Individual Consultant – Project Manager-Organic Clusters

Background

UNDP strives to have a workforce, which reflects diversity and gender balance, and applies an equal opportunities approach. UNDP does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS status. All selections are on merit.

The DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission) is the flagship program of Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India relaunched in 2016 for promoting poverty reduction by building strong institutions of the poor, particularly women. The programme creates and enables community owned institutions of women to empower and make them economically self-reliant by improving their agency to access a range of livelihood and financial services and maximize their resources for creating sustainable livelihood opportunities.

The state governments are mandated to set up dedicated Mission Management Units at the state, district and village/community level for the effective implementation of the NRLM scheme. The mission provides regular hand-holding support to SHG/federations for a period of 5-7 years. At the end of a fully implementation cycle the SHGs/federations are well prepared to become resource institutions at the community level for providing evidence and support to other social initiatives.

Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (KSRLPS)

The State Government is implementing DAY-NRLM scheme in phases through Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society in the name of “Sanjeevini”. The mission statement of KSRLPS is: “To reduce rural poverty by providing gainful wage and self-employment opportunities through community institutions resulting in sustainable improvement in their livelihoods”.

Sanjeevini is a community driven and process-oriented programme. The processes include different activities such as awareness building, social mobilization, development of Community Resource persons (CRPs). Formation of CBOs, strengthening SHGs/ CBOs/federations/Livelihood Collectives, establishment of linkages and promotion of livelihoods. The conventional methods of monitoring focuses on physical, financial and logistic aspects of projects, but do not capture the processes of community perception, satisfaction with project services, inclusion and institutional dynamics. As the community processes do not conform to pre-set rules, deadlines, targets or blueprint approaches, a responsive and adaptive implementation is necessary.

It is in this context that the State government of Karnataka has partnered with UNDP to implement The National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) in Karnataka. NRETP proposes to implement higher order economic activities which are cross cutting in nature, for instance, the project design envisages that there will be an organic link between the model Cluster Level Federation (CLFs) and financial inclusion strategies, insurance and pension schemes, producer groups and organisations, product marketing and enterprise development. The financial inclusion strategy will also have a key role in financing of farm and non-farm enterprises. UNDP will be uniquely positioned to quickly transfer the technical know-how gained at the national and state level working across the country. The state SMMU will be fully synchronized with the National level team working at the centre, important for better alignment of state priorities with those of the national programme while formulating the State specific poverty reduction action plans.

Under the scheme, UNDP is looking for a Project Manager_Organic Clusters to undertake the activities as provided below. The incumbent will be based at KSRLPS and will perform duties under the direct supervision of Mission Director KSRLPS, Government of Karnataka.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the SPM/Any Other Official designated by CEO the incumbent will focus on achievement of the following results:

Planning, execution and monitoring of the sanctioned organic village cluster projects through regular field visit and review
Cluster level planning and roll out of organic village cluster development activities
Rolling out certification in the clusters
Support the SRLMs in development of value addition and market linkage strategies for organic produce
Development of protocols, package of practices for organic farming. Also, facilitate workshops, consultations necessary for developing the same.
Mapping of value chains, analyzing value chain competitiveness, project strategy, business plans, and standard operating processes for Producer Enterprises and Producer Groups taking up marketing of organic produce
Maintain information regarding produce of the SHG members, markets (prices and trends), commodity-wise details.
Identifying institutional buyers / local buyers, conducting buyer seller meets.
Development of new proposals in organic village cluster development.
Developing and executing capacity building plans for the project staff and community members on farm livelihoods and value chain development.
Develop manuals and guidelines to facilitate implementation of value chain development. Identifying document best practices.
Co-ordination with the Technical Support Agencies for development and implementation of organic village clusters.
Ensuring data collection and entry into MIS for monitoring and evaluation.
Any other tasks/responsibilities as assigned by the Mission Director.

