Senior Project Associate- Gender and Social Inclusion ,Climate Program, WRI India

Senior Project Associate Gender and Social Inclusion - Climate Program

WRI India

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.

Program Overview for Climate

At WRI India's Climate Program, we focus on integrated solutions that can enable a low carbon transition in India while ensuring that the transition is equitable and just for its people and protects natural resources. Through applied research, the use of frameworks and tools, partnerships with key stakeholders, and ground-level implementation, we seek to achieve impact at scale.

About Your Role

India has set for itself ambitious decarbonization targets that can put the country on a low carbon development pathway. While this climate ambition must also ensure that India meets its developmental targets and raises the standard of living of all its people, climate change impacts are already affecting communities and must be addressed. Additionally, while low carbon shifts in our energy systems, industries, and transport can bring in better economic, job, and development outcomes at the aggregate levels, if not managed well, they could also disproportionately and negatively impact the livelihoods of the most vulnerable, including informal workers, small businesses, low-income households, and women.

This is particularly critical for Indian MSME sector, which employs 110 million workers and contributes 30% to India's economy. Almost 99.5% of registered MSME units fall under the micro or small enterprise category, while a majority belong to the informal economy, making it difficult for them to access formal channels for financial and other support or to connect to the global or national markets. Therefore, MSMEs will need support to adapt to climate change impacts, implement climate actions to remain competitive, and adapt to the industry and policy trends moving India towards a clean energy economy through skilling, technology change, and access to adequate finance.

Taking cognizance of such potential impacts in planning and implementing low carbon climate policies and undertaking measures to minimize and manage such impacts is critical to ensure that India's low carbon transition is also just and equitable. In this regard, WRI India is working actively on building a thriving and resilient MSME sector in India by reducing their vulnerability to climate change, building capacity on undertaking climate action, accessing technology and finance for decarbonization, and preparing MSMEs for the low carbon transition through targeted sector-specific skilling programs.

The Senior Associate Gender and Social Inclusion will work closely with project leads and the Director to support the program's vision of enabling a low carbon, resilient, just, and equitable development pathway for India. As a gender and social inclusion (GESI) specialist, the candidate will work collaboratively with the team to integrate the issues of gender equality and social inclusion. The candidate will broadly provide technical support to the team to:

• Build capacity within the team to apply GESI tools and approaches with climate lenses
• Develop integrated activities within the projects to support the inclusion of women and marginalized groups
• Collaborate with project partners to disseminate and communicate effective approaches to jointly achieving GESI objectives and goals

How Your Day Will Unfold

The selected candidate will support the Climate Program at WRI India with the following responsibilities:

• Lead the conceptualization, planning, implementation, and management of project activities to meaningfully incorporate gender and social inclusion considerations and lead to positive outcomes towards the same
• Provide technical insights along with tools and resources to support the integration of GESI in the project activities
• Engage and collaborate with external partners and industry associations to identify opportunities to mainstream GESI tools, strategies, and processes within the project activities
• Contribute to reporting, work planning, communications, etc., as needed based on the requirements of the project
• Assist the team with developing capacity building modules related to gender and social inclusion, particularly informing the stakeholders about its importance, tools, and means for identifying opportunities among others
• Assist in developing research and/or communications material to disseminate new resources and efforts to promote GESI and environment climate change integration
• Conceive and produce high-quality knowledge products and articles
• Manage the project deliverables as per the standard and expectation of the organization

Qualifications and Requirements We Seek

• Post-graduate in the related field
• At least 7 years of full-time work experience working or commensurate experience developing, implementing, and/or monitoring activities that foster the inclusion of women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and other marginalized communities into environment, climate change, and/or natural resource management and development programming
• Experience in supporting donors on issues at the confluence of gender, social inclusion, and climate actions
• Familiarity with the policy landscape of climate issues both at the national and subnational level
• Excellent research, writing, editing, and communication skills
• Experience in writing proposals on the issues related to gender and social inclusion
• Experience in leading and writing research papers on gender and social inclusion for academic journals, conferences, or international platforms preferred
• Highly motivated, proactive workstyle, detail-oriented, organized, and independent thinker
• Ability to work independently and with a team
• Fluent in English (Fluency in regional language(s) is preferred)

Salary and Benefits

• INR 11,00,000 to 13,00,000 Per Annum
• Salary shall be commensurate with experience and skills
• WRI offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package

Duration

1 year, extendable based on performance and project requirements

Location

New Delhi, Mumbai