Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group Director at African Wildlife Foundation

The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) is a coalition of seven international conservation NGOs with extensive field programming in sub-Saharan Africa; African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Conservation International (CI), the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Resources Institute (WRI), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Together with their African partners, these organizations tackle complex conservation challenges by catalyzing and strengthening collaboration on the continent.

The ABCG Director is the external face of the partnership. The Director engages new partners, new participants from existing partners, and new donors to the collective efforts of ABCG. The Director facilitates a team of volunteers from partner organizations and oversees a small Secretariat in order to drive vision setting, strategic and business planning, goal-setting, quality implementation, organizational performance measurement, and reinvention efforts, ensuring alignment with ABCG’s strategic direction. The primary responsibilities for the ABCG Director are to lead ABCG externally and deliver on the multiple work flows of the ABCG Secretariat, ranging from internal coordination to strategy development, donor engagement, program management, communications and external representation to key stakeholders across Africa, as well as in the US and Europe. The Director facilitates ABCG’s efforts to identify and address emerging and high priority threats to biodiversity and encourages ABCG members to contribute the strengths that each brings to the collaborative effort of improving conservation practice in sub Saharan Africa.

Location: Flexibility across AWF offices with a preference for Nairobi

Reports to: Secretariat host institution steering committee representative, currently AWF

Primary Responsibilities And Scope

Partnership Development and Program Design

• Steward ABCG’s vision and strategy both internally and externally: provide the driving force for engagement and excitement for ABCG; represent the organization externally and promote ABCG as a thought leader within the conservation and development sectors
• Cultivate and maintain strategic relationships with key institutions and stakeholders in order to maximize the impact of ABCG results and learnings, and influence policy makers and donors on high priority African conservation issues
• Build support for new programming through identification and cultivation of new funding sources
• Serve as main point of contact with current and future donors; provide conduit for information exchange, feedback, mutual learning, and program development
• Build network of African CSO partners, strengthening on-continent collaboration and elevating African-led solutions
• Design and lead process for selecting and recruiting new ABCG Members
• Convene and facilitate stakeholder consultations, conferences, and knowledge sharing events to promote peer-to-peer learning and cross-organizational collaboration
• Develop and implement a communications and engagement strategy including targeted outreach plans to form linkages with critical actors, grow ABCG’s community of practice, build cross-sector alliances, and expand ABCG’s presence and influence in Africa and with development partners
• Collaborate closely with Member technical staff to determine priority actions for addressing ABCG’s collective impact approach, lead technical proposal and budget development

Organizational Management

• Institutionalize ABCG’s strategic business plan: Coordinate and facilitate collective impact planning; deliver on strategic goals
• Provide oversight, management support, and technical guidance to Member technical staff, ensuring effective and timely activity implementation. Assist teams in defining corrective measures where necessary

• Develop program performance tracking and upward reporting systems. Monitor progress and performance through KPIs prepared and reviewed quarterly
• Oversee budget management and reporting processes including the preparation of annual workplans and budgets, as well as financial and technical reports, ensuring that all Secretariat host institution and donor financial/administrative policies and procedures are adhered to

• Ensure compliance with CFR 200 and other USG rules and regulations
• Administer all grants and contracts flowing from the prime agreement, including managing member subawards and hiring consultants as needed
• Drive production of technical outputs to build the evidence base and design knowledge products to promote ABCG as a thought leader in the African conservation arena
• Manage the ABCG Secretariat staff’s workflows and ensure progress vs. workplan on annual goals

Membership Management

• Create and maintain infrastructure to cultivate and manage new Members
• Align and build consensus among current and new Members, ensuring active participation of all Members
• Lead the transition of ABCG’s governance structures from US-based to Africa-based
• Resolve complex issues independently and develop recommendations for corrective strategies as needed

Job Requirement

• Advanced Degree in natural resources management or related field
• 10 years progressively responsible professional experience in program leadership and management, as well as team management of multidisciplinary staff, with assignments at regional and/or international levels
• Significant experience living and working in Africa and comprehensive understanding of key biodiversity conservation issues impacting Africa
• Experience in field-based conservation in Africa and the application of cross-cutting technical expertise
• Extensive network including African conservation leaders with demonstrated relationship management skills and connections within the African conservation and development sectors both on the continent and abroad
• Experience in guiding and motivating teams in a multicultural environment, as well as collaborative workplan execution and performance monitoring
• Strong managerial and leadership skills, high sense of objectivity, sound analytical capabilities with ability to facilitate, mentor, and build capacity
• A track record of executing difficult, time bound activities dependent on a wide variety of stakeholders
• Program and financial management skills with experience implementing and administering government and multilateral grants
• Proven experience in project design and proposal development
• Excellent attention to detail, systematic, lateral thinking and managing workflow while overseeing multiple priorities of complex programs
• Strong consensus-seeking skills with ability to find common solutions and resolve conflicts in collaborative settings
• Exceptional communication and representational skills, including written and public speaking; ability to articulate a compelling business case
• A sense of humor and flexibility to adapt to a very dynamic environment
• High-level negotiation and diplomatic skills with demonstrated ability to build collaborative partnerships and networks, and manage partner relationships (sub-awardees, institutional partners, donors)
• Innovative, systems-level thinker with ability to situate ABCG within the broader African conservation context
• Knowledge of and experience with the Open Standards for Conservation, Miradi, or comparable planning tools
• Fluency in written and spoken English. Proficiency in French and Swahili is desirable