Career in the Development Sector

Career in the Development Sector
Over three million people work in the development sector . The development sector supports national policies for growth, or reacts to the failures of state policies . Welfare projects and initiatives for sustainable development support and give impetus to social, economic, cultural issues.
Non Governmental organizations (NGO's) play an integral role in Development activities. The issues they cater to are environment, urban governance, health, gender issues, rural development, micro enterprises and training. In each of these areas there are a wide variety of issues for development. Many of these are issues under state governance but the development sector enhances its implementation.
This sector offers diversity of work opportunities. Professionals working in this sector come from diverse backgrounds and much depends on the mission of the Non Governmental Organization(NGO) they work with.
The jobs
Management hierarchy in large NGO's is similar to large corporates- Managers, directors for accounts, HR, marketing etc. The lower level of operations- field work etc is far less structured. Advocacy or promoting the cause of an NGO is a Public Relations function.

Environment - The areas of work which NGO's are involved in this sector varies significantly. Some NGO's may be involved in primary or secondary data collection while others may be lobbying for a cause, still others are involved in awareness generation, fighting legal issues of projects, resource management, fund raising etc.

Rural Development- Rural development is a broad area encompassing work in areas such as natural resource management, income generation, marketing of products created in rural locations, community management, health, education, low cost energy systems, etc. There are NGO's, community groups, donor agencies, quasi-governmental organizations working for different aspects of rural development.

Communications - Communications is a very important activity which NGO's take up e.g for gender related issues, environment issues etc. The medium of communication involves the print medium, theatre, puppetry, films, music etc. Magazines , newsletters covering specific developmental issues, film production, internet/online services have significant appeal.

Networking - Connecting and sharing information and resources is another activity. Sharing information, data for analysis, research, raising issues on a common platform dissemination of information, training collectively are activities which some agencies perform.

Employment Avenues
NGO's employ people with qualifications and work experience in sales, finance, HR, IT, planning, social work or economics, engineering, law, agriculture etc.

Environment - There are several governmental organizations involved in various aspects of this sector. Tata Energy and Research Institute(TERI) ,a non profit research institute deals with issues concerning energy, environment, economy, sustainable development, forestry , and other issues of national or global relevance.Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) campaigns actively for the protection of wildlife and its trade. Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) deals with environmental issues across the country. It addresses issues such as waste management and awareness. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research organization which disseminates information about science and environment. Issues such as water pollution and rain water harvesting, vehicular pollution are its thrust areas. Several non profit organizations such as Jan Seva Ashram and Development Alternatives work in the area of waste paper recycling, making hand made paper etc.

Other areas of work are environmental journalism, environmental law, Forest Service, Forest Management, Energy conservation, environmental appreciation including travel.

Rural Development - Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development (SPWD) works in different states for schemes such as watershed management, forest management, wasteland development resource conservation etc. Association for Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development provides resources and technical expertise. Aga Khan Rural Support Program works in the areas of community & human resource development as well as in land & water sector. Other examples are SEWA , VIKSAT, CHIRAG which are some more organizations working in this area.

Communication- Individuals can work on their own in this e.g NOW (New Opportunities for Women) is an innovative initiative specializing in developing communication messages to different social sectors. It forms a chain of information among NGO's. Another venture is ‘unnati' which translates articles on gender, health into regional languages.

Some training options

PRLA(Participatory research in Asia) is an organization which conducts workshops for training personnel for working with NGO's at different levels. They train them for planning, strategizing, execution and delivery of projects.

Pravash trains staff for NGO's for creating awareness.

TERI, Ne w Delhi www.terischool.ac.in is a deemed university which offers PG courses in Natural Resources Management.

Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun

Salim Ali School of Ecology, Pondicherry offers MS &PhD in Ecology

Wildlife Institute , Chandrabani, Dehradun

The Indian Institute of Ecology & Environment, New Delhi 110030

Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai

Indian Institute of Rural Management, Anand

School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi.

International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development www.icecd.org offers a mangement course in NGO Management

Wildlife Society of India, New Delhi; World Wildlife Fund, India runs education outreach and India Canada Environment Facility scheme in several Indian states . Envioranmental Law can also be studied with WWF.Centre for Science & Environment, New Delhi; Centre for Environmental Education, Bangalore; Jan Sewa Ashram, New Delhi; Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology, New Delhi.; Nehru Foundation for Development, Ahmedabad ( indicative list)

Sponsors /Funding Agencies - Support for NGO's, scholarships for training, specific programme support are issues addressed by charities, businesses, institutional supporters etc.