Job Opportunity for Technical Specialist – Economic Development at Care India in Delhi

POSITION/DESIGNATION

Technical Specialist – Economic Development

GRADE/LEVEL

E

PROJECT/UNIT

Economic Development Unit

PROJECT DURATION

NA

REPORTS TO

Head, Economic Development Unit

LOCATION

Delhi (Preferable)

TRAVEL

35-40 % field travel

ABOUT US

CARE is a not-for-profit organization working in India for over 70 years, focusing on alleviating poverty and social injustice. We do this through well-planned and comprehensive projects in health, education, livelihoods and disaster preparedness and response. Our overall goal is the empowerment of women and girls from poor and marginalized communities leading to improvement in their lives and livelihoods.

During FY 2021-22, CARE India directly reached out to 84.3 million people through 93 projects across 21 states, covering more than 290+ districts. We are part of the CARE International Confederation, working in 100 countries for a world where people live with dignity and security.

CARE India seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.

Our goal is to ensure that women and girls from the most marginalized communities are empowered, live in dignity and their households have secure and resilient lives. CARE India aims to accomplish this goal by working with 50 million people to help them have quality health, education, livelihoods and overcome the effects of disasters.

CARE continues efforts towards poverty alleviation with focus on women and girls. We hope to impact 100 million people by 2030.

Our employees are committed to CARE’s values, Code of Conduct, and safeguarding commitments towards a safe workplace for all, including the principle of ‘do no harm’. They are also responsible to uphold and strengthen our safeguarding commitments in their role. To know more about our safeguarding policies please visit our website link given below.

PROJECT DETAILS

This position with CARE India’s Economic Development Unit (EDU) offers opportunity for an experienced professional to work with a team of skilled professional staff and partners to primarily advance CARE India’s Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation strategy and portfolio through a program approach to address poverty and discrimination in India as well as contribute in other domains of the economic development unit functions viz. Women’s Economic Justice (WEJ) and Food, Water and Nutrition Security (FWNS) programs.

CARE’s work on Climate Justice is about a future in which the poorest and most marginalized people, especially women and girls, have strengthened their resilience and adaptive capacities to the effects of climate change. We work to build resilience of individuals, communities and systems to deal with the impacts of climate change, and also reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) that are the origin of the problem. We support the transition to more resilient livelihoods through community-based adaptation; promote the use of renewables energies, policy advocacy for better climate policies for adaptation and mitigation and share our expertise and learnings through learning platforms. 

Presently, CARE India is running programmes focusing on Women’s access to clean energy solution through a flagship model namely SHE-Sustainable Household Energy Schools led Technology Extension with the use of improved cook stove initiatives and integration of renewable energy sources and technologies; many projects are working with women farmers to make them more resilient towards climate changes through community based adaptation approaches. We are in a phase to consolidate these initiatives towards Carbon programming, developing Nature-based solutions, carbon credit / markets and integrating clean energy solutions. We are working to have gender sensitive and transformative practices based Sustainable Energy Cluster Model. 

JOB SUMMARY

This position will lead knowledge and program development, support quality implementation of relevant programs  and knowledge dissemination work in the space of Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Clean Energy and will work towards amplifying the portfolio’s impact on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation through integrating Carbon programming wherever there are opportunities, developing Nature-based solutions, carbon credit / markets and integrating clean energy solutions especially working with smallholder women farmers, micro enterprises and relevant value chains. 

S/he will design programme, formulate proposals and provide cutting edge technical assistance to the assigned existing and future Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit / markets and Clean Energy projects of CARE India to ensure that programs contribute to the overall mission of the organization, reflect the program approach and have high technical quality. 

S/he will also develop appropriate tools and methods for research and analysis, program development and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. 

S/he will contribute to identifying research and development areas/themes, developing innovative approaches and strategies, and new models of Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation domains including Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit / markets and Clean Energy. S/he will also be responsible for forging and nurturing partnerships in these domains.

The primary role of this position will be of conceptualizing, building and management of the Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation strategy, project development, technical analysis and knowledge product development on Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit / markets and Clean Energy, on-field technical support and mentoring, and program development, with thematic leadership in the aforementioned domains. The guiding goal will be to learn and contribute to the overall expansion of  Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation program portfolio (both qualitatively and quantitatively) and facilitate the quality of implementation of Climate Change Adaptations projects including Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Research, Innovation and Knowledge Management

