The IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) operates in twenty-four countries in the Horn of Africa, east Africa, southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean. The ESARO region is extremely rich in biodiversity with high number of endemic species and the largest remaining populations of iconic wildlife left on the continent. ESARO’s Programme focuses on biodiversity conservation through a diverse portfolio of projects and programmatic initiatives ranging from activities at the level of individual protected areas to shaping regional policy on biodiversity conservation. ESARO defines and delivers on its programmatic priorities in collaboration with IUCN members, commissions and other strategic partners.
The Coastal and Ocean Resilience (COR) Programme is responsible for marine and coastal issues, including biodiversity conservation, development and management of marine protected areas, other effective conservation measures (OECMs) and their networks, blue economy, ecosystem and fisheries management, High Seas, blue carbon, marine spatial planning, marine pollution, integrated management and governance of coastal areas, adaptation to climate change and disasters risks reduction.
Major Responsibilities:
Implementation and portfolio management:
Oversee the development of the WIOCOR activities workplan and related budget, in collaboration with other regional leads, national teams and partners;
Day-to-day coordination of project implementation and activities delivery in order to ensure the highest quality of outputs and outcomes as well as guarantee that activities are implemented in line with project workplans and budgets;
Develop relevant programme KPIs and ensure its good monitoring and reporting;
Support national and lead on regional technical reporting for the WIOCOR project.
Strategic and Technical leadership:
Provide leadership, strategic guidance and direction to the Blue People Regional area of work, as a member of the Regional COR Team;
Lead the strategic development of the Blue People area of work, including periodically conducting situation and scoping analysis to develop/refine the COR strategic framework, ensuring that priorities identified are relevant to IUCN’s members and partners and aligned with IUCN’s value proposition;
Act as a driving force for innovation to position IUCN as a leading organization in terms of supporting the development of a regenerative blue economy;
Ensuring that IUCN’s work in the region is of high technical quality, based on good science and drawing upon state-of-the-art thinking and knowledge;
Unlock synergies and collaboration with other regional COR area of works and IUCN ESARO’s programmes and projects when and where possible;
External engagement and communication:
Ensure that IUCN is adequately represented in relevant regional and international fora and negotiations and facilitate discussions on relevant marine and coastal emerging issues to position IUCN as a reference in the region;
Provide evidence-based support and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues on emerging issues and policy debates;
Lead coherent and consistent communication of lessons learnt to key decision-makers and other stakeholders within the region and globally as appropriate, including via the web, print and media;
Lead in identifying and managing potential risks associated with IUCN’s public positions and design strategies to mitigate the risks that have been identified;
Act as a focal point for facilitating and supporting the involvement of IUCN Commissions, Members and other members of the Secretariat in the development and implementation of programmatic activities.
Programme Development and Resource Mobilization:
Lead in the identification of strategic fundraising leads and in developing related concepts, in particular in line with the WIOCOR project. This will involve establishing, maintaining and nurturing good relationships with donors, funding agencies and other technical partners so as to ensure the financial viability of the Blue People pillar of the COR programme;
Lead the development of related full proposals once a concept note has been selected. This work requires coordination with the national teams, regional team, global programme colleagues as well as with IUCN members, partners and consultants;
Work with IUCN ESARO COR Head and senior management to identify donors and key strategic partners aligned to thematic and cross thematic priorities in the ESARO region.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
Contributing to the development of the ESARO COR Intersessional Programme Monitoring and Evaluation Framework;
Ensure IUCN work is accountable to our donor, in particular FFEM, and other stakeholders through the establishment and management of effective accountability mechanisms and processes;
Provide leadership to use data for programme decision making, for the implementation of management actions based on the findings of monitoring, and to ensure that feedback from stakeholders inform programme development;
Lead regional reporting processes and requirementsPosition requirements:
Education:
An advanced degree in environment, conservation, international cooperation or related fields;
Computer literacy in relation to office applications (word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint) use of internet and online communication tools;
Work Experience:
We’re looking for an outstanding, hands-on, highly motivated, autonomous, innovative, solution oriented, results driven and resourceful individual with at least seven years of proven experience with:
Sound expertise in supporting and developing marine and coastal livelihoods, conservation enterprises, blue entrepreneurship, ocean ventures, blue economy or related fields;
Strong expertise and experience in designing and implementing livelihood and entrepreneurship development activities; experience with venture building, incubation and/or acceleration mechanism an added advantage;
Up-to-date knowledge on climate impacts on coastal and marine systems, coastal and marine biodiversity conservation, with particular reference to regenerative marine and coastal production systems and practices highly desirable;
Strong knowledge of blue carbon ecosystems highly desirable, with a particular interest for seagrass ecosystem.
Familiarity with established and emerging nature and people positive approaches to sustainable use of marine/coastal natural resources, in particular in the context of the newly established Global Biodiversity Framework;
Experience in network development and alliance building skills to consult and collaborate across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals; demonstrated ability to build consensus in cross-cultural situations;
Ability to interact effectively with and directly support or identify experts required to support all aspects of the ESARO Programme with information on regenerative blue production system and entrepreneurship;
Experience with result-based portfolio and project cycle management, monitoring and evaluation methodologies and principles and facilitation skills;
Strong experience with project and programme development and management, with demonstrated fundraising, budgeting and programme planning abilities and past performance, including experience of development and successful marketing of project proposals with donors, and subsequent delivery and reporting;
Experience with important bilateral and multilateral donors;
Strong interpersonal, management and supervisory skills and experience, with a minimum of 5 years’ in managing organizations and/or teams;
Computer literacy in relation to office applications (word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint) use of internet and online communication tools;
Demonstrates strong leadership and people - management experience including supervision of staff, consultants and coordination and effective management of virtual team settings;
Demonstrated ability to work under pressure managing competing demands and complex situations and deliver satisfactory and timely results;
Must be a strong team player with proven communication and diplomacy skills and ability to work effectively with multicultural and multidisciplinary teams displaying sensitivity and respect for diversity;
Must be a proactive individual who is able to energize and motivate teams;
Committed to continuous learning and proactive and mature attitude towards self-development;
Language requirement:
Excellent verbal and communication skills in English and French is a must, with ability to communicate in Portuguese as an added advantage;
