Senior Program Associate

WRI India is seeking a Senior Project Associate to join the Climate Resilience Practice (CRP) team in India. The Associate will support the vision of CRP to help different tiers of the government, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders to mainstream climate change into development planning and policies for the state of Tamil Nadu. 

WRI’s CRP team engages in a diverse body of work. The current projects build on a foundation of almost 10 years of work on climate change adaptation, much of which was conducted by a prior incarnation known as the Vulnerability & Adaptation Initiative. CRP has developed path-setting knowledge products to assess national institutional capacity and support civil society to enhance resilience efforts at the scale required.

This position is a unique opportunity for those wishing to be at the forefront of cutting-edge research and implementation in the field of climate change planning, institutional capacity building and mobilizing finance for climate action. The Associate will join a team of highly motivated individuals at CRP and work closely with key government stakeholders in the state to train and build institutional capacity to mainstream climate change (adaptation and mitigation) into the state’s overall development planning. The candidate will be housed in the department of environment (DoE) with the TN government, and engage in day-to-day coordination to support the state government in planning and implementation of their climate change agenda.

How your day will unfold: 

• Research & Knowledge
• Support in designing a training module and implementing capacity building workshops at state, district and city level on mainstreaming climate change and climate proofing sectoral development plans
• Developing frameworks for integrating climate adaptation and resilience actions with district and city plans and budgets, specifically in Tamil Nadu
• Support the development of key climate adaptation strategies and investment plans for states
• Support research on climate finance and mobilizing resources for adaptation activities
• Support the conceptualization and development of concept notes for funding climate change projects for states
• Helping pilot test frameworks and tools that help states prioritise climate actions to be mainstreaming with development budgets
• Leads the work at the city level with sufficient knowledge on urban planning and budgets
• Supporting field visits for the climate smart villages
• Undertake field visits as necessary to the relevant priority districts for gathering information and feedback from diverse stakeholders
• Providing technical support to states, districts and cities in developing and evaluating nature based solutions for climate action
• Collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data
• Contribute to knowledge products and working papers
• Providing support to other CRP projects as and when required
• Administrative
• Liaising with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders as well as other key identified partners
• Planning and implementing state level training programmes for key stakeholders.
• Organizing internal and external meetings, workshops, conferences and other dissemination activities.
• Supporting the state Department of Environment in developing relevant government orders. Notifications as per their demand, with support from the team 

Qualifications and Requirements we seek:

Required Qualifications: 

• Master’s Degree in Economics, Environment, Natural Resource Economics, Climate Change, Development Studies or related discipline.
• Between 5-7 years of relevant fulltime research work experience in related domains
• Expert knowledge of international, national and sub-national climate change policy landscape (SAPCC, NAPCC, NDC, NAP, city climate action plans)
• A good understanding of the government budget planning process and public finance management
• Prior work experience at the sub-national level and liasoning with state governments
• Prior work experience in the state of Tamil Nadu
• Ability to undertake complex quantitative and qualitative analysis of large data sets
• Willingness to travel for work and conduct field visits on a regular basis and on short notice
• Ability to work independently and shoulder responsibility
• An analytical and creative mind who can come up with innovative solutions to tackle complex problems
• Fluency in English, Tamil and Hindi required

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience in writing reports and publishing papers on climate change policy
• Strong, proven track record on climate finance research, in particular a firm grasp on public budgetary processes across different sectors at national and sub-national levels
• Prior work experience with research organizations, particularly field level experience
• Prior experience in engaging and interacting with governmental agencies and sectors, and networking with other key stakeholders from the environmental and developmental space.
• Prior experience with building and reviewing concept notes/proposals for Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund and other avenues of climate finance.

Source: https://jobs.jobvite.com/wri/job/oTNdvfw8