Job Description:
Overview:
Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS pronounced See-Jis) aims to improve lives by helping Indian state governments deliver better development outcomes. In order to augment State Capacities, work of CEGIS can be categorised into Four Themes or Pillars Outcome Measurement (OM), Personnel Management (PM), Strategic Public Finance (SPF) & State and Markets (SAM).
CEGIS work under the theme of State and Market (SAM) focuses on improving state capacity for better management of State interfaces with the larger market, especially in service delivery functions. The focus of the SAM team is to identify points of interaction between the Government and the Private Sector and to support States in reducing the frictions in such transactions. We work with State Governments in three capacities:
- Procurement: Improving procurement policies, processes, and decisions to improve value for money in public procurement
- Policy: Development of sectoral policy to incentivize cost effective service delivery, through the most appropriate models
- Regulation: Assessment of market failures and design and execution of proportionate regulatory interventions to address these
Of the above, currently the Procurement area dominates the portfolio of the SAM team with strong traction from multiple States. While the above work will be focused on CEGIS core sectors (education, health, nutrition, local governance), some streams like procurement have a broader sectoral coverage. Our projects will involve elements of research and analytics, market efficiency assessment, regulatory capacity assessment, and active support to Finance and line departments in reforms adoption. This will involve both quantitative and qualitative skills. This will, among other things, entail:
- Conducting market assessments including identification of market failures (information asymmetry, market power, externalities, deadweight losses)
- Conducting assessment of State capacity on policy, provision and regulation, through benchmarking, assessment of rules, systems and procedures, and primary interactions with key stakeholders
- Quantitative assessments of cost effectiveness across different models of service delivery, including use of methods such as Value for Money assessments (VfM) and Public Sector Comparator (PSC) analysis
- Interactions with non-state actors (for Profits and Civil Society Organisations) to assess their offerings, constraints and operating ecosystem.
- Developing deep understanding of the Procurement Systems and practices across the States in which CEGIS has presence, as well as global/local best practices.
Position Summary:
The Program Manager - SAM is required to play an important role in contextualising and executing the CEGIS vision across States. The role will involve working closely with the other team members and the relevant State teams, and collaborating with the other CEGIS teams. The Program Manager will be jointly reporting to the Lead, SAM and the relevant State Lead(s).
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Supporting the State Governments in Implementing/Strengthening Digital Tools in Project Planning, Procurement systems, & Contract Management.
- Coordinate with the relevant Government officials for smooth implementation of interventions on which CEGIS is supporting the State Government.
- Research on problem statements identified by the State Governments.
- Guide the Associates in execution of assignments.
- Take lead in development of Knowledge Outputs for SAM and the Company.
Project Management and Supervision:
- Plan and allocate resources effectively.
- Create and revise work plans and project goals.
- Provide guidance, direction, and management to associates for efficient execution of projects.
- Identify and mitigate conflicts and risks.
- Ensure timely course correction when necessary.
- Contribute to knowledge products and documents.
- Review documentation for accuracy and reusability.
- Review the Quality of work and deliverables of the Associates.
- Manage government relationships with bureaucratic leadership at the highest level.
Documentation:
- Gather insights from subject-matter experts and industry specialists.
- Create Internal reports/documents for projects under execution for training and reporting purposes as well as to create institutional memory on projects.
- Facilitate access to administrative data and conduct necessary analysis.
Stakeholder Engagement and Communication:
- Coordinate with key stakeholders for transparent communication.
- Anticipate stakeholder needs and negotiate expectations.
- Prepare detailed presentations and documents for stakeholders.
Collaboration and Partnerships:
- Build and maintain relationships internally and externally.
- Collaborate with academics and stakeholders for research adaptation.
- Work closely with senior academics and government stakeholders to tailor procurement/regulatory/policy design and implementation protocols to local contexts.
Education and Experience:
- Masters degree or equivalent in economics, statistics, public policy, management, engineering, social science, or related fields from a reputed institution
- Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in Government Advisory, Social Impact Sector, including research, basic quantitative analysis, client management (preferably with governments) and team management
- Experience in at least one of the areas of public procurement or service regulation is highly desirable
- Sectoral exposure to one or more of the following - education and skills, healthcare, infrastructure, and local government is desirable.
Required Skills, Characteristics and Qualities:
- Knowledge of Procurement processes and experience in use of/ advising Public Sector entities in the use of e-procurement platform(s).
- Fluency in English and basic to intermediate proficiency in one of the South Indian regional languages is an added benefit.
- 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
- Strong planning and organisational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines.
- Ability to manage teams from diverse backgrounds including working closely with Government (Department) stakeholders to ensure smooth project delivery.
- Passion for improving the effectiveness of Indian States, and alignment with CEGISs 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 organisational 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.
- Demonstrated relationship-building ability and management of high-level relationships with partner organizations, ideally based on experience of working with Indian state governments.
- Understanding of experimental and non-experimental research methods, including design and implementation of field sample surveys is an added advantage.
Location:
CEGIS is looking for suitable candidates for this role in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Program Manager may also be required to travel to partner states for supporting in project delivery.
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:
- 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 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.
Funding Partners
TCF-https://theconvergencefoundation.org
NATCO- https://www.natcopharma.co.in/
Veddis Foundation- https://veddis.org/
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation- https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation- https://www.dell.org/