Program Manager – Restoration Planning and Implementation, Chhattisgarh, Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration – World Resources Institute (WRI)

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is hiring a Program Manager for Restoration Planning and Implementation in Chhattisgarh, India. The role focuses on restoring landscapes to support livelihoods and enhance environmental well-being. Candidates should have an advanced degree in forestry or natural resource management and at least eight years of relevant experience. WRI India aims to promote sustainable development through research and practical solutions.
World Resources Institute (WRI) WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. We organize our work around six critical goals that the world must achieve this decade in order to secure a sustainable future: Climate: Protect communities and natural ecosystems from damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and generate opportunities for people by catalyzing a global transition to a low-carbon economy. Energy: Drive the scale-up of clean, affordable power systems throughout the world to deliver sustainable socio-economic development. Food: Ensure the world’s food systems reduce their impact on the environment, drive economic opportunity, and sustainably feed 9.6 billion people by 2050. Forests: Alleviate poverty, enhance food security, conserve biodiversity, and mitigate climate change by reducing forest loss and restoring productivity to degraded, deforested lands. Water: Achieve a water-secure future by mapping, measuring, and mitigating global water risks. Cities and Transport: Improve quality of life in cities by developing and scaling environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable urban and transport solutions. We design solutions for and analyze these six critical goals through the lenses of our three Centers of Excellence which focus on Governance, Business and Finance.

Who we are and what we do?

WRI India, an independent charity legally registered as the India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. WRI India’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being.

We are inspired by and associated with World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research organization. Currently over 150 researchers are working with WRI India in our offices at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

About your role:

WRI India’s Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration program aims to protect, maintain and restore landscapes to secure the livelihoods of 700 million people directly dependent on forests and agriculture and strengthen India’s environmental well-being. As part of this program, WRI India aims to catalyze a political and social movement to restore vitality to fragmented, un-productive and deteriorated landscapes in India. These lands can be restored into healthy mosaics of sustainable agriculture, agroforestry landscapes (or mixed-forest agriculture), and restored forest ecosystems generating economic, ecological, and social benefits to people and planet. While restoration involves improvements to physical landscapes, a diversity of people must be at the center of the solutions.

WRI India is looking to recruit a State Manager, with an advanced degree in in forestry, natural resource management and at least eight years of full-time, relevant post-study work experience to strengthen the enabling ecosystem for implementing landscape restoration in Chhattisgarh as a critical Nature-based Solution (NbS).

With their knowledge of landscape-level programme implementation in India, the candidate will support key outcomes of the project focusing on convergence or dovetailing of financial resources from different schemes and departments that can support implementation of landscape restoration in the State. They will also contribute to building capacities, identifying barriers to restoration through robust analysis, business acceleration, and monitoring.

The candidate will work closely with the Department of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (DP&RD) and/or Department of Forest (DoF), Government of Chhattisgarh (GoC) and with other relevant state government departments, implementation partners, other civil society organizations (CSO) in the region, and staff from WRI India. The candidate will support developing a scaling strategy for landscape restoration as an NbS in selected district(s) of Chhattisgarh. The candidate will provide strategic guidance to leverage enabling conditions, identify bottlenecks around incentives for landscape restoration and help to prepare a roadmap with potential solutions for scaling landscape restoration in Chhattisgarh.

This position involves a combination of leading collaborative planning processes and conducting targeted policy dialogues to inform decision-makers on how to design, develop or improve policies to increase the pace of restoration in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Further, this position will play a key role, through coordination, robust research and analysis to bring together key experts and decision-makers to better understand what factors hinder policies from reaching implementation and their intended objectives and develop pathways for more efficient and cost-effective policy implementation. The position requires a comprehensive understanding of incentives, schemes, and regulations related to landscape restoration interventions in the context of the needs of policymakers.

The position is most suited to an individual willing to take on the challenge of a new, fast-growing, and developing work program. Please note that the position holder must be willing to travel, including in remote areas with difficult terrain.

