Job Opportunity for Project Manager at Diksha Foundation in Patna

About Diksha Foundation

Diksha Foundation offers holistic education to learners from socially and economically marginalized communities in India. Since 2010, Diksha’s movement has been towards creating “transformative learning spaces”. Our idea of education is not confined to mere literacy alone, we focus on the holistic education of the learner by looking at the social, creative and moral development of each student. Holistic education stresses on the overall development of an individual which includes core academics, emotional development, social skills with civic understanding, critical thinking skills, conflict resolution skills, personality development and knowledge about self. While seeking to educate the whole person the basic three R’s – Relationships, Responsibility and Reverence for all life, are taken into consideration. We believe that education is a journey of self-discovery, self-love and self-esteem, and that it is a process of change from within, a change in one’s habits and world views and one’s Relationships and Responsibilities towards the community.

Project: (Patna Smart City) Towards Socially Smart & Inclusive Cities

Diksha foundation is an implementing partner under United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) collaboration on the above project. The project seeks to transform city of Patna as a socially inclusive city, where citizens have equal access to services and opportunities, and thereby focusses on most vulnerable sections in the urban setting, namely Sanitation Workers and Slum Dwellers. The project seeks to empower the sanitation workers under Patna Municipal Corporation on health, safety and leadership, and seeks to work extensively with the Sanitation worker community, including women and adolescents whose habitation is primarily slums. The project has directly been working across 50 large slums of Patna. Now, the up scaling phase, “Sustainable and inclusive urbanization in Patna; Promoting safe, Healthy and inclusive models for slum development” aims to Reduce gender and health (including sexual and reproductive health) vulnerabilities in slums through citizen engagement in the development of 110 slums of Patna by: Increasing the capacities of ward councillors on citizen engagement for gender and right based slum development, Empowering women and girls by collectivising and engaging them to participate in gender and right based slum development activities , Improving health, safety and dignity of sanitation workers/manual scavengers by building their capacities on Health, safety and constitutional rights. Empowering girls and women from sanitation worker/manual scavenging community to address health hazards through enterprise promotion.

Project Manager:

Project Manager, based at Diksha office in Patna, will lead a team of professionals at field level and will be responsible for achieving the quality standards set out for this project. He/She should be well versed with UNFPA focussed area related to Sexual and reproductive health and rights, Gender and Right based development interventions, problems and issues of women and youth in urban spaces, the act and government guidelines on Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, Bihar Municipal Act and Slum networking projects being implemented in other cities.

He/She will be responsible for providing program management and coordination support for planning and management of activities implemented in support with two other credible partners for mechanised cleaning as well as establishing sanitary napkin units as an enterprise with young girls and women from slums. As part of the work, the Project Manager, will be responsible for the day-to-day management and implementation of the Project, including support to partners in all substantive and administrative matters, work closely with field staff, and will undertake field visits to the project geographies for project planning and management and impact. He/She will be responsible for ensuring that all UNFPA key issues are being incorporated or addressed at the implementation level of the project at field level and at documentation/ knowledge management level. The Project Manager will act as a coordinating unit between the officials of PMC, UNFPA, Partners and other development agencies. Further, He/She will regularly organise internal review meetings/online meet of partners and field staff to bring better results and apprise UNFPA on weekly and monthly basis. S/he will have the following duties and responsibilities:

1.      Project Management and Co-ordination

a)       Prepare and regularly update overall implementation plan of the project with outcomes

b)      Preparation of the detail regular planning report for the project, including the partner work on mechanised cleaning and sanitary napkin unit enterprise plan with clear time lines.

c)       Stakeholder management and development of channel of communication for all stakeholders.

d)      Managing and coordinating project activities, from substantive, administrative and financial points of view, applying strategic planning and systematic coordination of project activities.

e)      Manage day-to-day project implementation and overall coordination of project outcomes.

f)        Ensure supervision of the Project personnel and ensure effective communication and coordination between the Project personnel of Diksha team and UNFPA, Bihar

g)       Provide direction and leadership in advocating project objectives and in ensuring that all interested parties are well informed about the project activities and goals.

h)      Identify any support and advice required for the management, planning of the Project and share with UNFPA.

i)        Ensure regular internal review meeting with the team and share the broad outcomes of it with UNFPA.

j)        To record all levels of meeting in form of a document.

2.      Training and capacity building

a)       Identifying training gaps within the project team and liaise with UNFPA team to address this gap

b)      Plan and undertake training and capacity building requirement for the project personnel

c)       Support Training and Capacity Building coordinator in overall training of sanitation workers

d)      Assist in development of the gender mainstreaming and integration strategy and ensure the mainstreaming of gender into all project components

e)      Support gender consultant and ensure gender integration in elected representative training and slum level campaigns

3.      Slum Development Planning

a)      To support field team in building their capacities on right and gender based slum development planning.

b)      To coordinate the team especially the Gender consultant on field for integrating gender component in slum development planning at slum level

c)       Assist or capacitate the field team consisting of outreach workers at field on slum development.

4.      Reporting and Documentation

a)      Ensure timely preparation, compilation and submission of the Project Annual/Quarterly Work Plans and Progress/Final substantial and financial reports and its submission

b)      Support in Preparation of monthly reports on key project activities, issues and required action points. Prepare the project semi-annual progress reports (progress against planned activities, update on risks and issues, expenditures), annual review report and final review reports as appropriate. 

c)      Ensure the quality of outputs and results with optimal monitoring mechanisms; establish effective coordination, monitoring, information sharing and reporting systems.

d)      Perform other duties that may be required by Diksha Foundation

Requirements

·       Master degree in social science and/ or relevant discipline

·       4-5 Years of experience in the field of urban areas, Sexual and reproductive health, slum development

·       Knowledge of the issues in the relevant area

·       Proven ability to draft, edit and produce written proposals and results-focussed reports

·       Proven experience working with Government, civil society, international organizations and donors

·       Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.)

·       Strong communication skills both verbal and writing in English and Hindi

·       Strong research and analytical skills, both qualitative and quantitative

·       Ability to work and deliver under strict deadlines

·       Understanding of effective training methodologies and tools

·       Excellent communication, presentation and public speaking skills

·       Organizational and time management abilities

·       Critical thinking and decision making skills

·       Ability to coordinate and communicate as per persons context and background

Benefits

·       Paid Time Off

·       Training and Development

·       Maximum Salary would be up to Rs.57,750 on monthly basis

·       Diksha Foundation is an equal opportunity employer. We are working towards diversifying our workforce. Women candidates are strongly encouraged.

Note: – Due to the urgency to fill this role, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we reserve to close this advert before the confirmed closing date when we are in receipt of sufficient application.