Deliverables & Payment Schedules:

Payment %

Deliverable target dates

Submission of report highlighting,
Understanding and analyzing of village clusters level projects implemented by Sanjeevini.
Detailed reporting of the analysis of the assigned village clusters.

8%

Month 01

Submission of report highlighting,
Preparing the implementation action plan as per the project / Annual Action Plan.
Get approval from the supervisor at Sanjeevini.

8%

Month 02

Submission of report highlighting,

Identify the organic Certification agencies and process to get certification.
Create a detailed document/PPT reg the certification process.

8%

Month 03

Submission of report highlighting,

Develop the value addition and market linkages strategies as per the project location.
Get approval from the supervisor at Sanjeevni.
Provide support to Sanjeevini in value addition development tasks as per suggestions and guidance of the supervisor.

8%

Month 04

Submission of report highlighting,

Development of protocols & package of practices for organic farming.
Facilitating workshops & consultations for developing the protocols & packages.
1 workshop needs to facilitated for the month.

8%

Month 05

Submission of report highlighting,

Collection of data for the past 6 months about the progress of the project.
Submitting the data to the MIS team for monitoring & evaluation.

8%

Month 06

Submission of report highlighting,

Mapping & analyzing of value chain competitiveness.
Preparing of business plans & SOP for producer groups

8%

Month 07

Submission of report highlighting,

Collection of information of produce of SHG members
Maintain information of market trends, prices and commodity wise details.
Submit 1 detailed report on the activity of the month.

8%

Month 08

Submission of report highlighting,

Identification of institutional & local buyers and conducting buyer & seller meets.
Organize 2 buyer seller meets for the month

8%

Month 09

Submission of report highlighting,

Developing & executing capacity building plans for the project staff and community members.
At least 1 capacity building session should be conducted.

8%

Month 10

Submission of report highlighting,

Develop new proposals in organic village cluster development (1 new proposal should be developed).
Coordinating with technical support agencies for development & implementation of organic village clusters.

10%

Month 11

Submission of report highlighting,

Collection of data for the past 1 year about the progress of the project.
Submitting the data to MIS team for monitoring and evaluation.

10%

Month 12

Competencies

Knowledge of organic certification standards both third party and PGS certification systems.
Knowledge of compliances for both export and domestic markets for organic produce.
Knowledge of organic farming methods, agro-ecological practices
Experience in setting up systems and processes to roll-out organic farming in the States.
Good data analysis and conceptualization skills.
Ability to write concept notes, proposals etc., and make effective presentations.
Ability to build and sustain effective partnerships with Government Agencies and private sector organizations
Proven ability to coordinate the work of others and to work as part of a team and share knowledge with others.
Demonstrated openness to change and ability to manage complex situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Candidate should be a Post-Graduate in Agriculture / Agri-business Management/Rural Marketing / social sciences from a reputed university/institute.

Experience:

5+ years in a large size livelihood development project or in reputed industry at middle management level, responsible for promotion of organic agriculture practices and allied activities-based livelihoods or managing commodity business in scale, certification, sourcing, value addition, marketing etc.
Candidate should also have minimum 3 years of experience working in any part of the value chains of organic produce.
Should have handled procurement / marketing / supply chain for organic agricultural produce
Experience of developing a business / vertical for promotion of organic farming, practices within an organization / corporate institution would be preferred.
Experience of roll-out of PGS or Third-party certification with at least 500 farmers.
Proven experience of leading professional staff and builds their initiative and enables them to function as members of efficient and effective teams
Developed and managed partnerships in market side, supply side, for technical know-how of implementation of organic farming
Demonstrable experience of project management, ensuring the delivery of high-quality programmes as well as managing internal learning processes across virtual teams.

Managed a team of at least 5 members.

Duration of The Work:

The contract will be awarded for one year initially. Working days will be as per the State Government policy.

Languages Required:

Fluency in English spoken, read and write for all official communication is essential and Kannada Preferable.