Position Name: Program Manager - Lucknow

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Location:

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Organization Name:

Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS)

Job Description

About CEGIS 

Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS pronounced See-Jis) aims to

improve lives by helping Indian state governments deliver better development outcomes. 

The four key characteristics of any high-performing organisation are (a) measuring outcomes through reliable, high quality data that enables goal setting and monitoring progress towards these goals; (b) strategic use of personnel competency based hiring and training, skilling, and performance appraisals to determine job assignments, pay, and promotions to achieve the goals above; (c) strategic budgeting where resource allocation is based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; (d) and creating efficient systems to leverage external actors (including for-profit and nonprofit organisations). The Indian State needs to perform better on all four fronts above, by enhancing its capacity. CEGIS partners with states to improve this capacity by focusing on these four pillars of the State. 

Informed by cutting-edge research and evidence as well as a practical orientation toward implementable ideas, CEGIS works with State Governments in India to enable a transformative  improvement in their functioning. This vision and Theory of Change (ToC) is an outcome of extensive research done by Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (CEGIS Co-Founder and Scientific Director) and strategic philanthropic support provided by Mr. Ashish Dhawan (CEGIS Co-Founder).  

Prof. Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellors Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Over the past two decades, he has led extensive research projects in India across education, health, and social welfare. His book, Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance, systematically analyses Indias governance challenges and provides actionable, evidence-based strategies, emphasising state-level reforms as critical for Indias advancement.

Ashish Dhawan is a leading Indian philanthropist and the Founder-CEO of The Convergence Foundation (TCF). He is also the Founding Chairperson of Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation, and is a governing board member of the Gates Foundation. Before his second career as a philanthropist, Ashish was among Indias most successful private equity investors. 

CEGIS Approach and Model of Functioning 

Our solutions to enhance governance are co-created with state governments in a state-led way, where we focus on deep partnerships with states with an iterative cycle of think-demonstrate-document-transfer. We work closely with the top bureaucratic leadership, front-line workers and public officials in Finance, Planning, Human Resources and a few other priority line departments.

In alignment with our four principles or pillars of change - outcome measurement, personnel management, strategic public finance, states and markets, CEGIS is currently working with the governments of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, NCT of Delhi, Assam, and a few Government of India entities like the NITI Aayog and Capacity Building Commission (CBC) across a range of projects and sectors. Through CEGIS flagship offering, the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Survey, we are helping enable state governments we are working with to collect better quality citizen level data, make informed, evidence-based decisions, and institutionalise this process of securing periodic citizen-level feedback. We are setting up a Financial Analytics Unit (FAU) to enhance analytical capacity and increase the effectiveness of budgetary allocations of the Finance Department in another state. In alignment with our personnel management workstream, we are also working with the HR/Administrative Reforms & Training Department to set up and institutionalise an in-house Capacity Building Unit (CBU) that aids the adoption of competency-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Performance Management Systems (PMS) with a few of these entities. Similarly, to improve the value of public money, we are working at the interface of states and markets which encompasses procurement, regulation, and policy formulation. Our solutions are constantly being refined based on real-time feedback and are designed to be customised and replicated across contexts. 

CEGIS@5: A Journey of Learning & Building Capacity  

Since its incorporation in 2019, despite the enormous challenges posed by COVID, CEGIS has gained significant momentum in building strong collaborations with the government(s) as a trusted partner who can provide both thought leadership and implementation support on key governance reforms. CEGIS position as a non-profit that does not take any funding from the government (other than in-kind contributions of office space/staff) has been a key enabler in earning this trust.

Beginning with 2 state government  engagements in the first 2 years of its inception, today CEGIS is working across several Indian states with 15+ projects across several sectors, including education, nutrition and local governance. From a small group of founding members, we have grown by leaps and bounds to become a team of 150+ members located across the country. Helmed by a former bureaucrat with invaluable governance experience, state and solution team leads with decades of domain expertise, and enabling functions led by professionals with considerable corporate careers, the team at CEGIS brings together knowledge and experience that spans various sectors - from developmental economics, research, and governance to management consulting and social entrepreneurship. 

Over the last 5 years, we have also been able to garner support for our vision and theory of change from a diverse range of foundations and philanthropists whose partnership has enabled us to build our own organisational capacity as well as continue to experiment and improve our solution design to augment state capacity and governance. We believe that this approach will gradually enable all government officials to achieve their goals more effectively, thereby improving the ability of the State to deliver services to all Indian citizens in the decades to come. 

To explore what the mission of CEGIS is and the impact we hope to have, please take a look at this video of our CEO, Dr Vijay Pingale. 

