring that all the activities and objectives planned are implemented in a timely manner and active liaison with these different stakeholders to advocate for the programme vision. The person will also take a lead on the research activities pertaining to the state and qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate and document the impact of the on-ground activities on the programme mission.

Key Responsibilities

Outreach and stakeholder management

• Leading CEEW’s Powering Livelihoods team’s engagement with the UPSRLM, Prerna Ojas, UPNEDA and other relevant departments at the district and state level.
• Forging strong relationships and associations with the relevant state departments and civil society stakeholders.
• Building awareness around Powering Livelihoods objectives and other related work programmes of CEEW in Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh.
• Organising public and closed-door stakeholder meetings and consultations to facilitate improved coordination between government and civil society stakeholders.
• Unlock new engagement opportunities for the CEEW team.
• Connecting the dots between CEEW’s research and policy developments with the work happening in the state and disseminating their findings in appropriate settings.
• Developing policy notes/memos/presentations in response to government requests.
• Present relevant research in a coherent manner that can be understood by a wide range of audiences.

Research and analysis

• Using information from recent scientific assessments, primary research and insights from stakeholder consultations to develop a time-bound implementation plan for the adoption and promotion of DRE powered livelihood solutions.
• Providing technical and administrative support to UPSRLM, Prerna Ojas in identifying and implementing appropriate business strategies.
• Keep a tab on the sectoral development, new findings, research pieces etc in the gender smart business growth sector (especially within the DRE Livelihood space)
• Putting in place a robust monitoring and evaluation mechanism to track progress on the agreed actions between different stakeholders.
• Support the team in evidence generation regarding the impact of this partnership on both the UPSRLM, Perna Ojas level and the end-user level. Such as impact on incomes, new livelihoods created, active repayment of loans, servicing of debt, business sustainability, marketing and sales success etc.

Programme Management

• Manage the progress, challenges and new opportunities in the state and align with Powering Livelihoods team on a proactive basis.
• Ensure proactive communication, and transparency, and manage expectations of all programme stakeholders including enterprises, donors, policymakers, partners, and ecosystem stakeholders.
• Assist with the overall plan of activities under the initiative while being an integral part of the team.
• Ensure the timelines and the commitment under the partnership with UPSRLM and Prerna Ojas are met on a regular basis.

Selection Criteria

Education

• Master’s degree with a specialisation in Public Policy, Regulatory Governance, Renewable Energy, Rural Development, Livelihoods or related field.
• Exposure to productive use of energy, rural development (women beneficiaries), and gender lens is a plus.
• Understanding of relevant ministries and departments and their scheme promoting livelihood and microenterprises in India is a plus

Work experience

• 4-7 years of relevant work experience in the field of programme implementation and project management, preferably in the livelihoods and renewable energy domain.
• Should have prior experience in stakeholder engagement, particularly with government stakeholders
• Candidates with prior experience of working on the implementation of government programmes/schemes will be preferred
• Strong track record of project assistance and timely delivery of outputs
• Experience in dealing with public and private institutions

Key skills

• Coherent thinking with excellent communication and presentation skills
• Strong networking and interpersonal skills with an ability to strike conversations.
• Strong project management skills
• Good understanding of public policy and governance of environmental and development issues
• Ability to use MS Office application suite including MS Excel
• Strong analytical and research skills
• Ability to adapt to new environment and deliver under tight deadlines in a professional environment
• Patience and perseverance for building relationships with new partners and opening doors
• Should have the ability to effectively work in a team while being able to independently drive deliverables with minimum assistance when time demands
• Ability to dig deeper into details, while also keeping a sense of the broader objectives and big picture
• Willingness to learn, grow and develop a personal and professional front, at a rapid pace with a steep learning curve
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and multicultural environment

CEEW operates in a dynamic environment and the candidate will be required to show flexibility in undertaking a variety of tasks.
Compensation

CEEW offers competitive compensation commensurate with the experience and matches the best of standards adopted by industry or other similar organizations for similar roles.

Application

CEEW is an equal opportunity employer and the selection process does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality. Female candidates are encouraged to apply. Interested candidates are requested to send their applications to jobs@ceew.in with ‘Application: Engagement Lead – Uttar Pradesh, Powering Livelihoods’ as the subject line. We will review applications on a rolling basis, so we advise interested applicants to apply at the earliest possible. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We appreciate your interest.