Africa Indigenous and Local Communities (IPLC) Strategy Director at Nature Conservancy

The Africa IPLC Strategy Director will lead the development and implementation of best practices in community-led conservation. They will collaborate with both private and state entities to ensure whole systems management of critical terrestrial, freshwater, and marine protected areas. This position will collaborate closely with teams across TNC, including Africa regional teams, the Global IPLC team, and the Global Equitable Conservation team. They will grow TNC’s IPLC strategy in the region, including Angola, Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia with a focus on freshwater, oceans, and terrestrial ecosystems, and climate. This position will report to the Africa Conservation Director. This position can be based in any country in Africa where TNC has an office

Roles and Responsibilities scope will include:

• Provide leadership to project teams to apply tools and systems such as free prior and informed consent processes, participatory rural and learning appraisals, and conservation action planning in designing community projects.
• Leads project teams to implement Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) good governance and natural resource management tools and best practices.
• Directs feasibility assessments, and support for developing, and enabling conditions to scale community-led nature enterprises opportunities.
• Supervise the Africa Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) program officer, Gender & Reproductive Health advisor, and the Equity & Rights advisor.
• Partners with the Development and External Affairs team, to raise public and private funds that help increase revenue streams for community engagement and enterprises.
• Ensure that IPLCs are benefitting from participating in the development and implementation of new models of funding such as the Project Finance for Permanence, Debt Swap, and Green Bond structures.
• Lead partnerships with local conservation organizations through the African Conservation Leadership Network (ACLN). They will be responsible for the recruitment of new cohort members and supporting the alumni to achieve their partnership objectives.
• Develop key partnerships with governmental agencies, community, private sector, funding agencies and NGOs to identify and resolve key challenges in community-led conservation and widely communicate solutions, innovative scientific methods, analysis, tools, and frameworks to address organizational and sector gaps in community-led conservation.

What You’ll Bring:

• BA/BS degree and 10 years’ experience in conservation practice or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience providing leadership and managing complex or multiple projects, including managing and supervision of multi-disciplinary teams; finances and coordinating the work of other professionals and partners
• Experience influencing, developing, and implementing conservation policy and plans at the state or country level.
• Fundraising experience, including identifying donor prospects and donor cultivation.
• Experience communicating with and presenting to diverse audiences, including but not limited to donors; board members; employees; community-based organizations, indigenous people, and the private sector.
• Experience building partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, including community or business leaders, government or legislative staff, program leadership and/or similar audiences
• Experience executing Community-led Conservation projects.
• Strong skills in critical thinking, research, and analysis with a proven ability to assess complex information to make strategic decisions.
• Communicating clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and other relevant languages .
• Possess strong interpersonal skills and political savviness. Must be a team player.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Multi-lingual skills (Kiswahili, French and/or Portuguese) and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated
• Written and verbal fluency in English and fluency in another language preferably French.
• Developing practical applications of scientific concepts and technical innovations for conservation purposes.
• Knowledge of methods and standards of biodiversity information systems and initiatives and experience conceiving and implementing strategic initiatives.
• Experience in gender equity and women-led enterprises.
• Familiarity with sustainable livelihoods and relevant stakeholders in Africa, including stakeholders, policies and market opportunities related to grasslands, coastal, and freshwater enterprises (e.g., fisheries enterprises, livestock enterprises, women-led enterprises, ecotourism, etc.).
• Ability to work well in a highly matrixed, decentralized, and collaborative organization.
• Negotiation experience and political savvy.