World Change Starts with Educated Children®
Designation: Officer, Gender Equality Portfolio
Department: Gender Equality Portfolio
Location: Ranchi, Jharkhand
Organization Profile:
Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read develops children’s foundational literacy skills, as well as life skills that promote gender equality. Committed to accelerating learning outcomes for more children, more quickly, we have benefited 45 million children across 29 countries. In India, we are working since 2003 and have positively influenced lives of more than 22 million children. Presently, we work across the 10 Indian states of Chhattisgarh, New Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Learn more at www.roomtoreadindia.org
Program Background
The goal of Room to Read’s Gender Equality Portfolio is to ensure that all adolescents—especially girls—develop life skills that promote gender equality and enable informed life choices and lifelong learning. In India, Room to Read works in close partnership with state governments to institutionalize life skills within the education system for long-term sustainability. In Jharkhand, this collaboration spans both the Literacy and Gender portfolios. As part of the SPMU initiative, Room to Read is supporting the state to strengthen early grade reading, with gender mainstreaming embedded as a core focus. Simultaneously, through the Gender Equality Portfolio, Room to Read is working with the government to introduce and systematize life skills education for adolescents, supported through leadership engagement and narrative building at the state level. Room to Read is a partner in Project Sampoorna, a multi-partner initiative implementing life skills prorgam in government schools to strengthen adolescents’ socio-emotional learning (SEL) and build their resilience to life’s challenges.
Room to Read’s role in Sampoorna 2.0 extends beyond implementation. At the state level, Room to Read serves as co-anchor of the Curriculum Contextualization Strategy and plays a leadership role in the Community of Design and Practice (CoDP), with a strong focus on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) lensing across strategies. At the district level, Room to Read implements Sampoorna interventions in two districts, focusing on shifting teacher paradigms and Government engagement along with supporting contextualization of SEL strategies and convening partners and solving field-level challenges collaboratively. Strategically, program Sampoorna 2.0 aims to influence systemic change by building an inclusive, contextual, collaborative, and sustainable SEL ecosystem in Jharkhand.
Position Overview:
The Program Officer will play a key role in supporting the design and delivery of the Project Sampoorna at the state and district levels as well as will render technical support to the state and the Country Office team on the gender mainstreaming initiative of the organization. The position involves close coordination with government stakeholders, partner NGOs, schools, and communities. The Program Officer will support partnership management, organise events and capacity-building workshops and teacher training, identify and mentor local champions, and ensure timely documentation and reporting of activities. The role requires extensive field engagement, relationship management, and strong organizational skills. The position will report to the State Head of Jharkhand and will have reporting as well. The position will also work closely with the Country Office Gender Portfolio, Program Ops, RM&E and other teams as and when needed.
Responsibilities:
Partnership & Program Management:
- Build and maintain strong partnerships with NGOs, CBOs, and local institutions involved in Project SampoornaIs implementation.
- Coordinate regular partner check-ins, meetings, and follow-ups to ensure alignment with program goals.
- Track partnership deliverables and share updates with the State Lead bi-weekly
- Prepare monthly and quarterly program progress reports, case studies, and success stories.
- Maintain systematic documentation of meetings, events, and field visits.
- Support donor and internal reporting requirements.
- Support Program Assistants in the implementation of the Sampoorna 2.o activities in the implementation districts.
- Conduct monthly one on one and quarterly performance review of the team members.
- Provide technical oversight to the program assistants and support them in their coaching and communication with government officials and schools.
- Identify areas of improvement and learning in their capabilities and plan capacity-building activities in discussion with the national team
Curriculum Development and Training/ Event Management:
- Lead and support content creation/cocreation at the state level in collaboration with other partners.
- Lead and represent RTR in all the Community of Design & Practices
- Plan and organise offline/online workshops, consultations and meetings with partners and the National team.
- Manage logistics including invitations, venues, materials, and documentation, briefs, presentations, and program updates for stakeholders.
- Ensure events are effectively executed with visibility for Project Sampoorna.
- Conduct interviews, focus group discussions, and regular feedback sessions with students, teachers, and stakeholders.
- Capture field insights and share learnings with the program team to inform planning.
Government & Stakeholder Management:
- Liaise with district and state-level education officials to ensure alignment with government priorities.
- Represent RtR in meetings, consultations, and policy discussions and all other Sampoorna related meetings/ calls.
- Plan and organize trainings for internal staff as well as external stakeholders, workshops, consultations, and state/district-level events including the event with govt. representation.
- Rendering technical support to the state team toward building the gender mainstreaming narrative in the overall work of the state including the work around SPMU etc.
Other Key Assignment:
- Participate in the annual planning and budgeting process, ensuring accurate forecasting and timely submission of expenses to the state office.
- Support annual planning and budgeting processes, including expense forecasting and timely submissions.
- Undertake additional responsibilities aligned with organizational objectives in consultation with the State and National Teams.
- Build a strong understanding of Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program, theory of change, frameworks, and tools, and orient the team accordingly.
- Any other responsibilities assigned by the state heads.
Qualifications:
Required:
- Master’s degree in education/social work/development/Gender Studies or equivalent.
- Minimum 5-8 years of relevant work experience in areas of girls' education, gender, life skills, Social Emotional Learning and govt engagement.
- Prior experience of living and/or working in rural and semi-urban areas.
- Prior experience of working in Jharkhand would be beneficial especially in life skills and gender space.
- Previous experience working closely with schoolteachers and government.
- This position requires extensive travel to other states, district/block levels.
- Good interpersonal skills and a team player.
- Strong organizational and planning skills, including the ability to monitor program implementation progress.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously and take initiative.
- Previous experience working closely with diverse groups of people.
- Good knowledge of Hindi and English.
Compensation:
Room to Read offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits. Benefits include thirteenth month bonus, health insurance and a retirement plan. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, and rapidly growing organization that is changing transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries on literacy and gender equality in education.
How To Apply:
Room to Read is a child-safe organization; all personnel are expected to adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.
Room to Read is an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds. As a child-safe organization, Room to Read expects all personnel to adhere to its Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.