Background

• Cater to the occupational aspirations of the rural youth who are poor; and 
  To diversify incomes of the rural poor.

Based on the experience gained so far from Aajeevika Skills, Roshni has been designed to meet the needs of young people in 27 most critical left-wing extremist affected districts. The objective of the Roshni scheme is to provide placement-linked skill development for rural youth in these 27 districts. This scheme will cover fifty thousand youth from these districts over the next three years. It will be implemented through training partners from the public as well as the private sector.   

UNDP is partnering with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) for the “Governance and Accelerated Livelihood Support” (GOALS) project which will focus on strengthening the effectiveness of key MoRD programmes to improve sustainable livelihoods in areas affected by left-wing extremism, helping improve the efficiency, accountability and inclusiveness of MGNREGP and NRLM; and helping “green” MGNREGP, NRLM and IAY. 

As part of its support to  improving sustainable livelihoods in areas affected by left-wing extremism, UNDP is looking for a dynamic individual for the position of Chief Operating Officer for the Roshni scheme.

• Delivers on its objectives; and
• Achieves its goals at state and district levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the skills and placement linked jobs initiatives of Aajeevika Skills to make skill development as an entitlement of the poor in the left-wing extremist affected districts;
• Review and overhaul skill development and training systems for improving existing occupations in left-wing extremist affected districts;
• Develop vibrant partnerships with various skill development organizations, the private sector, industry associations and sector specific employers’ associations in left-wing extremist affected districts;
• Prepare quarterly and annual reports to be submitted to GoI and UNDP;
• Perform any other related tasks consistent with the level of the post and/or assigned by the Joint Secretary, Aajeevika Skills and Programme Analyst, UNDP. 

• Understanding the needs and aspirations of the rural youth, particularly the poor and vulnerable;
• Building partnerships with implementing partners, government agencies at various levels, multilateral and bilateral donors;
• Forging linkages with the private sector industry and institutions;
• Talent acquisition, capacity building and team management;
• Coordinating Monitoring and Evaluation with the Technical Support Agencies (TSA);
• Coordinating proposal evaluation and approval processes;
• Resolution of implementation issues by coordinating with the implementing agencies, monitoring agencies and state governments and district administration;
• Addressing concerns of trainees, trainers, employers and Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs);
• Ensuring timely fund disbursal subject to fulfillment of project conditions;
• Providing policy and programmatic inputs.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

• 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.

• 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. Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of skill development and livelihood promotion;
•  Keeps abreast of new developments in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates extremely strong influencing and facilitation skills. Focuses on impact and result for the client, builds strong relationships with clients and external actors;
• Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Schedules activities to ensure optimum use of time and resources; monitors performance against development and other objectives and corrects deviations from the course;
• Capacity to gather comprehensive information on complex problems or situations; evaluates information accurately and identifies key issues required to resolve problems. Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
• 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;
• Ability to work independently and under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

• Graduate degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Political Science, others sciences, Rural Development, Development Studies or related field;
• Masters degree or a post graduate diploma in these fields will be desirable.

• A minimum of 7-8 years of experience in a senior level of responsibility at the state or national level in rural development, rural livelihoods, skill development and/or related fields;
• With minimum 2-3 years of experience in Leading large scale rural livelihoods promotion/skill development programmes; Coordination and facilitation of senior, complex teams and Providing management advisory services;
• Development and/or regulatory related experience in conflict areas are a must;
• Hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of rural development/skill development projects;  
• Knowledge about India’s development administration systems;
• Experience in handling partnerships including funding;
• 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.