Policy Associate - Agriculture and Environment, Energy, and Climate Change - J PAL South Asia

Location: New Delhi, India

The Policy team at J-PAL South Asia (J-PAL SA) disseminates findings of J-PAL’s research, develops relationships with government, civil society, and academic stakeholders, catalyzes scale-ups and replications of effective projects, and assists in conceptualizing new research projects. J-PAL SA seeks a (Senior) Policy Associate to contribute to its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy in J-PAL’s Agriculture (Agriculture | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) and Environment, Energy, and Climate Change (Environment, Energy, and Climate Change | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) sectors.

J-PAL’s Agriculture sector focuses on improving agricultural systems in developing countries, including strategies to help farmers adopt practices and technologies that are profitable or environmentally sustainable. J-PAL’s Environment, Energy, and Climate Change (E2C2) sector measures the real-world impacts of energy and environmental policies, particularly on climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, climate change adaptation, and energy access.

Key Responsibilities

Support the Policy Team in its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy in the Agriculture and E2C2 Sectors: This will entail understanding, summarizing, and supporting the generation and dissemination of J-PAL evidence in the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors. To this end, the Policy Associate/Senior Policy Associate will support:

Evidence Generation: 

Support efforts to understand the policy landscape in the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors and catalyse new randomized evaluation research by matching innovative projects in the region with J-PAL affiliated researchers in the sector;

Evidence Synthesis and Dissemination: This would involve: 

Drafting internal reference materials and policy outreach materials summarizing evidence from J-PAL evaluations related to the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors (e.g., summaries, briefs, policy memos, concept notes, letters, presentations) in clear, accurate, and non-technical language;

Support evidence dissemination activities by curating customised decks and synthesising evidence notes that can be used to present J-PAL evidence in the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors to relevant actors like civil society organisations, donors, governments, and other organisations; 

Track policy developments in the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors and communicate these developments internally to the team;      

Support efforts to prepare senior management for meetings with background research and meeting notes/memos.

Institutionalising an evidence-based approach to policy: Support the work on new and existing strategic partnerships between J-PAL SA and Indian states aimed at institutionalising a data and evidence-informed approach to policy decisions in the sector; 

Scale-ups: This would involve:

Support the development of an evidence-based implementation toolkit as part of J-PAL SA’s effort to develop low touch scaling opportunities. 

Support identification of any new evidence-based scale-up programs in the E2C2 sector by working closely with relevant partners and J-PAL SA’s scale-ups team;

Sector Strategy: Contribute to designing and operationalizing the overall strategy for the Agriculture and E2C2 sectors;

Stakeholder Engagement: Support efforts to build and maintain relationships with key partners in governments, NGOs, foundations, and multilateral aid agencies in the region.

Provide additional support to the Policy Team as required:

Provide cross-sectoral support in order to further J-PAL’s mission to ensure policy-making is driven by rigorous evidence;

Support J-PAL SA in the curation of public goods within the Policy vertical as well as other verticals as required. 

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master's degree (preferably in economics, public policy, energy, environment, climate action, or a related field).
• Experience: This position requires 0-2 years of relevant experience in addition to a relevant Bachelor’s or Master's degree. Demonstrated interest and experience in the agriculture, energy, environment, air and water pollution, and/or climate space is preferred;
• Understanding of Randomized Evaluations: A keen understanding of the value of randomized evaluations and their usefulness for policy decisions is desirable;
• Skills and Competencies:
  • Excellent spoken and written communication skills.
  • Attention to detail and excellent writing and presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand
  • Ability to handle several different projects/tasks at one time, successfully complete tasks assigned, and meet deadlines;
  • Strong interest in international development policy, thematic areas of sustainable agriculture, energy, environment, air and water pollution, climate action, South Asia development, and/or program evaluation as demonstrated by coursework and professional experience;
• Language: Fluency in English (written and oral).