State Coordinator – Karnataka

About YRG MERF

Established in 1993, YRGMERF is a pioneering non-governmental organisation in India, committed to transforming lives through integrated healthcare, inclusive partnerships, and forward-looking research. Grounded in the values of integrity and sustainability, we address both immediate and evolving societal challenges empowering communities to attain equitable and lasting health outcomes. We provide comprehensive services across prevention, care, support, and treatment, particularly for those affected by HIV and other infectious diseases.

Role Overview

The State Coordinator for Karnataka is the senior-most project person in the state and is responsible for all field operations in the two Karnataka districts. This includes managing the District Coordinators, liaising with the State Health Mission and state IDSP office, overseeing community mobilisation, ensuring training quality, and maintaining relationships with district health administration. The State Coordinator spends roughly 60% of the time in the field (district visits, training supervision, government meetings at district level) and 40% at the Bengaluru base (state-level coordination, reporting, planning).

Key Responsibilities

Field Operations Management

• Directly supervise the two District Coordinators in Karnataka. Conduct weekly calls and fortnightly in-person reviews with each District Coordinator to track progress against the monthly operational plan
  


• Conduct at least required field visits per month across the two districts, to ensure mentoring of community sentinels done at least 2 times in a quarter in addition to frequent visits to the community sentinels in the outbreak geographies.
  


• Oversee the mapping of stakeholders, rewards and recognition systems including identification and engagement of community sentinels as per the agreed criteria and get approvals from the State ISDP and District Surveillance teams. Ensure that the selection process is inclusive and reaches hamlets and tribal settlements, not just main village clusters
  


• Supervise the conduct of all training workshops in Karnataka districts: verify venue readiness, review training content with the District Coordinator before each session, attend at least the first session of each training batch to assess trainer quality and participant engagement, and review participant feedback forms
  


• Support in feasibility run of the IHIP community reporting tool, monitor the rollout of IHIP community-based reporting in the districts. Work with District Coordinators to troubleshoot technical problems (network connectivity, device issues, IHIP module errors) and report systemic issues to the Project Lead
  


• Manages coordination efforts among various stakeholders to ensure closing the loop for each community signals reported from the field. Review the community signals who are facing challenges in continuing the activities.
  


• Manages development or adaption of video based SOP, sensitisation materials, FAQ and user guides, demand generation materials in Kannada languages.
  


• Ensure that the 24-hour verification protocol is being adhered to: review verification logs weekly, identify Medical Officers or facilities where verification is consistently delayed, and escalate to the DSO or Block Medical Officer as needed.
  

Government Liaison

• Maintain regular contact with the Karnataka State Health Mission, state IDSP unit, and the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare. Keep state authorities informed about project progress and seek their guidance on alignment with state health priorities
  


• Attend District Health Action Plan meetings, district IDSP review meetings, and other relevant government coordination forums in the project districts. Ensure that SCS activities are reflected in government records and are not running invisibly alongside official programmes
  


• Facilitate the relationship between District Coordinators and the district health administration (DHO, DSO, Block Medical Officers). Where new District Coordinators need introductions or where relationships are strained, the State Coordinator steps in to resolve issues
  


• Coordinate with the Veterinary, Forest, Agriculture Department at state and district level to facilitate the joint surveillance sessions planned under Activity 6
  

Reporting and Quality

• Manage online performance tracker to monitor fortnightly state-level progress updates for the Project Lead covering: community mobilisation numbers, training completion, IHIP reporting status, government coordination activities, challenges encountered, and proposed solutions
  


• Review all data submitted by District Coordinators before it goes into the DATA QUALITY CONTROL tracker. Verify figures against field visit observations and training attendance sheets. Do not forward data that has not been independently cross-checked
  


• Contribute to quarterly donor reports by providing the Karnataka-specific narrative and data sections
  


• Document good practices, community responses, and operational learning from the Karnataka districts. Share these with the Program Associate for inclusion in project knowledge products.