OPPORTUNITY
Job Position: Officer - Advocacy at Arghyam
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About Arghyam and ForWater Platform

Arghyam is a registered public charitable foundation that has been working on safe and sustainable water for the last 13 years. Over the last 13 years, we have built our presence in 22 states to address the issue of water security with special attention to groundwater management, springshed management and water quality issues, for vulnerable communities. With collective efforts of our partners over the years, these three verticals have been able to build significant momentum and impact within the sector.  

There have been various successful solutions to ensure water security at reasonable scales. Yet, the problems constantly seem to outpace the solutions and hence, there is an urgent need to look beyond our current processes and scale. We, at Arghyam, believe technology is an enabler for scaling solutions and creating sustainable impacts.

Arghyam’s mission is to "Strengthen the ability of the ecosystem to enable water security for 100 million people by 2023" and towards this we are looking to launch a Societal Platform for water. This new approach is disrupting the way we think about how social welfare organizations bring about change, at scale. This is the beginning of a transformational journey and now you have a chance to actively shape its evolution. 

The ForWater platform will be focused on developing the digital tools and infrastructure to enable the ecosystem players (community members, Civil Society Organizations, government, research organisations and funders) to access knowledge, data and services. These tools will help them to focus on solving the water problem in their respective areas of work while leveraging technology to perform their work more efficiently and effectively with higher visibility and accountability. 

The users of the ForWater platform will be community members who would like to understand and solve for the water issues, the CSO’s who work closely with the community members, funders who are playing a critical role in gap funding the needs of the ecosystem, government and academia. 

About the Position

Arghyam is looking for a motivated, passionate and hands on Advocacy Officer to work with actors in the water ecosystem to find and scale solutions through policy research and advocacy for the water crisis in India. She / he will have to work closely with a cross section of actors such as civil society members, experts, governments, donors, design thinkers and others. 

The Advocacy team at Arghyam is responsible for evangelising the societal platform thinking within the sector to solve water issues at scale, build engagement and partnerships for co-creating solutions and influence public policies/ programmes and investments on water. 

Role of Officer - Advocacy at Arghyam 

  1. Assist in developing goals, strategies and identify priorities for advocacy  
  2. Stakeholder mapping of the water sector to understand the aspirations and challenges of various actors. 
  3. Proactively engage and develop approach notes (points of view), pitch documents and collaterals for partnerships and engagements. 
  4. Develop an advocacy charter to include collective action (data/ insights/ advocating state participation/ policy challenges etc). 
  5. Track developments in policy and practice related to Arghyam’s focus (water, tech, CSOs, Govt).
  6. Articulate value of platform capabilities for advocating with various users. Build broad understanding of requirements of stakeholder cohorts: NGOs, Govts. CSOs, Donors, Academia. 
  7. Organise / represent Arghyam in events, consultations, design workshops to build networks and understanding on the sectors thinking. Bring back understanding of needs to the internal teams to strengthen platform services.
  8. Work closely with the solutions and operations teams within Arghyam.  
  9. Maintain a line of sight to achieve 100 Million impact by 2023.

Skills and Qualifications 

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in public policy, journalism, international relations, public administration or related field.
  • Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to turn around quickly 
  • Understanding of the water sector, government systems, CSOs
  • Abstracting intelligence from diverse external sources and articulating as clear and coherent messages 
  • Ability to engage with a cross-section of people 
  • Understand & articulate platform concepts 
  • Ability to work independently and meet deadlines
  • Willingness to travel extensively in remote areas

What you’ll love about us:

  • Enabling work culture
  • Freedom and flexibility to participate in building solutions for complex social problems
  • Opportunity to work towards creating meaning social impact at scale

Compensation: Competitive and commensurate with experience and abilities.

Location: Bangalore 

Last date for application: 31st May 2019

To apply for this post, please e-mail your updated resume to: jobs@arghyam.org with the mandatory subject line “Application for the post of Officer- Advocacy”.