Position Title: Consultant (For analysing the effectiveness of Women Managed Solar Irrigation

                          Systems

No of Position: 01

Reporting Line: Director – Strategic Partnerships & Systems

Location: Patna -Bihar (Consultant will  be required to travel to field as per need)

Duration: 15 days

About JTSP:

PCI is collaborating with Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) to provide Technical Assistance (TA) for Project JEEViKA, to build institutional capacity of the BRLPS/ JEEViKA teams at State, District, Block and Village level to develop a scalable JEEViKA model to integrate and promote maternal child health, family planning, nutrition, and sanitation activities through community platforms through JEEViKA Technical support Programme ( JTSP ). This TA is being provided by PCI with the grant support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since 2015, JTSP has played a significant role in testing, layering and integrating health and nutrition work into the business processes of JEEViKA. The key achievement of JTSP between 2015 and 2021 has been the successful integration of Health and Nutrition (HN) within the livelihood’s framework of JEEViKA, making it a model State Rural Livelihoods Mission, whose learning is being replicated in other states of India. JTSP since then, has been integrally involved in developing JEEViKA’s internal capacities, processes and strengthening systems. Under the systems strengthening objective of the project, PCI has been expanding its support to different thematic areas within JEEViKA through technical expertise possessed by the organization, in terms of project designing & modelling, measurement & evaluation and supporting with digital solutions for brisk communication across project geography.

The key elements of the current JTSP design and implementation is towards successful transition of the efforts undertaken so far in impacting HN outcomes to JEEViKA and its community institutions for ensuring a sustained engagement, strengthening capacity of its personnel at all levels, honing managerial skills and enhancing their operational capability to implement programmes effectively and efficiently across different verticals.

Therefore, as an effort to support the strategy designing & systems strengthening of the Farm vertical, PCI aspires to understand and assess the status and effectiveness of women managed solar irrigation projects undertaken by JEEViKA community institutions. The objective of this study is to deepen the understanding of the projects, its strategies and analyze the approaches that worked the best so that long term scale up plans can be designed based on previous learnings.

About JEEViKA

JEEViKA is India’s largest state level women’s socio-economic empowerment program, working directly with 10 million (1 Crore) families in rural Bihar and is one of the flagship programs for poverty alleviation by the Government of Bihar. The program aims at improvement in the quality of lives of rural households and thus improve well- being through a process of diversifying and enhancing household-level incomes and improve access to and use of services amongst rural households. JEEViKA is a successful model and the massive community outreach will require further support to result in digital transformation in rural Bihar. JEEViKA has set for itself a Vision to enhance coverage of more and more rural families into the SHG fold, escalate rural credit markets for enabling more productive investments, diversify livelihoods opportunities and upgrade the existing activities through technical support for better backward and forward linkages, foster and strengthen convergence with government programs, contribute more to the matters of high importance like Climate Change, Water Conservation, Access to Green Energy and Environment Protection, supplement extension services  and build on the existing entrepreneurial abilities of its member households.

The current emerging need is to revisit the System level support extended by its State, district and block offices while strengthening and nurturing leadership capacities of its community institutions thereby enabling them to lead, plan, review and supervise their own course/plan of action built around the vision that the Community institutions set for themselves. JEEViKA has identified clear contours and it is, thus, imperative that the system provides support in translating the vision into action through continued partnership and robust engagement with the Community institutions and its leadership coupled with the right kind of mentoring support.

As a foresighted approach, JTSP seeks support of a consultant to conduct a field-based study to get deeper insights into Women Managed solar irrigation projects that were undertaken by JEEViKA and or any other stakeholder in collaboration with JEEViKA in Bihar.

The proposed support from JTSP will enable JEEViKA to get greater insights into the implementation of such interventions, its sustainability status and would support the project in redesigning its approaches, if required.

Scope of the Assignment:

• Detailed discussions with JEEViKA Farm team to understand the project, its development objectives, implementation strategies around Women managed solar irrigation systems in Bihar.
• Interact with district & block officials of JEEViKA to seek their views on project execution and it’s on ground implementation methodologies.
• On field, focused interaction with the participant farmers & community cadres who have facilitated the execution of the projects to understand the input services received for introduction of Women managed Solar irrigation methods to enhance productivity by minimising the impact of weather.
• Undertake desk review of similar projects managed by community institutions in other SRLMs (preferably Jharkhand through AKRSP, JOHAR, JSLPS etc.). Reviewing their guidelines and reports and documents available.
• Referring & scrutinizing any study conducted by JEEViKA on these projects, independently or in collaboration with partners.

The Methodology followed to undertake these would primarily be discussions with JEEViKA state farm team, JEEViKA members who have been part of the project, other JEEViKA officials in districts & blocks along with reviewing related documents, IEC tools used to project implementation.

Deliverables:

Study report diagnosing the measures adopted under the Women managed solar interventions, strategies adopted to organise women farmers, technical inputs provided, current- status, feedback from participating women farmers in terms of benefits that were seen, reasons for success, challenges being faced and recommendations for sustenance or scale up.

EXPERIENCE, QUALIFICATION & SKILLS:

• The Consultant should hold a PG degree in Management or related fields.
• Experience as a researcher in the field of rural development would be an advantage, however, start-up agencies /freshers are also encouraged to apply.
• Hands on experience on policy analysis and project implementation.
• Excellent knowledge of agricultural projects run by Govt.of Bihar, World bank and others.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Hindi.
• Ability to deliver detailed analytical report.
• Experience of having undertaken at least one similar assignment in Bihar or familiarity with Bihar context will be given preference

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested candidates can apply for the position by 16th July,2022,10:00 pm.

PCI India is an equal opportunity provider and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability and/or marital status

Female candidates are encouraged to apply