Background

Government of India has launched in June 2011 “National Rural Livelihood Mission” (NRLM) after restructuring its existing centrally sponsored flagship Scheme “Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana” (SGSY). This has been done in view of the shortcomings pointed out by various independent evaluation/research studies and recommendations by various committees and the experience of implementation of the programme in the last ten years. The NRLM functions in a mission mode for target based time bound delivery of outcomes following a demand driven approach which would allow the states to formulate their own poverty alleviation plans on the basis of available allocation, resources and skills. The Budget requirement for NRLM is Rs. 20, 000 crore for the 12th plan.
 
UNDP is partnering with National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) to extend technical support for effective and inclusive implementation of the programme in various states. Towards this, UNDP will support (a) positioning professional managers and domain experts to improve implementation at the state level; (b) strengthening the social mobilisation in favour of women from persistently excluded groups; and (c) developing and testing of context-specific, market-led, livelihood strategies that will enable institutions of the poor women to secure their role in markets and supply chains and ensure higher and sustained returns. 
 
The central objective of the Mission is to eliminate rural poverty through innovative implementation strategies involving mobilization and organization of the rural poor, especially women, into sustainable community based organizations (CBOs) and their financial and economic inclusion. The community institutional architecture of NRLM comprises of women Self Help Groups (SHGs) from among rural poor households, and their federated institutions at the village and higher levels. In addition, NRLM encourages livelihoods and entitlements based organizations of the poor. The four key components of the Mission are: (i) social inclusion; (ii) building and nurturing strong institutions of the poor - particularly women, through social mobilization and institution and human capacity building; (iii) financial literacy and inclusion; and (iv) economic inclusion through livelihood promotion and diversification.
 
Financial institutions have a major role to play in making NRLM a success.  According to the latest NABARD report, 45% of the existing SHGs in the country have not accessed the credit linkage, even once. NRLM seeks to bridge this gap through efficient collaboration with the financial institutions while working on building the capacity of the demand side. NRLM will invest approximately Rs.12000 spread over 6–8 years for each household brought into the organization fold. This will be in women SHG formation, nurturing the SHGs, building their federations, seed capital to SHG federations, skilling, livelihoods promotion, etc. With this investment, NRLM seeks a leverage of 1:8 from the financial institutions. The vision is to make a minimum amount of Rs.1,00,000 accessible to every household in repeat doses over 6–8 years, through the financial institutions. In addition, NRLM will work towards enabling the rural poor to access a complete range of financial services – savings, insurance, remittances, etc.
 
As part of its support to NRLM, UNDP is looking for a dynamic individual to lead the Financial Inclusion Unit of the National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) at NRLM, New Delhi.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of Mission Director, NRLM and Programme Analyst, UNDP, the Lead, Financial Inclusion has the responsibility for the following tasks:

  • Build strategy and implementation plan to promote SHG –Bank linkage;
  • Develop other financial services and products like savings, insurance etc. for the SHGs and their federations;
  • Develop Strategy and implementation plan for the roll out of the Interest Subvention scheme;
  • Design and implement ICT applications for the delivery of financial services to the SHG and their federations;
  • Assess the training needs of a large number of project staff being positioned at national, state, district and block level  on financial inclusion component and design strategy for capacity building of the national, state, district and block level  project functionaries;
  • Liaise with academic and training institutions for delivering the capacity building strategy of the project staff;
  • Liaise with Banks for ensuring a strong SHG Bank linkage program;
  • Develop a capacity building strategy for the community based organizations on financial inclusion;
  • Provide technical assistance to various state missions on financial inclusion;
  • Perform any other related tasks consistent with the level of the post and/ or assigned by the Mission Director, NRLM and Programme Analyst, UNDP.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies: 
  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism and discrimination.

Core Competencies:                                                                 

  • Demonstrates/safeguards ethics and integrity; 
  • Builds staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
  • Builds and promotes effective teams using mentoring and conflict resolution skills;
  • Works as a team member;
  • Facilitates and encourages open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
  • Demonstrates corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
  • Self-development, initiative-taking;
  • Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
  • Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking;
  • Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
Functional Competencies:
  • Ability to build and sustain effective partnerships with Government Agencies and main constituents, advocate; effectively, communicate sensitively across different constituencies;
  • Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances;
  • Good research and analytical skills including skills in data analysis and report writing;
  • Ability to explain the objectives of the assignment in a focused and strategic manner to a varied audience;
  • Ability to plan and organise work programme for self and others;
  • Consultative and collaborative capacities;
  • Ability to work under supervision as well as with self-initiative & motivation;
  • Acts as a team player, facilitates team work and shares knowledge with others;
  • Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Generates new ideas and approaches, researches and documents best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
  • Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view;
  • Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
  • Good communication, interpersonal and presentation skills, with an ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master’s Degree or equivalent in Economics, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Rural Development, Rural Management, Business Management, Development Studies or related field.
Experience:
  • Minimum 15 years of relevant experience at the national or international level in Analytical, and policy advisory work in financial sector development, financial inclusion, micro-finance and economic policy;  
  • With minimum 2-3 years of experience in developing financial inclusion policy/programs, development, designing and implementation of financial products and services relevant for the poor and Capacity Building;     
  • Experience of engaging with senior executives of the financial sectors;
  • Proven experience of dealing with various technical service provider agencies and managing partnership with them;
  • Proven track record of working with state/central government programmes;
  • Excellent exposure and experience of working for rural poor communities;
  • International experience in the above fields is desirable;
  • Good understanding of development issues such as human development, inclusive development, gender, participation;
  • Experience in applying a rights based approach to development programming;
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.). Advanced knowledge of spread sheet, database and research packages will be an asset;
  • Willingness to travel extensively.
Language:
  • Proficiency in spoken and written English. A good command over Hindi and any state language/s is an asset.