 

Position Summary:

The Program Manager (PM) will oversee CEGIS engagement with multiple government departments in UP, ideally managing two projects simultaneously. As a member of the Project Delivery Team (State Team), the PM will lead teams within assigned departments to implement CEGISs theory of change. Responsibilities include designing solutions for improved governance, collaborating with government stakeholders, and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality outputs.

Role and Responsibilities:

Data Analysis and Management:

  • Identifying, obtaining, and collating relevant information and data, and performing
    quality control to ensure validity and accuracy of data

  • Overseeing field and desk research using qualitative and quantitative analysis, and
    relevant tools as necessary 

  • Ensuring application of organization-wide protocols designed for data protection,
    data management on the assigned projects

  • Safeguard sensitive project information and minimise data protection risk by adhering to data protection protocols

Analysis and Insights:

  • Reviews accuracy and validity of research and data collected for meaning making

  • Evaluates the solutions proposed by vertical teams in the context of the project scenario and known limitations

  • Suggests changes in approach or process to suggested solutions.  

  • Researches government policies and schemes to assess current program design and scope for intervention.

  • Refines problem statement and proposed solution based on insights from the ground.


Project Delivery / Management:

  • Identifies and structures problems, synthesising hypotheses and, developing and
    applying appropriate analytical frameworks and approaches

  • Works closely with sector leads and CEGIS technical teams, government
    stakeholders and senior academics (wherever required), to tailor data-driven solutions to local context, and translate technical rigour to on-ground implementation

  • Drafts high-quality written documents and presentations

  • Provides management oversight on day-to-day activities in each project to ensure
    timely delivery of high-quality outputs

  • Proactively identifies risks and issues affecting tasks or workstream delivery, and
    promptly communicating upward with proposed solutions

  • Identifies delays, bottlenecks and challenges in meeting project goals and consults internally to formulate strategies to mitigate.

  • Ensure overall project documentation to aid tracking changes in project scope, delivery including key learning, best practices etc. and sharing with other teams

Client and Partner Management

  • Identifies areas of alignment and conflict with stakeholders on project goals by proactively anticipate Stakeholder needs.

  • Suggests the right approach and ideas based on a deep understanding of Stakeholder needs

  • Actively partners with Government (Department heads and second line), and other stakeholders, to define project workstreams

  • Communicates project progress, outcomes and insights to Client through visually compelling presentations and analysis.

  • Creates systems for partnerships between government and other stakeholders and helps identify an external advisory group of individuals and organisations

  • Builds relationships with potential collaborators or partners, donors and research institutions.

Knowledge Management & Documentation

  • Develops knowledge products like concept notes, success stories of projects, learning documents of a project (to roll-out to other States) etc.

  • Prepares detailed presentations, reports, and briefs summarizing project progress, data analyses, and research findings for dissemination at various fora.

Education and Experience 

  • Masters degree or equivalent in economics, statistics, public policy, engineering, social science, or related fields from a reputed institution 

  • 5 to 7 years relevant work experience, including research, basic quantitative analysis, client management (preferably with governments) and managerial experience 

  • Public service with a government (preferably state governments) or quasi-government body as a project manager, young professional, or fellow 

  • Familiarity with governance interventions in education / public health /nutrition/ local governance/ law and order/ livelihoods/ agriculture sectors would be a plus 

  • Project/ program management or implementation roles with governments, advisory entities, multilaterals, international development institutions or strategic philanthropy firms 

Personal Characteristics and Desired Qualities

  • Excellent problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, strong research aptitude ability to analyse complex quantitative and qualitative data and formulate solutions 

  • Excellent writing and communication skills (ability to communicate complex ideas in a meaningful way and across different audiences) within and outside the organisation

  • Demonstrated relationship-building ability and management of high-level relationships with partner organisations, ideally based on experience of working with Indian state governments 

  • Strong planning and organizational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines 

  • Passion for improving the effectiveness of Indian States, and alignment with CEGIS theory of change/ impact 

  • Operating style suited to working independently and in a small organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued 

  • Ability to work under pressure by handling competing priorities, strong planning and organizational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines, maintaining attention to detail and delivering high-quality outputs 

  • Ability to think creatively, willing to take risks to experiment with new ideas and the ability to turn ideas into action 

  • High ability to collaborate and actively listen to others, understanding and valuing others views 

  • Versatility to be comfortable taking on different projects and quickly dive into new sectors

Compensation:

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidates experience levels. 

Interested candidates are requested to submit their application here.

Note: CEGIS has zero tolerance to sexual harassment. We therefore expect each applicant to self-declare related to the same. CEGIS could, if required, initiate a prevention of sexual harassment-based background verification. If an applicant is reported of misconduct, appropriate action that may include employment termination would be taken. Please Click the link for self declaration.

Pre-reads for the application process:

Please go through the following materials before sending in your application: