Indian NGO requires Executive Director

Company Profile:

The Population Foundation of India (PFI, formerly known as Family Planning Foundation) was established in l970 by a dedicated group of industrialists and population activists led by Bharat Ratna the late Mr JRD Tata who guided it as the founder Board Chairman until his death in l993.

The Foundation has been at the forefront of the Non Governmental efforts towards rights based, gender sensitive approach towards population stabilization and human development. Social development including population stabilization in India should not and cannot remain the sole concern of the Government, it ought to be supported and supplemented by private voluntary enterprises. In this regard, the Foundation has always worked in close co-operation and co-ordination with official agencies and programs, both at the Center and in the States. In its independent role, it has tried to guide and influence the National Population Policy and to serve as a catalytic agent to promote programs at different levels directed towards the ultimate goal of population stabilization. The Foundation supports innovative research, experimentation and social action to further the cause of population stabilization and provide a forum for pooling of experiences and sharing of professional expertise to strengthen and enlarge the operational base of the family planning and reproductive health program.

Current Thrust Areas

· To extend full support and provide guidance in formulating and influencing population policies and programs and to serve as a catalytic agent to promote programs at different levels directed towards the goal of population stabilization and development.

· To improve the quality of life of the people through RCH programs with special emphasis on unmet need for contraception , women's health and their reproductive rights, and gender issues, reduction of Neonatal mortality , infant mortality, maternal morbidity and mortality, adolescents' health needs, HIV/AIDS prevention and care.

· To strengthen non-government organizations, community based organizations, self help groups, Panchayati raj Institutions and the organized sector on population, health and social development issues with the goal of empowering the community as a whole.

· To advocate its programs at all levels to promote quality of life and sustainable development.

Reason for Hire:

The current Executive Director is completing his second term with PFI shortly and will be retiring from the organization after a long and highly successful tenure.

Against this backdrop, Population Foundation of India seeks a visionary and strategic leader as Executive Director to lead and develop a bold and innovative strategy for the organization, to lead in thought and action and influence public policies and opinion on issues of population with specific focus on gender, health, social justice and rights, to ensure growth and development of fundraising through donor and local supporter base and to contribute to the development and impact of the Population Foundation of India’s work and to lead a multidisciplinary team and create an empowering work culture.

Roles & Responsibilities:

1. Overall

• To function as the reference point for the organisation on behalf of the Governing Board and exercising the executive authority of the Board.
• To be responsible for the planning, organising, directing, controlling and monitoring of PFI’s operations & implementation of all PFI’s budgeted activities.
  

• Coordinate the work with the Senior Management Team (SMT) towards achievement of the organisational vision and mission.
• To promote and communicate about the programs & activities of PFI.
• Making policy and strategic recommendations to the Governing Board.
• Provide strategic leadership to the organisation and managing the personnel of all PFI units.
• Managing and enriching all external relationships with the governmental and other non-governmental agencies including development partners, corporate, as well as national and international donor agencies.
• Enhance and manage the brand image of the organisation through increasing credibility, accountability and transparency.
• Work closely with the organization’s Governing Board to strategize on the growth and diversification of the organisation.

2. Specific

Visioning.

• Conceptualization of the broad areas of activities to be undertaken in the light of the Strategic Plan & emerging needs.
• Set long term goals for the organisation and then yearly objective that would be percolated down the organisational hierarchy and obtain feedback on achievement of objective, budgets and targets.
• Review and upgrading of HRD Systems & Policies for approval of the Board.
• Evaluation and management of Financial & Management Systems.

Governing Board

• To work closely with the Board on a continuous basis in terms of all of PFI’s programs and seek there assistance and approval for the same.
• Apprising the Board at the meeting and otherwise on important developments and findings relevant to all operations of PFI.
• To present the Status Report every quarter to the Governing Board.

Increase And Diversify Resource Base

• Secure diversified and flexible resource base by raising appropriate kinds and mix of funds from official donors, governmental or private sources from within the country or internationally, through direct initiatives of the country programme.

Maintain Effective Relations, Networks and Alliances

• Represent PFI in a variety of forums and maintain external relationships within a diverse range of stakeholders in the sector including national government, key national and international NGOs, donors, academic, social movements, CBOs, media and other relevant institutions.

Ensure PFI's Accountability Systems

• Ensure that all processes and products (appraisal, yearly planning, programme strategy, reports etc.) are delivered in time and in quality
• Ensure effective systems and processes of monitoring, review, reflection and impact assessment
• Ensure that funds are used efficiently, ethically, effectively and economically in line with the standards, policies and procedures (including accounting and auditing requirements) in accordance with the legal framework.

Develop Effective Teams And Empowering Culture, Environment And Systems

• Develop and strengthen empowered team of staff – particularly senior staff team in direct line management- in the organisation.
• Provide leadership and management guidance to overall staff in the organisation.
• Ensure that that the work environment is healthy, motivating, empowering and synergistic.

Miscellaneous (Partnerships, Funding and Brand Image)

• Ensure PFI’s processes to deliver optimal utilisation of its resources, striving to increase efficiency by identifying and implementing innovations under cost efficiency/value for money.

• Utilise partnerships to raise public awareness for promoting advocacy, networking and public policy.
• Develop PFI’s brand and capacity to deliver as a resource organisation. Enhance the resource base to provide stability and long term sustainability to the organisation.
• To evaluate viability, sustainability and cost benefit of various proposals submitted by the field, and vet it with the Senior Management Team, before putting it to the Board.

Must Have:

· Relevant postgraduate degree in Public Health, Medical Sciences, Social sciences, Management or relevant disciplines.

· Overall 15 years of experience in development work with at least 5 years in a leadership role in a complex organisation.

• Broad knowledge and experience in policy development and implementation, project management, organization development, financial management, resource management and people management in a dynamic organization.

· Experience of leading/working on policy advocacy and campaigns (especially population issues).

• Experience and a successful track record in resource mobilization/grants management.
• Must have experience of interacting and working with grass root community based non-government organizations (NGOs) as well as national and international agencies working in the field of health, population and social development.
• Outstanding interpersonal and coaching skills, including above average oral and written communication skills and the ability to communicate and manage well at all levels of the organization as well as external stakeholders.

Preferable:

• Be well-conversant with data on population and development, and their utilization.
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively with the Governing Board and Advisory Council to serve as a successful participant on the executive management team that provides company leadership and direction.

Other Skills:

• Strong problem-solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions based on accurate and timely analyses.
• Willing to work on a flexible schedule with possibility of travel to provide on-site leadership.
• Demonstrates integrity and leadership skills consistent with PFI’s mission and leadership philosophy, strives for excellence and has experience in leading others to new levels of effectiveness and impact.
• Exceptionally comfortable with the use of technology in the workplace and possessing excellent computer skills in a Microsoft Windows environment, including a good knowledge of Microsoft Office and other mainstream Windows-based computer applications.
• Confident, proactive, and having excellent organizational skills.

Age Profile and Nature of Contract:

Applicants aged 55 or less would be eligible to apply. The post is contractual initially for a period of 5 years and renewable until the age of 65 years.

Compensation Details:

The minimum salary benchmarked for the position is INR 30 lacs/annum CTC. However the final compensation is negotiable and would be commensurate with applicant’s current compensation, qualification and experience.

Third Sector Partners, a leading CxO and board search firm in the Not for Profit sector, has been retained by Population Foundation of India. Last date for application is 26th April 2010. Interested candidates can send in their CVs with three references to edpfi@thirdsectorpartners.com with the subject line indicating Executive Director or contact us at: +91 22 43493333. Please note that only short listed candidates will be contacted.


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The New Indian Middle Class

It is the inherent insecurity that might explain the passivity of the new Indian middle class, content to watch from the sidelines the spectacle of democracy but unwilling to enter the ring for fear of losing its seat.

The last days of March have come with a lesson: Inequality is in the DNA of this country. While the ‘well-heeled and classy’ celebrated the return of the Victorian ballroom to the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai with a private event, 29 platoons of armed police forces, two platoons of National Security Guard commandoes and 70 ‘top’ police officers were attacking residents of Kalinga Nagar, Orissa, for daring to oppose the development of a mammoth Tata Steel plant.

It was not 26/11, so most people would have probably forgotten that this is the same place where 14 people were murdered by the state police on January 2, 2006, for fighting the same lopsided battle.

The ‘we the people’ media has always been partial to Ratan Tata. Singur was seen as a national shame but no one has directly questioned him over the damning report by the Ministry of Rural Development, which named Tata and Essar as the first financiers of the ‘Salwa Judum’, the peace hunters of Chattisgarh. The actions of the corporate-state nexus have been described in the report as the “biggest grab of tribal lands after Columbus.”

Democracy today belongs to the highest bidder. But this conflict is not the creation of a single corporate house. Eighty years ago the political theorist M N Roy had railed against a class which was willing to sacrifice the country’s freedom for its self-interest. In an essay titled ‘The Indian Bourgeoisie and the National Revolution’, he reported: “On the morrow of the annual meeting of the National Congress, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce met, for the first time in its history, in the presence of the Viceroy. The Chairman of the Federation, Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas, an industrial magnate of Bombay, discoursed on the atmosphere of a threat to law and order, and appealed for legislation checking the revolutionary development of the labour movement… and indicated to the Viceroy their willingness to co-operate in the suppression of it.”

Very little has changed since then. If anything the group, now referred to as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), wields greater power than ever before. In its recent report on ‘National Security and Terrorism’, it commands the government to “shake away its socialist lethargy” and “reassure the global investor about the ‘India rising story’ ”. This it feels can be done by allowing privatisation of security, imitating the internationally condemned United States Homeland Security and even possibly employing surgical strikes on Pakistan. There is a whole section on dealing with the mineral-rich northeast region, which the corporates are vying to get their earthdiggers onto.

This would explain why there is always enough money in the coffers for defence but never enough for ‘socialist’ items such as healthcare, education and agriculture.

As human lives become increasingly privatised, the Human Poverty Index, based on 2007 data, places India 88th among 135 countries, 26 places down from the last report. The section of the population that would be watching these developments most closely is the middle class, a group rife with contradictions, but which the Greek philosopher Aristotle considered to be “the best political community.”

In post-colonial India, says the anthropologist William Mazzarella, the middle class were identified as “Nehruvian civil service-oriented salariat, short on money but long on institutional perks.” Post-liberalisation, the “new” middle class, as a social group, is seen as one capable of negotiating India’s new relationship with the global economy in both cultural and economic terms.

The mainstream media, which plays only to the gilded gallery, churns out new versions of this story on a daily basis. Global conglomerates can barely conceal their joy at the prospect of these untapped markets. An article by the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company, titled, ‘Next Big Spenders: India’s Middle Class’ (Businessweek, 2007) gushed that “the country will soon become a nation of upwardly mobile middle-class households, consuming goods ranging from high-end cars to designer clothing,” adding that “companies that fail to understand the unique desires and tastes of the new Indian consumer will miss out on a half-billion-strong market that along with China ranks as one of the most important growth opportunities of the next two decades.”

According to the political scientist, Leela Fernandes, the dominant narrative of the middle class’ rise is a cultural and normative political project that helps shape the terms of national development and identity. It is marked by a set of interests that are identified with India’s embrace of a free-market-oriented approach to development.

In her book, India’s New Middle Class — Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform (2006), she argues that this social group represents a construction that operates as a proponent of economic liberalisation: “At a structural level, this group largely encompasses English-speaking, urban white-collar segments of the middle class who are benefiting from new employment opportunities (particularly in private sector employment).”

What emerges from this analysis is that the homogenised, consumerist-driven version of this group is more fiction than fact. The corporate-government coalition would like the middle class to believe that it can buy its way to the top in the same way as it has. Once the people believe in the ‘morality’ of the market, they will dismiss inequality not as a structural/systemic failure but as a natural outcome, something beyond its control.

But not everybody is buying this story. The reason is partly situational. People in this group find themselves in the privileged position of not having to worry about where their next meal will come from but do at the same time feel the pinch of skyrocketing food prices. They might not think twice about bribing the traffic policemen to waive off a driving offence but they cannot afford to buy an armed platoon to protect their business interests.

But there is also a less cynical reason, one that has an ideological basis. Having witnessed the sale of democracy and felt more keenly its day-to-day effects, the middle class is also most likely to be an ally of social resistance against oppression and in defense of democratic rights. It is often this same class that translates people’s needs into bureaucratic terms for policy advocacy. And it is often here that one finds solidarity with global struggles seen as manifestations of local battles.

This same activism though is often used to defend its own normative notion of democratic space, one that demands strict action against ‘illegal’ slums, street vendors and ‘beggars’. The philosopher Wiliam James believed that “the prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilisation suffers.” This insecurity might explain the passivity of the new Indian middle class, content to watch from the sidelines the spectacle of democracy but unwilling to enter the ring for fear of losing its seat.

Perhaps, it can place its trust in George Orwell who said: “We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.” He should know; he was after all a prophet.

This article was first published in Sunday Herald

By Neerja Dasani


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Some of Important NGO's /Organization working for Elderly in India

1. AISCCON - All India Senior Citizens Confederation

2. FESCOM – Federation of Sr. Ctz. Organization of Maharashtra & other State Sr.Ctz Federations

3. Association of Gerontology (India) (AGI)

4. NDIAN GERONTOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

5. Society for Serving Seniors, Hyderabad

6. Bombay Psychiatric Society

7. Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS)

8. Alzheimer's and Related Disorder Society of India (ARDSI), All Chapters

9. Harmony for Silvers Foundation

10. International Longevity Center - India (ILC-I)

11. Dignity Foundation

12. Help Age India

13. Nightingale Medical Trust, Bangalore

14. Silver Inning Foundation

15. Shree Manav Seva Sangh , Mumbai

16. Center for Research on Ageing, Dept of Psychology, Sri Venkateswara University,Tirupati

17. GERIATRIC SOCIETY OF INDIA, Delhi

18. The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse , India(INPEA),Delhi

19. Indian Association of Geriatric Mental Health (IAGMH)

20. The All India Central Government Pensioners Association ,Delhi

21. Bharat Pensioners’ Samaj

22. All India Central Confederation of Pensioner Association

23. Agewell Foundation , Delhi

24. Anugraha India , Delhi

25. Indian Academy of Geriatrics , Delhi

26. Development, Welfare and Research Foundation (DWRF),Delhi

27. Indian Association of Geriatric Mental Health (IAGMH)

28. The Family Welfare Agency, Mumbai

29. State Social Welfare Dept , State Government

30. State Heath Dept , State Government

31. MOSJE Ministry , Government of India , Delhi

32. S & T ministry, Government of India, Delhi

33. Heritage Hospital, Hyderabad

34. Indian Medical Association (IMA)

35. WHO

36. UN

37. IGNOU

38. Indian Council of Social Science Research

39. IIPS

40. ICMR

41. TISS (Tata Institute of Social Science)

42. Medical Council of India

43. Indian Medical Association

44. NIMHANS

45. The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH)

46. Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work , Mumbai

47. SNDT University , Mumbai

48. SVT College of Home Science , Mumbai

49. SNDT College of Social Work, Mumbai

50. Nursing College’s all over India

51. Tata Dorabji Trust , Mumbai

52. State Mental Hospital , State Government

53. Rehabilitation Council of India

54. NISD (National Institute of Social Defense) MOSJE Ministry

55. Psychiatrist Dept of All Hospitals

56. Nippon Care-Fit Association-INDIA

57.Center for Gerontological Studies

58.Indian Federation of Ageing

59. University of Third Age , U3A India, Jabalpur

This comprehensive List is prepared by Sailesh Mishra , Founder President of Silver Inning Foundation

Email:sailesh2000@gmail.com , silverinnings@gmail.com

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Social media plays growing role in aid world

It seems everyone is now firmly on the social media bandwagon.

In a week when the co-founder of Facebook and brains behind Barack Obama's online election campaign announced his new not-for-profit project Jumo, the U.N. appointed a new Social Media Envoy for Malaria, and London hosted the Social Media World Forum.

But how can charities use existing and new technology to make our virtual societies more charitable?

The London forum saw the launch of a new video application, which helps you broadcast on social media sites in real time. Such interactive video tools have huge potential for humanitarian agencies such as Action Aid, Christian Aid, Save the Children and Oxfam. They could be used instantly when disasters strike to broadcast the charities' relief work live in order to mobilise supporters before the world's media arrive. These tools could also potentially help change the face of reconstruction when the cameras leave the scene.

HAITI EXAMPLE
Christian Aid UK, whose staff in Port-au-Prince narrowly escaped fatal injuries when their office collapsed during the Haiti earthquake, was one of the first agencies at the scene to use social media. They employed Twitter and Facebook, their own website, mobiles, email, flip video, podcasts and Skype to co-ordinate relief efforts and send updates to supporters. Their call for dropping Haiti's debt received 10,000 signatures in four days.

The immediacy of social media has changed people's habits and raised their expectations of how charities report back from a crisis. Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning at Facebook, said: "The Haiti earthquake occurred at 4:53 on 12th January and in that first minute, 106 people updated their status with something about 'tierra' (earth). In the first three minutes after the earthquake there were over 700 people updating their status about it."

Oxfam America also reaped the benefits of deploying social media when their Facebook fan base jumped from 35,000 to 250,000 during the Haiti earthquake crisis. The charity set up a live blog site, which aggregated all their podcasts, video clips and twitter streams, and uploaded a YouTube video appealing for money within 5 hours of the quake which resulted in $1.5 million raised within 48 hours.

THE POTENTIAL
Charities are constantly seeking to meet their donors' demands by providing them with stories about where the millions raised during disasters go. With the help of interactive broadcast tools, donors could potentially talk directly with beneficiaries in real time, literally seeing and hearing where their money is being used.

The key to success for charities in the social media landscape could be to get donors and beneficiaries interacting face-to-face by tying technologies together such as video, mobile, location-based services, virtual currency and social media networks.

A network of charities could provide an interactive map where individual donors and beneficiaries are shown by their location, alongside information about their environment and living conditions. The map could also show disaster 'hot spots' to encourage donations.

A donor could exchange their cash for virtual currency, which they could spend on different projects inside this virtual charity village. The virtual currency could then be converted back to real money by charities to benefit real people outside the world of computers and mobile phones.

However, Steven Buckley, Head of Communications at Christian Aid, struck a note of caution. "Technology in developing countries is not quite there yet to make such an idea of a global virtual village reality, but this is where the general trend is going, that's why child sponsorship schemes are so popular. Charities would have to act as mediators to ensure that projects which are not popular but important still receive funding," he said.

It seems that the technology is being forced along at a frantic pace by commercial interest, but charities are the ones that could really benefit by riding the wave of social media.


Source:http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/63760/2010/02/24-165046-1.htm


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.