My Job

I got very lucky with my work situation here. I'm doing exactly the kind of work I want to be doing, I really like the people I work with, and it for as good of a cause as any.

The organization I'm working with is called Svaraj (a Hindi word translating roughly to "self-governance" - www.svaraj.info). It used to be the Indian branch of Oxfam Great Britain, but severed itself a few years back to become an entirely Indian organization. It's primary function is project management - big philanthropic organizations and individual donors will give Svaraj money to complete a project. Svaraj, in turn, finds a smaller NGO to handle the implementation of the project, but keeps the management responsibility and accountability towards the funders. It also does a bit of issue-based research and advocacy. The current projects are in the areas of water management (a real big issue out here), disaster relief in Tamil Nadu (the tsunami from a few years ago) and Gujarat (the earthquake in the same year), and the environment.

I was originally supposed to create a business plan for them - a plan describing where and how they were going to secure enough funding to make them sustainable - but as I started this task, it became more and more apparent that they need an overall strategic plan more than anything else. So now, I get to work on the whole deal - the mission/visioning process, the internal/external analysis, and development of the goals and objectives for the organization. It's great because it fits perfectly with my plans to work in management consulting.








My desk.