State Lead, Economic Inclusion Program, Bhopal

Place of Posting -

About The/Nudge:

The/Nudge is an action institute building resilient livelihoods to alleviate poverty. We work with women, farmers, tribals and youth on rural development, agriculture, skilling and economic inclusion, along with 15+ central and state government partners.

Our economic inclusion journey for 25 million Indians, has reached 10 states with $250M of government funding to cover 1.25M people. Our incubator, accelerator and grand challenges have supported 200+ social entrepreneurs including 17 Forbes 30U30, 3 EarthShot Prize winners, 1 Time Magazine cover and more.

Set up with support from 90+ eminent philanthropists , 40+ corporates and 15+ foundations including Gates, Mackenzie Scott, Vinod Khosla, Nandan Nilekani, Tata Trusts, Skoll, Meta, LinkedIn, HDFC, Mphasis, KPMG and L'Oreal, we are contributing towards a "poverty-free India, within our lifetime".

Who are we solving for?

We are solving for households in poverty who are also financially and socially vulnerable through a targeted, multi-faceted, and sequenced model called the graduation approach, which has demonstrated that we can durably pull households out of poverty.

What are we solving for ?

At The/Nudge Institute, we have been piloting this program for the past 3 years and are in the process of catalyzing the propagation of the same. Our purpose is to contribute to making the most excluded individuals a contributing member to the economy:

• Enable govt to adopt by providing research, design, and implementation support
• Continue to implement on its own to iterate the design for impact at scale
• Enable more NGOs to adopt technical and capacity-building support
• Continue to generate data on poverty and evidence on graduation approach to nudge governments to adopt at-scale
• Build technology solutions for NGOs and governments to adopt and implement at scale & with quality.

What will you do?

Position Overview:

The/Nudge is working with the DAY-NRLM, MoRD, Govt. of India and Madhya Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (MPSRLM), Govt. of MP, to help increase adoption of the graduation approach/ economic inclusion program by targeting the most vulnerable households, through community institutions. As part of this effort, a State Project Management Unit (SPMU) is being set up at MPSRLM, Bhopal, to help the Government of Madhya Pradesh to design and implement a special program called- ‘Madhya Pradesh - Samaveshi Aajeevika Yojana’ (MP-SAY). This position is for the SPMU at Bhopal, MP-SRLM and will report to the Head of Operations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership to The/Nudge’s PMU efforts in the State by creating an agency-ship for The/Nudge in Madhya Pradesh
• Should lead all operations and products concerning this program and cont. Work with all stakeholders, importantly with the Government, to scale up the program
• Work closely with all necessary Departments to ensure the timely flow of budgets for the smooth running of the operations on the ground
• Ensure 100% adherence to the stationary compliances, reporting, and documentation as described/ prescribed by the Government and The/Nudge
• Support MPSRLM in the research and development of a strategy and program design to target the ultra-poor through the ‘Graduation Approach’/ ‘Economic Inclusion Program’ built on top of community institutions enabled by the MPSRLM/DAY-NRLM
• Support MPSRLM in planning the activities, orientation to necessary activities and its regular implementation along with proper monitoring
• Support MPSRLM in the implementation of action research of the graduation approach through a special project based on the strategy and design developed in consultation with key stakeholders
• Enable convergence of various state initiatives (social security, livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, social empowerment) and programs towards the end goal of graduating women and their households living in ultra-poverty out of it.
• Own the implementation and outcomes of the special project
• Support MPSRLM and the DAY-NRLM review the progress of the special project periodically in order to iterate and scale
• Support the mission on the use of data and technology to ensure continuous flow of data from the field
• Build relationships with key government stakeholders in MPSRLM such that the special project is successful
• Build relationships with key government departments and support the successful adoption of strategies targeting the ultra-poor
• Continue working for the learning and development of the team working in this program

Qualifications and Skills:

• About 12+ of experience and is a Postgraduate
• Demonstrated a growth mindset - learning/improving constantly
• Demonstrated success in starting and leading initiatives, working under uncertainty & able to articulate the vision and secure buy-in from stakeholders
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Fluent in English & local language
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• The ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholder groups in a fast-paced environment
• Set aside personal bias to do what is right for the community
• Experience in designing/managing multi-stakeholder development sector programs designed around (or with) SHGs, Community Institutions and MPSRLM
• An openness to travel extensively and live in designated districts/blocks/panchayats as per the needs of the program’s goals
• A passion for serving those in need with humility & sensitivity

What’s in it for you?

• Own your growth:

  An impact-led learning environment encourages Nudgesters to invest in their learning and capacity-building needs through initiatives and policies, including an L&D wallet, individual development plans, and internal role change opportunities.

• Find your tribe:

  Our hiring philosophy emphasises intent, attitude, smarts and skills, in that order, to build a cohesive environment for Nudgesters. The organisation is committed to curating people-centric policies, enhancing how employees experience life at The/Nudge.

• Take big bets:

  Organisational initiatives are intended to facilitate Nudgesters with a view to the big picture, illustrated by our impact across 50000+ households, 15+ governments, 200+ social enterprises and Charcha: India’s largest social sector convening forum.

• Make it happen:

  A product-based approach in an action-biased environment empowers Nudgesters to implement audacious plans. Driven to fail fast, we endeavour to optimise resources in favour of programs that align with our scale ambition.

You can learn more about what we do and how we do it through this deck.

We aspire to be an inclusive and diverse organization and encourage qualified individuals irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity, to apply.