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About
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research centre working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. The Policy team at J-PAL South Asia (J-PAL SA) at the Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR) disseminates findings of J-PAL’s research; develops relationships with government, civil society, and academic stakeholders; catalyses scale-ups and replications of effective projects; and assists in conceptualizing new research projects. The team works closely with the global J-PAL office based at MIT to align the regional strategy with broader organizational objectives.
J-PAL’s Environment, Energy, and Climate Change (E2C2) sector measure the real-world impacts of energy and environmental policies, particularly on climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, climate change adaptation, and energy access. To give a significant push to the work around air and water in the sector, J-PAL will be significantly expanding its work on related challenges and setting up embedded impact labs with key government partners. The established labs will help improve clean air and water access by informing policy decisions of key government partners that together serve millions of people. The labs will work with high-level government partners to identify pressing issues and priority areas, share evidence from existing solutions, test innovative research pilots and scale has proven evidence-based solutions
J-PAL South Asia seeks a Policy Associate to contribute to its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy and support the work of the labs in India. He/she would work on policy outreach for different state governments, and support the overarching mandate of initiating new randomized evaluations, synthesising and disseminating evidence around air and water. The Associate would get to work closely with J-PAL SA’s senior policy leadership and work with a broad range of stakeholders including senior policymakers, NGOs and researchers, donors and international organizations.
Descriptions of the programs, key responsibilities, and other requirements for the role are as detailed below:
Key Responsibilities
Support the team at J-PAL South Asia to promote evidence-informed policy-making around air and water with key government partners through the impact labs. This will include:
- Thorough understanding of the policy landscape in the air and water sectors in India
- Catalyse new randomized evaluation research by matching innovative projects in the region with J-PAL-affiliated researchers in the sector.
- Drafting internal reference materials and policy outreach materials summarizing evidence from J-PAL evaluations related to air and water (e.g., summaries, briefs, policy memos, concept notes, letters, and presentations)
- Support evidence dissemination activities by curating customised decks and synthesising evidence notes that can be used to present J-PAL evidence on air and water to relevant actors like civil society organisations, donors, governments, and other organisations;
- Track policy developments and communicate these developments internally to the team;
- Support to build new and existing strategic government partnerships between J-PAL SA and Indian states aimed at institutionalising a data and evidence-informed approach to policy decisions in the sector.
- Support identification of any new evidence-based scale-up programs for the sector working closely with the team and J-PAL SA’s scale-ups team;
- Contribute to designing and operationalizing the overall strategy for the Labs;
- Support efforts to build and maintain relationships with key partners in governments, NGOs, foundations, and multilateral aid agencies in the region.
- Provide additional support to the Policy Team that includes but are not limited to providing cross-sectoral support and curating public goods as required.
Qualifications
Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (preferably in economics, public policy, energy, environment, climate action, or a related field).
Experience: This position requires at least two years of relevant experience in addition to a relevant Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Demonstrated interest and experience in the energy, environment, air/water and climate action sector is preferred;
Understanding of Randomized Evaluations: A keen understanding of the value of randomized evaluations and their usefulness for policy decisions is desirable;
Skills and Competencies
- Excellent spoken and written communication skills.
- Attention to detail and excellent writing and presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand
- Ability to handle several different projects/tasks at one time, successfully complete tasks assigned, and meet deadlines;
- Strong interest in international development policy, thematic areas of energy, environment, air/water and climate action, South Asia development, and/or program evaluation as demonstrated by coursework and professional experience;
- Language: Fluency in English (written and oral).
- Willingness to travel at short notice.
This position will be based out of Delhi, with frequent travel to other states.
J-PAL South Asia is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes protected by law. We strongly encourage people from marginalized communities to apply for this role.