How your day will unfold:

I. Project Coordination and Partnership Development (40%)
• Support the scaling of landscape restoration in selected district(s) of Chhattisgarh and provide technical support to implementation partners to develop and implement landscape restoration programmes.
• Represent WRI India in meetings with the government, project consortia, and other partners. Share approaches, best practices, and lessons learned from WRI’s landscape work for smooth implementation.
• Facilitate setting up and coordinate activities of the steering committee at the state level.
• Facilitate the coordination of WRI India’s technical assistance in the development and implementation of the landscape restoration plan as necessary:

a. Maintain close contacts with partners, ensuring adequate communication of landscape activities across all stakeholders including government, private sector, and NGO partners. Foster multi-stakeholder participation, with particular emphasis to local communities.

b. Interact closely with the project implementation partner to develop plans for MGNREGS investments for landscape restoration that are consolidated and approved for implementation along with establishing monitoring systems for the same.

c. Facilitate connections with relevant stakeholders at the state-level and the local- level for project deliverables, especially for the restoration dialogues.

II. Research, Monitoring, and Capacity-Building (40%)
• Lead the design and launch of the Restoration Dialogues in Chhattisgarh. This will entail the exchange of experiences on policy instruments for landscape restoration; among various government institutions, experts, CSOs participating in the program with an aim to devise innovative solutions to reduce barriers to the implementation of restoration.
• Identify key experts/mentors through the knowledge network.
• Support with data analysis of knowledge products on restoration policies, policy incentives for landscape restoration in Chhattisgarh, India, and globally with focus on the socio-ecological and economic impact of these policies.
• Support the identification of incentives for and barriers to landscape restoration in collaboration with leading policy innovators and mentors.
• Provide capacity building and training support to program partners in understanding frameworks and tools developed for landscape-level interventions.
• Identify potential uses of landscape restoration monitoring tools in policy analysis and its scaling, emphasizing inclusive and participatory monitoring tools and approaches.
• Support the drafting of reports and peer-review manuscripts, case studies, outreach materials, presentations, and blogs.
• Present complex information clearly and concisely and communicate research and non-research findings to focused and diverse audiences such as governments, the private sector, and community-based organizations.
• Represent WRI India’s work in internal meetings and external conferences.

III. Programme Development and Strategy (20%)
• Identify opportunities for scaling implementation and contribute to scaling efforts, including identifying sources of funding, field sites and partners.
• Identify opportunities for fundraising and contribute to fundraising efforts, including pitching ideas, writing proposals, and developing multi-year project proposals.
• Lead planning, monitoring and reporting of related projects.

Qualifications and requirements we seek:
• Master’s degree in Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Development Studies or related fields, with an understanding of their application in the fields of forestry, restoration, land use planning and management in India.
• Understanding of landscape restoration approach and familiarity with restoration related policies, schemes and programmes in Chhattisgarh and in India.
• Minimum 8 years of full-time work experience in implementation and/or management of landscape restoration or natural resources management project.
• Prior experience and demonstrated ability in partnership-building and coordination of activities between different stakeholders (government agencies, NGOs, private sector at all levels) in Chhattisgarh essential.
• Fluency in English, Hindi, and (working knowledge of) Chhattisgarhi.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Familiarity with environmental policy analysis and social impact measurements.
• Ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and work with minimal oversight.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholder groups.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Knowledge of research methods and policy analysis frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently as well as part of a team in a high-performance environment.

Salary and Benefits: INR 15,00,000 to INR 18,00,000 CTC

Salary shall be commensurate with experience and skills. WRI offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package.

Location: Chhattisgarh, India

Duration: The position is a one-year position (extendable based on performance and project requirements). The start date is as soon as possible.

List of Documents to be attached:
• Cover letter
• Resume
• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for interview purpose.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India

WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.

Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here

People-centric to the core:

We keep our people at the centre of everything we do – from a welcoming work environment to benefits and a culture that encourages staff to stay healthy, happy, engaged, and growing.

Some of the non-monetary benefits that our staff get:

Health benefits: We cover health insurance for you and your loved ones for up to INR 8 lakhs

Term Insurance: Our term insurance policy covers life coverage of 50 lakhs per staff member

Employee Assistance program: Promoting mental well-being and supporting staff in achieving a satisfying work-life balance

Digital healthcare service: Online doctor consultations for your primary healthcare needs

Flexible work schedule: Alternative work arrangements for all who are eligible by nature of their job

Learning culture: Workshops and trainings to empower staff, encourage new learning opportunities

Rest and Recharge weeks: We encourage staff to take time off to rest, rejuvenate, upskill, and pursue their interests.

Our leave policy: Avail personal time off at 36 per year, along with public holidays, maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves.

Click here to know more about our benefits Careers | WRI INDIA (wri-india.org)

Equal employment @WRI India

We believe in equal employment, it is our policy to recruit, and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to caste, religion, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability.