Website Udaiti Foundation

Position

Team Lead (TL)/ Senior Program Manager (SPM), Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (in partnership with The Udaiti Foundation)

Problem Statement

India has seen a massive drop in female labour force participation (LFPR), from 26% in 2005 to 16.1% in 2020. India’s FLFP lags in comparison to that of its neighbouring countries like Bangladesh (30.5%) and Sri Lanka (33.7%), which are some of the lowest in the world. This comes at a time when the education levels among women have been increasing and awareness and efforts towards enhancing women empowerment are on the rise. Most of these efforts as well as the wider discourse on the issue have been geared towards addressing supply-side constraints such as social norms. However, we hypothesize that the poor rate of FLFP can be improved in the short- to medium-run by targeting demand-side barriers. Women have borne a disproportionate loss of jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that they have accounted for 23% of the total jobs lost between March 2020 and March 2021, it is more important now than ever to remove barriers to women’s entry/ re-entry/ retention/ progression in the workforce – both in terms of entrepreneurship and jobs.

About the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis, & The Udaiti Foundation collaboration

The Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) has been set up by the Economics Department of Ashoka University with the primary objective of facilitating informed debate and discussion about economic and social development issues in India. It meaningfully contributes to public discussions on policy relevant issues through blog posts, summaries of research papers, commentaries on economic and social issues, etc.

As part of its efforts towards women empowerment, CEDA has partnered with The Udaiti Foundation (TUF). TUF is a not-for-profit organisation working on advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in India. Their focus is on improving the availability and accessibility of quality work for women, engaging the private sector to address demand side barriers to women’s work and entrepreneurship, and creating enablers that can allow for the WEE ecosystem to engage in proven models for creating impact. TUF is incubated and supported by The Convergence Foundation, an organisation set up by Ashish Dhawan to identify critical voids in the social sector and build strong, long-lasting organisations to solve complex problems.

CEDA and TUF are collaborating under the Women In India Inc (WIIn) project to help identify demand side enablers and barriers to women’s engagement in white collar jobs, across the stages of hiring, retention, advancement and re-entry. The WIIn project’s core focus will be on identifying and documenting high-impact innovative initiatives by Indian corporates to generate evidence on what works and actionable insights to improve gender indices in workplaces. The project also aims at building networks/ coalitions of industry and private sector champions, and amplifying their voices to drive change.

Key people supporting TUF:

Ashwini Deshpande (Founding Director of CEDA at Ashoka University)
Megha Chawla (Partner, Bain and Company)
Sri Rajan (former Chairman, Bain and Company)
Ashish Dhawan (Founder, The Convergence Foundation)
Shaveta Kukreja (co-Managing Director, Central Square Foundation)

Position Summary

TUF is looking to engage an experienced and exceptional Team Lead (TL) or Senior Program Manager (SPM) to join the team in a critical role to support the TUF-CEDA partnership.

As a TL/SPM you will be participating in one of the most exciting collaborations, aimed at better understanding Indian women’s engagement in the private sector space. This role will require the candidate to work closely with organisation leaders at CEDA and TUF to identify and test innovative interventions to reduce barriers to women’s work participation.

The TL/SPM will provide project design and execution support as well intellectual and management support, aligned with the missions, goals and targets of both organizations under this project. They will be reporting to the senior organization leaders of the CEDA project. The overall role will involve undertaking research and scoping exercises, establishing, and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, creating organizational growth and strategy plans, identifying, and documenting scalable interventions, and ensuring that the organisation has the strategic support necessary to achieve its goals

A key facet of the role will involve undertaking research and scoping exercises to support conceptualisation/ strengthening design of scalable interventions, participating in, and contributing to stakeholder consultations aimed at refining the implementation strategy for interventions and supporting conversations with potential partners. The ideal candidate should therefore have strong qualitative and quantitative research skills and techniques, along with a strategic-bent of thinking, and experience engaging with stakeholders at a senior level. The TL/SPM will help the CEO and other senior leadership in overall project coordination, including supervision of junior members of the team, and work on creating actionable plans, sharpening priorities, and ensuring delivery of high-quality outputs in a timely manner. To ensure the private sector implementation component works in conjunction with the research and data pieces, the TL/ SPM will work closely with the leadership of the other verticals and the coordinator on key decision points and translation of research into action.

This is a high-energy, entrepreneurial role and a great opportunity for those who enjoy working in a start-up environment and care deeply about women empowerment and the impact sector. This role includes working with senior stakeholders and engaging with them on strategic projects that have the potential to solve key challenges to empowering women in India.

This role is based out of TUF and will work closely with the team from CEDA.

Key Responsibilities

Work with project team members, TUF organization leaders and the CEDA team to execute the project, in line with work plans and budget, to achieve the agreed upon targets and goals.
Undertake desk research and data mapping, as well as design and develop questionnaires, interviews, surveys, and other tools to support the primary and secondary research as required under the project.
Identify and document organisational policy changes and/ or innovative initiatives with private sector companies to mitigate barriers to women’s economic empowerment.
Identify and onboard private sector leaders, experts and other organisations that The Udaiti Foundation can partner with to achieve strategic priorities.
Help plan and implement regular convenings, including closed-door convenings with private sector leaders and policy makers, and other advocacy initiatives.
Manage associates and other junior members, and support them in the successful execution of the project, in adherence to timelines and outcomes.
Oversee the development and implementation of activities and programs to build the organisation’s networking and communication capabilities.
Work closely with the leadership team on creating and maintaining deep engagement with ecosystem players, including the government and private sector leaders, and help with the development and implementation of activities and programs to build the organisation’s networking and communication capabilities.
Take on diverse operational tasks, as needed, to ensure organisational success

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

Masters and undergraduate degrees from top tier institutions. While there is no preference for a particular major or specialization, we expect to see a high degree of intellectual curiosity and sophistication
8-10+ years of work experience in a challenging/ high growth environment
Must have strong communication, facilitation, relationship-building, presentation, and negotiation skills.
Should possess excellent research, writing and analysis skills in English, with the ability to distil important concepts and generate insights.
Should have excellent problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, and be able to adapt and exhibit confidence in a highly evolving, agile, and fast-paced work environment, and take initiative and develop solutions quickly and effectively.
Strong project Management skills to ensure smooth and time-bound project completion of key deliverables.
Strong planning and organisational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines is necessary.
Prior experience in a client facing role and stakeholder management, particularly of senior stakeholders, is a must.
Prior knowledge and experience of gender equity, and inclusive HR practices in corporate environments, is desirable.
Demonstrated ability to be team player, who can independently lead the planning, execution and tracking of independent project deliverables, and support the CEO and organization leaders in meeting overall project goals.

Desired Qualities

Entrepreneurial self-starter, passion for women empowerment, and desire to find innovative solutions to address barriers to improve women’s work
Broad and strategic mindset, creative aptitude, and effective use of independent judgment highly valued
Must possess the ability to exercise discretion in maintaining confidentiality of sensitive materials and issues
High level of flexibility and responsiveness with the ability to shift priorities quickly and as organizational demands require
Operating style suited to working in a highly evolving, agile, fast-paced small-organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued.
Must be able to function and interact in a professional level capacity to sustain the mission, culture and best interests of the respective organizations.

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Location

New Delhi, India

To apply for this job please visit docs.google.com.