Project Specialist

 World Economic Forum 

Project Specialist, Food Innovation Hub India

Job category               Regular/Full-Time

Group                         Platform for Global Public Goods

Location                      Mumbai

 

Project Specialist, Food Innovation Hub India

(2 year fixed-duration contract)

 

The World Economic Forum and several partners have joined efforts to catalyze and support regional Food Innovation Hubs that will leverage the role of technology and broader innovation in support of a transformation agenda that leads to more inclusive, efficient, sustainable, nutritious and healthy food systems. In support of this agenda, several regional Food Innovation Hubs are in development in Africa, Latin America, ASEAN, India and Europe which will collectively support the strengthening of local innovation ecosystems that leads to: a) increased investments in inclusive and scalable technology solutions; b) equitable access to innovations for farmers to consumers; c) support the enabling environment through policy incentives, capacity building and knowledge; d) mitigate unintended consequences of technology innovations and improve the resiliency of food systems; and e) unlock institutional bottlenecks to scale impact for systemic change.

 

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum and other partners, are catalyzing a Food Innovation Hub in India that will aim to leverage technology and broader innovation to build more efficient, inclusive, sustainable, nutritious and healthy food systems. In India, the Hubs will focus on three primary outcomes (i) increase investments in technology innovations and integrated value chains promoting sustainability and nutrition; (ii) improve the policy environment and local innovation ecosystems by strengthening local capacities and evidence-based decision-making processes; and (iii) improve smallholder farmers access to markets and technology innovations.

 

The World Economic Forum is looking for a dynamic and self-motivated individual to support the development of the Food Innovation Hub in India, based out of the Forum’s Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) office based in Mumbai.

 

Reporting Lines & Interactions:

The Project Specialist will report to the Head, Food Systems Innovation, at the Food Systems Initiative of the Forum’s Centre for Global Public Goods. The Project Specialist will be part of the Forum’s Food Systems Initiative and will work closely with internal colleagues in business and government engagement, C4IR, Centre for Global Public Goods, civil society among others. Externally, the person will work closely with the Global Coordinating Secretariat of the Food Innovations Hub based in The Netherlands and Geneva as well as the global leadership councils supporting the Hubs.

The position will be based out of the Forum’s Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) office in Mumbai and will work closely with the C4IR India to ensure alignment and complementarities.

 

Key responsibilities:

The role will involve supporting the development of a Food Innovation Hub in India in close collaboration with local and global stakeholders. The Hub in India will be part of the network of Food

Innovation Hubs being developed as flagship initiatives of the Food Action Alliance. As such, the role will require close collaboration with the network of regional Hubs as well as the Global Coordinating Secretariat of the Food Innovation Hubs.

 

· Community management and curation : Build and support the development of a multistakeholder community of senior leaders from government, private sector, multilateral organizations, civil society organizations, farmer organizations, research institutes that will guide the development of a Food Innovation Hub in India. The Project Specialist will also work with internal colleagues including C4IR India, business, government and civil society teams to build strong internal alignment and collaborations.

 

· Project management : The Project Specialist will support the various workstreams and state level work of the Food Innovation Hub in India, supporting through outreach, analysis, project management activities, including working with consultants.

 

· Event management : The Project Specialist will be responsible for overall staregy and coordination related to various annual and multi-year convenings including working with the Food Systems Initiative global team to support convenings. The role will be responsible for logistics and operations related to annual workshops, multi-year convenings, working group meetings among others.  

 

· Grant management : Working closely with the Head of Food Systems Innovation, the Project Specialist will support in grant reporting and management, including budget support and delivery and preparing annual progress and grant reports.

 

· Communications and team support : The Project Specialist will contribute to the preparation of communications and strategy documents for the Food Innovation Hubs including media and communications support. The role will also support the Food Systems Initiative on project-related ad-hoc needs as relevant to the main responsibilities outlined above.

 

Qualifications:

· A minimum of 3-5 years of work experience in project and program management.

· Excellent stakeholder engagement skills are important as the role requires regular touchpoints and close collaboration with internal and external partners and consultants across the globe

· Demonstrated experience working with multistakeholder and public-private partnerships is desired.

· Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s Degree preferred in relevant field such as international development, economics, public policy, business administration etc.

· Strong written and oral communications skills, fluency in spoken and written English and Hindi.

· Highly organized, proactive, self-starter, with attention to detail and constructive attitude to get things done

· Good time management skills

For more information and online application click here