• Contribute to identifying research priorities and initiate research in key areas that will advance CARE India’s Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation  Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy domain.
• Develop and contribute to action research initiatives by designing and launching innovative pilot projects for the purpose of developing new Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation models that are efficient, sustainable and scalable.
• Ensure that innovations in Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation approaches, strategies, models are adequately studied and incorporated in CARE India’s Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation programming.
• Develop cutting edge cross-sector programs in association with other colleagues in CARE India and in partnership with other institutions.
• Ensure that innovations within CARE India’s Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation projects are studied, documented and appropriately disseminated.
• Set up mechanisms for knowledge gathering, analysis and dissemination both within CARE India and with partners in the larger sector; develop quality knowledge products for knowledge dissemination, promoting sectoral dialogues, and for organizational positioning
• Participate in and contribute to appropriate state, national and international alliances and coalitions for economic development, including thematic groups of CARE International.
  • Portfolio Development
    • Will work for conceptualizing, building and management of the Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation Strategy including Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy  and the portfolio in CARE India
    • Design and develop innovative programmes and projects on “Building resilience of Women and Community in general to climate change / variabilities”, both in rural and semi-urban geographies
    • Contribute to development of a program approach by identifying and pursuing various opportunities related to Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation.
    • Writing project proposals for Climate Change Adaptations portfolio and any other projects depending on the needs of the organisation
    • Work with state teams and local partners to sharpen state Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation strategies for testing locally appropriate and innovative program models and implementing them at scale.
    • Contribute to primary and secondary research to identify key Climate Change Adaptations issues that relate to the lives of CARE India’s impact population and developing sustainable, scalable and replicable programs.
    • Develop clear sector profiles that will help identify opportunities and strategies for portfolio development.
    • Contribute to planning Climate Change Adaptations portfolio development, determining resource requirements and resource mobilization strategies.
    • Identify key public and private institutions and pursue partnerships towards developing Climate Change Adaptations programs and research work.
    • Support efforts to develop new institutional mechanisms/arrangements that advances Climate Change Adaptations program strategy and in managing these.
    • Ensure close coordination and cooperation with colleagues to achieve synergy and impact across programs and geographic areas of operation.
  • Technical Assistance
    • Provide technical assistance to assigned Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation projects of CARE India, informed by approved Detailed Implementation Plans (DIPs) of the projects and guided by project specific support ToRs
    • Understand the technical assistance needs of various projects and develop roadmaps feeding into ToRs for effective assistance through proper planning and coordination with the project teams.
    • Develop innovative and appropriate content, tools, methods, internal processes and systems for quality and timely delivery of technical assistance.
    • Coordinate delivery of technical assistance with other members of the EDU team and with other sectors and functions.
    • Keep track of development of various technical tools and methods and examine relevance and possibilities of incorporating these within Climate Change Adaptations programming.
    • Disseminate technical tools and methods across various projects and support in adoption of these through capacity building, onsite support and offsite guidance.
      Support project teams in quality reporting and documentation by contributing quality analysis and ground-truthed technical content to reports, publications and other knowledge products emanating from project experiences.
    • Support development of monitoring and learning frameworks for CARE India’s Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation programs and contribute to organizational Impact Reports.
  • Networking and Advocacy
    • Identify areas where CARE India can influence policy and advocate for change in line with our overall strategy, and contribute to advocacy efforts
    • Establish professional linkages with skilled individuals and institutions to develop partnerships that will advance livelihood programming, and in line with the Climate
    • Change Adaptations and Mitigation strategy-guided partnership maps.
    • Conceptualize and support research on policy issues of relevance to Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation of the impact population identified by CARE India.

(The above list is not exhaustive, and the management reserves the right to review it as and when the role evolves based on the need of the business and individual’s skills and capabilities)

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Key external relationships are with strategic partners; government agencies; peer agencies; private sector, regulators; and other stakeholders in the Climate Change Adaptations and Mitigation space.     Key internal contacts are with Project Managers, Technical Directors, Program Development, External Relations and other program staff across the organization.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE

Essential

Master’s degree or above in rural management, business administration with specialization in Climate Change / sustainable development, agriculture, or equivalent; combination of education and work experience, additional degree/diploma/certificate of education or training in Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy sector will be a plus.

Preferred 

• Experience working in a multi-sector development and humanitarian organization highly desirable 

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in Community Based Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation programmes and projects in the domain of Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy
• Proven track record of Climate Change Adaptation sector program management and quality improvement
• Knowledge on climate change and field experience on climate change adaptations
• Sound knowledge of National, Regional and International frameworks and discourse on
• Resilience, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
• Experience of working with Government agencies, UN, Multi and Bi-lateral, academia, corporates, INGOs and Civil Society
• Demonstrated inclination and expertise in sectoral writing-for-sharing, knowledge curation and dissemination.
• Proven experience of designing projects for corporate and institutional donors.
• Good standing among professional peers and professional networks. 

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

(to cover competencies in Relationship Management, Self-Management and Result oriented. Please choose and define as appropriate for the role)

Technical:

• Understanding of National framework and policies related to Resilience and Climate Change Adaptations, Mitigations, Carbon programming, Nature-based solutions, Carbon credit markets and Clean Energy

Research and analysis: Proven skills in quantitative and / or qualitative research

Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Language:  Fluency in verbal and written English and Hindi; excellent writing skills in English is a must. Fluency in a regional language is desirable.

Professional qualities:

• Innovative
• collaborative
• Strategic, decisive and action oriented
• Results-driven

Personal attributes:

• High level of integrity
• Communicates with impact
• Compassionate and empathetic
• Respectful of all people
• Commitment to excellence

Strategic Thinking and Analysis:

• Critical thinker (able to think clearly and rationally and select the best method as appropriate) / connector (able to spot gaps, establish needs and opportunities)

Change Management:

• Ability to deal well without ambiguity, uncertainty, and change  
• Ability to adapt well to shifting priorities  
• Ability to juggle different and conflicting priorities 
• Ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks.
• Passion for working with the rural /low income communities, especially women and girls from under-privileged communities, for their empowerment
• Interested in field visits and establish rapport with communities