Country Director- Evidence Action

About Client- Evidence Action

Evidence Action aims to be a world leader in scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest places. Last year Deworm the World reached 280 million people with deworming medications, partnering with governments to launch, scale, and sustain mass school-based deworming programs. Meanwhile, Dispensers for Safe Water provided 4M people across rural Africa with clean water, saving thousands of young lives. The approach relies on an innovative and human-centric design to deliver clean water at the source.

In addition to running these scaled programs, Evidence Action leverages its unique Accelerator to develop the next generation of programs. These programs are rigorously tested to ensure exceptional scale, cost-effectiveness, and clear evidence of impact. In 2019 we launched an ambitious new strategy, with the goal of doubling our impact over the next five years, with much of that impact coming from new programs identified and scaled through the Accelerator.

Evidence Action has a presence across 10 countries, with major offices in Nairobi, Kenya; Delhi, India; and Washington, D.C. Evidence Action’s programs have been recognized by GiveWell, the Skoll Foundation, the Life You Can Save, Giving What We Can, and covered in the Economist, NPR, and the New York Times.

In India, Evidence Action’s technical consultant EAII Advisors, provides technical assistance to national and select state government’s ministries of health, education, and women and child development to implement the school and anganwadi based National Deworming Day program to improve children’s health, education, and long-term development.

Job Purpose
The Country Director - India (CD) will be inspired by the mission of measurably improving the lifelong prospects of hundreds of millions of children across India through proven and scaled interventions. S/he will lead Evidence Action’s implementing partner’s operations
and programs in India. The CD will be a dynamic and energetic leader. S/he will be adept at engaging governments, including existing partnerships with the national government and 11 state governments, which together reach hundreds of millions of children with deworming and iron and folic acid (IFA) supplements through a technical assistance model. S/he will be an exceptional people leader, setting a team culture characterized by high levels of empowerment, achievement, and accountability. The CD will bring strong strategic and analytical capabilities, including comfort using data to continuously measure and improve highly successful and large-scale programming. Leading an exciting and growing program, s/he will also oversee the expansion of current programming into new health arenas based on rigorous evidence of impact.

S/he will oversee program implementation in India, including strategic planning, operations, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and policy advocacy. The CD will facilitate transparent communication about progress and results to the global leadership team, donors, and other stakeholders. The CD will also play a leading role in expanding Evidence Action’s portfolio in India by identifying new program opportunities and engaging with prospective donors.

The CD must be proficient at handling state-based programs, managing donor-funded projects, liaising with government stakeholders, budgeting, program design and development, and review and evaluation. S/he should have the skills to supervise and guide a large program office with an employee-centric approach and progressive company policies and processes. S/he will be supported by a management team in Delhi and provide oversight and direction for the national and 11 state teams. The Country Director will uphold Evidence Action’s core pillars of evidence, cost-effectiveness, and scale throughout programs and operations.

Scope of Work:
Partnership Development and Management
● Lead efforts to identify, engage and advocate with key government officials at the national and state-level (including from the Departments of Health, Education, and Women and Child Development) to maintain a high level of government support and commitment for programs, including facilitating government approvals as needed.
● Coordinate with government, NGO, and technical partners to ensure alignment and share results and best practices from programs.
● Serve as a well-respected external representative, including cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with high- and mid-level government officials and other key stakeholders, including technical agencies, NGOs, funders, and other partners.

Donor Liaison
● Maintain positive relationships with existing donor partners.
● Identify new program opportunities that are backed by rigorous evidence, cost-effective, and have the potential for large-scale impact, aligned with Evidence Action’s core principles. In collaboration with global leadership and program leads, identify prospective donors and engage with them on these opportunities.
● Work with Evidence Action’s global teams to develop concept notes and proposals, budgets, and progress reports.

Strategic Planning and Policy Advocacy
● Develop strategic recommendations aligned with at-scale government school health programs and execute approved strategy and plans in coordination with Evidence Action’s leadership team.
● Ensure state and national teams design program components to align with government efforts to improve and integrate programs with a high commitment to quality and effectiveness.
● Identify and assess the benefits and risks associated with partnerships led by the government as the key stakeholder, and develop a plan for delivering benefits and strategies to mitigate risks and resolve issues.
● Ensure state teams plan and organize a broad range of advocacy efforts, such as stakeholder meetings and campaigns to disseminate program activities and impacts.
● Supervise the M&E and state teams to build robust field operations systems, especially related to drug logistics and independent monitoring. Responsible for implementation of the M&E strategy developed by the Evidence Action MLE Strategy team in consultation with the EAII M&E team.
● Oversee management of contracts and budgets, with ultimate responsibility for ensuring programs are implemented within budget and conducted per donor requirements.
● Identify human resource needs and implement robust recruitment processes to attract highly qualified staff and consultants.
● Oversee development of strategies to communicate programmatic work and impact and guide the team in their implementation.

Technical Assistance and Program Management
● Work with both national and state teams to formulate annual work-plans and budgets.
● Review reports on program activities and finances quarterly to identify and correct performance issues.
● Ensure strong systems for program monitoring and evaluation and conduct strategic reviews to ensure that programs achieve optimal impact, making course corrections as needed.
● Review the implementation of a deworming operations plan within the agreed project scope.
● Carry out field visits to state offices to provide program and technical support as needed.
● Ensure support for state governments and state teams in planning and implementing preschool and school-based deworming rounds.
● Oversee the budget available to programs in line with standing financial instructions. Anticipate potential financial challenges to projects and seek advice and support as required from Evidence Action’s CFO and finance team.
● Analyze and assess project performance, capacity, and demand data to inform changes to project plans.
● Guide development of program documentation, including work plans, budgets, best practices, and reports for donor submissions.
● Ensure completed assessment, evaluation, and documentation processes; including resource guides and best practices.

Others
● Undertake other duties as necessary and assigned.