National Coordinator Vacancy at Action Aid, India

Job Title: Action Aid, National Coordinator – ‘Improving Access to Information of Public Schemes in Backward Districts in India’

Location: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi or Patna, Bihar

Organization’s profile:

ActionAid India is part of a global federation active in 45 countries across the world and is committed to fighting poverty and injustice. Set up in India in 1972, we operate out of 12 Regional Offices spread across 24 States and 1 Union Territory.

 About the Project

The project focuses on addressing the gap between community action for rights and entitlements and the ability of the local state to provide an effective response, both through provision of information and improved services. The long term outcome will contribute to reducing poverty and social exclusion by increasing and improving the numbers of poor and marginalized groups – Dalit, Tribal and Muslim, with a focus on gender equality across all groups- who are able to access government services and to ensure their participation in local governance aimed at improving the quality and delivery of those services.(Visit Action Aid website for more details)

Job Description:

Project Coordinator for multi-state project on ‘Improving access to information of public schemes in backward districts in India’ in 5 states – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand spread over 6 districts

The National Coordinator will be responsible for supporting the partners and their state level coordinators in all project locations to deliver on the objectives set out by the project in coordination with the Regional Offices of ActionAid in Bhopal, Patna, Lucknow and Delhi. S/he will also be directly involved in national and state level advocacy and ensure that this is linked to the work being done at the local level.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Overall coordination, management and delivery of the project on ‘Access to Public Schemes’ to be implemented in the five states of the project.
2. Develop overall and ensure regional project plans are in line with the approved proposal and donor requirements and project is delivered according to project plans and budget.
3. Provide technical advice, support and links to regional programmes according to their need, particularly in the design of activities and in developing partner relationships. Part of this is also linking with relevant government officials if and when necessary.
4. Establish good working relationships with all project staff and relevant internal and external stakeholders.
5. Support Regional Offices and partners to strengthen the analysis of ‘democratisation of society, economy and polity at all levels’ that can be applied to the programme work.
6. Work with regional team and relevant teams like the Democratisation Hub, to ensure high priority is given to delivering on the project.
7. Participate in lobby meetings with relevant state level and national institutions when necessary to share good practices and advocate for delivery of government services to the marginalised communities.
8. Liaise with regional team and partners to produce internal progress reports on a quarterly basis.
9. Review the reports received from the regions/ partners and liaise with the regional offices to resolve any issues with the quality of the reports
10. Provide management analysis of the internal progress and programmatic financial reports as per the donors requirement
11. Ensure high quality monitoring and evaluation of the project in line with ActionAid and donor guidelines, providing support as appropriate to programmes implementation.
12. Ensure full compliance with all donor contract requirements
13. Work with the finance manager to ensure that financial reports and other financial processes are accurate and completed as required by the donors
14. Coordinate donor monitoring visits, external evaluations and support external audit process.
15. Ensure the project expenditure is in line with the budget and any under spends or overspends

Travel: Extensive Travel

Eligibility:

1. Post Graduate in Social Sciences/Social Work/Rural Development/ Management
2. At least 5 years experience of working on projects/programmes related to access to entitlements for the most marginalised communities.
3. Understanding of human rights based approach and working with the marginalised communities is a must.
4. Experience of developing, planning, managing and reporting on multi regions institutional donor-funded projects.
5. Comprehensive understanding of both policy issues and programme practice that affect delivery of government services.
6. Prior experience of community based planning, development of micro-plans, Participatory Rural Appraisal methods is necessary. Knowledge of or prior experience in development of economic literacy of communities would be an added advantage.
7. Strong networking/relationship-building skills- ability to anticipate, coordinate and facilitate activities with colleagues, ability to understand and synthesize diverging points of view and resolve conflicts without escalation.
8. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, ability to inform and engage through written communication and knowledge of Hindi are non-negotiable.
9. High capacity for work output in order to meet tight deadlines and multiple priorities
10. A strong commitment to develop, promote and practice AAI’s vision, mission, values, and strategy
11. Excellent problem-solving skills and resourcefulness
12. Energetic, enthusiastic and interested in learning within a political, changing and diverse work environment
13. Good team player, gender sensitive, having conviction and skills for the empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged groups and women;
14. Proficiency in all applications of MS Office, especially Word and Excel.

Salary & Benefits: Approx. Rs.7.2 Lakh p.a. CTC

How to apply:

Please send your application, only on ‘Standard Application Form’ available in the ‘Jobs’ section of our website: http://www.actionaid.org/india  through   e-mail at recruitment.india@actionaid.org  Please mention in the subject line of your e-mail “ National Coordinator – Improving access to information of public schemes in backward districts in India”

Applications received without the filled in Standard ActionAid Application Form and after the due date will be summarily rejected. Only short listed applicants will be contacted.

Last date for the application: 10 Dec, 2013

Reference: http://www.actionaid.org/india