The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.
Based in Democratic Republic of Congo – Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) seeks to appoint a
SATEGTRIC PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
WCS seeks candidates for a Strategic Partnerships Manager (SPM) to coordinate and manage a rapidly growing partner portfolio around WCS-supported protected area landscapes in Eastern DRC. The SPM will also strengthen donor relationships, and identify new donor and partnership opportunities. to support our objectives to conserve biodiversity, promote human-rights based approaches to biodiversity conservation, resolve natural resource-based conflict and stimulate green economies . The DRC Program is one of WCS’s single largest field programs in its global portfolio. Specifically, the Strategic Partnership Manager (SPM) will be the primary focal point and liaison between our protected area management team and implementation partners and donors on a large portfolio of multi-sector bilateral funding awards around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Ituri Province. These awards integrate funding and expertise across biodiversity conservation, peace and security, and economic growth in order to address the multiple challenges to protected areas and local communities and Indigenous Peoples who live in and around them. We anticipate this multi-sector approach to protected area management to be progressively scaled to other protected area landscapes in Eastern DRC in which WCS is actively engaged; namely the Kahuzi Biega National Park in South Kivu Province, and the Kabobo Wildlife Reserve in Tanganyika province, and the SPM is expected to play a major role in enabling that growth.
The SPM will work closely with the protected area management teams overseeing implementation, the WCS Eastern DRC operational support office in Goma, the WCS DRC country program senior management team in Kinshasa and the WCS regional technical and management team in Kigali, Rwanda, and will deliver on the following responsibilities:
Manage a portfolio of donor relationships, including bilateral (USAID and AFD) and multi-laterals (GEF and CAFI) in close coordination with the Country and Regional office
Identify and coordinate strategic partnerships and new donor relationships to support WCS DRC strategic objectives in our protected area landscapes
Support new contract and agreement negotiations
Represent WCS DRC strategic objectives and protected area landscapes in policy discussions and technical/partner meetings on key issues
Stay abreast of conservation and sustainable development sector trends in DRC, regularly briefing the Country Director and senior management, and providing input to strategic planning
Coordinate the development and design of program concepts or strategic grant submissions and partnership proposals
Coordinate and write funding proposals/undertake partnership negotiations.
Facilitate information sharing across the organization, between the protected area management teams, Country Office and Regional team.
Coordinate quality donor reporting for multi-sectorial and multi-partner grants and partnerships (in collaboration with Protected area management and Country and Regional management team).
Identify and support recruitment, new staff onboarding and capacity building and mentoring of implementation team members.
The Strategic Partnerships Manager must meet the following functional and experiential criteria:
Significant experience (>8 years) of project management.
Experience working in inter-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams and managing several major activities simultaneously.
Experience managing multilateral/bilateral donor-funded projects, with multiple project partners and diverse project elements. Experience of managing USAID-funded projects preferred.
Proven ability to achieve project targets and objectives, delivering quality work on tight deadlines.
Experience of designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
Experience in conservation or the field of natural resource management
Experience working in Central Africa region and specifically DRC would be an advantage.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Demonstrated experience in building and strengthening relationships and partnerships
Demonstrated experience working in a culturally diverse organization and the ability to communicate ideas and concepts to a broad range of stakeholders
Highly developed proposal and report writing skills
Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English with professional competency in French
Highly computer and internet literate.
Excellent organizational, planning and representational skills
Ability to present concepts verbally
Commitment to WCS’s mission and values and the ability to represent these within the organization and to external stakeholders
Willingness to commit to the position for at least 2 years
