Position: Consultant – City Graduation (BUPGP)
Reporting Line: Program Management Unit – Lead (BUPGP)
Location: Gaya and Patna
Number of Positions: 2 (One each at Gaya and Patna)
Duration – 11 months
About the Project:
Similar to the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) program in rural Bihar, there is a felt need for a graduation focused program in urban areas of Bihar for the urban ultra poor. Project Concern International, under the aegis of BRAC India, would therefore, work towards poverty alleviation of urban ultra poor, in two urban wards of the two districts Gaya & Patna. The Bihar Urban Poor Graduation Program (BUPGP) is envisaged to build on the knowledge of SJY program and partner with key stakeholders in urban Bihar to pilot this Graduation program in an urban context. The BUPGP would be piloted from July 2023 to March 2024 in the aforementioned geographies. The BUPGP is envisaged to have four pillars ; (1) facilitating social protection to support basic income security and immediate needs, such as food consumption support, crisis relief, and access to health, and education; (2) livelihoods promotion consisting of an asset transfer and/or skills training, or cash transfer, to manage the asset or access (self)employment opportunities; (3) financial inclusion to ensure direct access to convenient, formal or informal financial services, accompanied with financial literacy training; and (4) social empowerment through regular check-ins with Graduation coaches and life- skills support that build confidence and resilience. To successfully execute, the above-mentioned program, PCI would embed a team of 5 officials under Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM) to set up a program management unit (PMU). The farsighted approach of the program is to enable co-designing and implementing of program in close coordination with government department for attaining programs sustainability. For this the PMU, shall closely work with the following government departments; BSDM, the State Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), the Urban Development and Housing Department (UDHD), and JEEViKA for converging efforts of multiple departments towards the program. Over the period, the program is expected to develop urban graduation coaches, enable access to government entitlements for the program participants, build an urban graduation ecosystem, establish linkages for financial inclusion through leveraging government programs, develop IEC & capacity building products along with robust MIS, for systemic program adoption and upscaling.
Job Summary:
The Consultant- City Graduation is expected to facilitate and support implementation of all program activities in their respective program geographies of the given district. S/he is expected to work under under the supervision of PMU-Lead and work in collaboration with the PMU team of four personnels; Cadre Development Expert (1), Urban Poverty Alleviation Expert (1), Program Manager-Livelihoods & Enterprise (1) and Program Officer- Gender (1). The city graduation consultant would be responsible for coordination, successful implementation of the designed program, in collaboration with the government departments in the assigned program geography. Additionally, s/he is expected to ensure day to day coordination with the government departments, municipal bodies and CSOs at the district level to integrate their inputs into the departments’ overall strategy, systems, and processes.
Key Roles and Responsibilities:
A. Program Implementation & Management
• Lead execution of project pilot in their respective geographies.
• Facilitate and support the implementation of graduation program, ensuring its execution according to the established framework.
• Support development and customization of training resource material & tools for training of graduation coaches.
• Support in identification of graduation coaches in the program geographies.
• Lead the training of graduation coaches in their respective area of operation.
• Support & Facilitate community in identification of urban ultra poor in their respective program geography.
• Always ensure handholding support to the urban ultra poor during the entire program tenure.
• Ensure timely provisioning of asset transfer to the identified program participants.
• Facilitate financial linkages for the urban ultra poor in their program geography.
• Suggest refinement of program strategies, goals, and objectives by providing field insights.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders at the district level to merge program priorities and ensure alignment with organizational objectives.
• Assume accountability for the quality and timely completion of final deliverables at the district level.
B. Reporting and Monitoring
• Lead strategic interface with the key government stakeholders & personnel of the project at the district level on day-to-day basis.
• Regularly monitor progress and impact of the project, by capturing data through the MIS/ reporting system.
• Provide content based on field implementation and insights for developing supporting the team develop knowledge products.
• Document best practices for supporting program scale up.
C. Other responsibilities
• To carry out any other relevant duties as required
Qualifications and Competencies:
Education:
• Post-graduate degree/ diploma in management (preferably rural management) or masters in gender/women studies pertaining to their empowerment & holistic development from premier institutes.
Professional Experience:
• The ideal candidate should have minimum 5 years of experience in project management, livelihoods, urban development, working with government and international donors, with significant experience of working on ultra poor program.
Skills & Attributes:
• Knowledge of ultra poor projects.
• Knowledge of large-scale women empowerment program.
• Strong knowledge of social protection systems, safety nets, health promotion, and nutrition interventions.
• Familiarity with relevant policies, guidelines, and best practices in social protection, health, and nutrition of ultra poor.
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent oral and written command in Hindi
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested candidates can apply for the position of Consultant – City Graduation (BUPGP) by 28th June 2023.
PCI India is an equal opportunity provider and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, and/or marital status. Due to the heavy inflow of resumes, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Female candidates are encouraged to apply.