Job Description:
Position Summary
The Senior Program Associate will support project teams in developing monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans for their respective projects in alignment with the project logframes. As the projects will be involved with departments engaged in frontline service delivery (health, education, ECD, etc.), the work will include field research and engagement. The Senior Program Associate should have demonstrable experience in conducting monitoring and evaluation studies on the ground and have an in-depth understanding of the logistics and methodologies of impact and process assessments of projects. The Senior Program Associate will collaborate closely with the project teams across CEGIS states.
Key Responsibilities
- Support in designing and finalising the logframes for projects in collaboration with the respective project teams
- Design cost-effective and feasible Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plans for the identified projects, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods and leveraging administrative data systems
- Identifying local partners for engaging in MEL studies and assessments in relevant states
- Assist in developing measurement and analysis protocols for the project(s)
- Support with data analysis and creating high-quality outputs for dissemination
- Create MEL protocols and toolkits for use by project teams
- Manage all the primary, secondary, and administrative data by strictly following data management and security protocols
- Develop a sound understanding of the client (Government)s issues and understand the relevance of the interventions (project) to these issues
Required Qualifications
Education and Experience
- Masters degree (or equivalent preferred) in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, or related fields from a reputed institution
- Minimum 3 years work experience in India with organisations working in monitoring and evaluation related fields of work i.e., research agencies, policy think-tanks, government or private sector organisations working on government advisory or consulting
- Demonstrable experience in conducting MEL for long-term projects (preferably for projects involving government collaboration)
- Strong data analysis skills using statistical software such as STATA, R, or any other data analysis software
- Demonstrated fieldwork experience in India (rural and/or urban)
- Prior experience and/or knowledge of experimental and non-experimental research methods
- Prior experience with and/or knowledge of qualitative research methods
- Technical expertise in costing and budgeting for MEL activities
Desired Skills and Competencies
- Fluency in English, both written and spoken
- Excellent problem-solving skills, with an aptitude for research to formulate solutions
- Excellent writing and communication skills (ability to communicate complex ideas in a meaningful way and across different audiences)
- Ability to set priorities, plan timelines, and meet deadlines
- Ability to think creatively, willing to take risks to experiment with new ideas, and the ability to turn ideas into action
- Ability to collaborate and actively listen to others, understand and value others views
- Operating style suited to working independently and in a small-organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued
Location and Compensation
Location: New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, or Bangalore
Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidates experience levels.
Pre-reads for the application process
Please go through the following materials before sending in your application:
A glimpse into life at CEGIS - CEGIS Retreat 2024
Podcast episodes with Prof. Karthik Muralidharan one each on education and healthcare in India.
You are also encouraged to read more of Prof. Karthik Muralidharans work here and through his book Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Indias Development.
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 institutionalize 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.
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.