Program Manager- Affirming Rights of Communities at Natural Justice

Under the guidance and supervision of the Hub Director, and working closely with the Head of the Program, the Program Manager shall perform the following duties:

Leadership

• Provide effective leadership to the staff within the program including mentorship, coaching, team building and on-the-job training to enhance employee performance and other leadership interventions.
• Provide oversight and support to the program on matters concerning program activities and deliverables.

Strategic planning, project development and work planning

• Develop the overall program strategy.
• Oversee the implementation of the program strategy, its projects, deliverables, and annual plans, ensuring their alignment with Natural Justice’s overall program strategy

Technical Advice

• Provide technical and legal advice to partners, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders.
• Lead and assist with drafting legal documents (letters, drafting of pleadings etc.) to advance strategic litigation on behalf of Natural Justice and/or with key partners within the environmental, climate, indigenous and local peoples, and land justice focus areas.
• Support litigation of relevant cases
• Support community training on laws, policies and processes that impact communities’ rights and access to land and the environment.
• Respond to inquiries from partners and relevant stakeholders.
• Deliver presentations, organize and conduct workshops/meetings.

Policy and Legal Reform

• Identify and engage with key policy issues and key collaborators.
• Provide comments and make submissions on relevant law and policy.
• Develop and implement a strategic advocacy policy for the program.

Legal Empowerment and policy reforms

• With the other Hub Program Managers, oversee the paralegal projects and provide direct advice and assistance.
• Develop, improve and deliver community training on laws and legal empowerment methodologies.
• Link litigation to advocacy campaigns.
• Provide leadership in identifying and engaging with key policy issues and key collaborators.
• Maximize leverage of key partners in influencing policy and legal reforms in the Hub (Provide comments and make submissions on relevant laws and policies).
• Develop and implement a strategic advocacy policy for Affirming Rights.

Research and MERL

• In liaison with the research team, develop the program’s research, monitoring, evaluation and learning tools.
• Write collaborative research reports, concept documents, academic papers, and organizational reports.
• Work with Natural Justice’s Affirming Rights team to lead strategy planning and progress meetings and facilitate updates and learnings from across the region.

Partnerships, Networks and Communication

• Identify, build and maintain networks and/or partnerships with relevant stakeholders from government, civil society groups, community-based organizations, the private sector and academia.
• Support the development of partnership documents (MOUs, etc.) where relevant.
• In coordination with the communications team, write articles, comments, statements, articles, blogs and reports relevant to the program for public distribution, including on the Natural Justice website, social media, legal media, etc.
• Contribute to the communications and campaign strategies and outputs of the Hub.
• Represent Natural Justice in country and regional meetings.

Finance and Administration, Fundraising and Reporting

• Manage the financial, administrative and procurement processes of the projects within the program.
• Manage individual budgets from funders and provide financial guidance to junior staff.
• Assist the Hub Director to identify funding sources, prepare grant applications, and develop and manage relationships with funders and to regularly update donors on work progress and involve them in ongoing work.
• Be accountable for the safe keeping of organizational information for the relevant program.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Law, from a recognized university.
• A post-graduate degree in law, political science or other relevant social science discipline will be an added advantage.
• Knowledge of Kenya’s constitutional and administrative law, including human rights, land & environmental law.
• Minimum of 5 years relevant work experience in environmental and/or climate change law, including natural resource and/or land law, and administrative law or human rights litigation.
• Understanding of and proficiency in Kenyan and regional legal systems and institutional arrangements.