Department of Rural Research and Development, S M Sehgal Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana, India
Sehgal Foundation is a public, charitable trust registered in India since the year 1999. Every person across rural India deserves to lead a more secure, prosperous, and dignified life. With that vision in mind, Sehgal Foundation’s mission is to strengthen community-led development initiatives to achieve positive social, economic, and environmental change across rural India. With support from donors and partners, Sehgal Foundation designs and promotes rural development interventions that create opportunities, build resilience, and provide solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in India’s poorest communities.
Background
The department of rural research and development at Sehgal Foundation is the dedicated function to undertake research. It conceptualizes and executes research studies in line with the thematic focus of the foundation. The broad thematic areas in which Sehgal Foundation implements projects are agriculture, water, digital skills and awareness, citizen participation and sustainability in different parts of India. Major states in which the foundation is working are Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
The research function is seeking to create a roster of agencies/individual consultants who have technical research expertise in the following key thematic areas:
- Water security with specific focus on domestic and agriculture water quality and access
- Food security with specific focus on agriculture and related facets
- Community participation and sustainability
- Digital skills and awareness
- Education with specific focus on infrastructural enhancement
- Development communication outreach practices
- Gender
The roster calls for agencies/individual consultants with specific expertise in the following skills mapped to the above thematic areas:
- Mixed methods research design, training and implementation particularly in Indian context
- Evaluation, including impact evaluation
- Implementation research, including process evaluations
- Data analysis including macro and micro-level correlates of social change
- Research on gender-transformative practices and outcomes, including intersection with other gender-discriminatory norms
- Evidence synthesis and literature review
- Public systems research and analysis across sectors
- Research communication and convening
Following the close of this call, an initial screening and short list will be made from which selected agencies/ candidates will be interviewed by team members for relevant opportunities as they emerge. Approved applicants will be placed on a pre-approved roster which will remain valid for a period of 36 months.
Supervision and work arrangements
Agencies/ Consultants who are selected from the roster will work under the supervision of the designated representative of the SF team and other senior staff in the team.
The work may include incidental travel to participate in field work, workshops or conferences; such travel will be governed by the field travel protocol of SF.
Eligibility Criteria
- Agency/Consultant should have undertaken evaluative research projects in the aforementioned thematic areas.
- Agency/Consultant should be able to demonstrate experience in conducting social science research and be up to date with evaluation methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative.
- Agency/Consultant should have the capability of executing research projects across varied geographies and demographics.
- Agency/Consultant should have should have at least 5 years of experience in evaluation of social sector projects.
- Agency/Consultant should have an established full-proof data collection and ethics protocol available for reference.
- Relevant Certificates/Documents in support of fulfilment of eligibility criteria must be submitted at the time of application.
Instructions for Application
To apply, please submit your Profile/CV and an application letter indicating:
- preferred type of consultancy (Quantitative researcher, Qualitative researcher, Mixed-methods expert);
- contact details (including emails and telephone numbers) of two professional referees;
- Preferred work stream (water, agriculture, community participation, sustainability, digital awareness and skilling, gender), Note: applicants can apply simultaneously to more than one work stream.
Any application missing these elements will not be considered.
The application pack needs to be submitted via e-mail at jobs@smsfoundation.org latest by 1700 hours on December 5, 2021.
The proposals received after the due date will not be considered.
For any query regarding the assignment, institutions may write to the same e-mail for resolution of their queries.
