Programme Manager, Land Systems - Kenya/Chief of Party, REPLAN Project at International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

As Programme Manager, Land Systems- Kenya;

• Land systems programme strategy and development;
• Lead the development, implementation, and periodic review of the Land Systems country programme strategy, ensuring alignment with IUCN’s global strategy and national development frameworks.
• Identify priority landscapes, thematic areas, and delivery approaches that maximize conservation, livelihoods, and governance impacts.
• Translate strategic priorities into a coherent high-quality project pipeline.
• Resource mobilization and programme growth;
• Lead resource mobilization efforts to grow and diversify the Land Systems portfolio including engagement with bilateral and multilateral donors, relevant government institutions, NGOs, foundations, and private sector partners.
• Lead concept development and proposal preparation, ensuring strong technical quality, donor alignment, and competitive positioning.
• Support innovative financing approaches (e.g. PES, blended finance, nature-based solutions).
• Partnerships and stakeholder engagement;
• Establish and maintain strong strategic relationships with key government institutions, donors, NGOs, research institutions, private sector actors, and community organizations.
• Position IUCN as a trusted, go-to partner on land systems, conservation governance, and sustainable landscapes, sustainable urban resilience.
• Represent IUCN in national, regional, and international policy and technical forums related to land systems.
• Programme leadership and oversight;
• Provide strategic leadership and oversight to the Land Systems programme team, fostering a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive working culture.
• Ensure effective programme delivery, quality assurance, risk management, and compliance with IUCN policies and donor requirements.
• Promote adaptive management, learning, and evidence-based decision-making across the programme.
• Policy influence, thought leadership and visibility;
• Lead policy engagement and advocacy on land systems, conservation governance, and sustainable development at national and sub-national levels.
• Strengthen science–policy–practice linkages and promote uptake of evidence into policy and planning processes.
• Contribute to IUCN’s regional and global knowledge products and strategic initiatives.
• Increase the visibility and profile of the Land Systems programme through strategic communications, partnerships, and knowledge dissemination.
• Support the development of compelling impact stories, learning products, and communications materials in collaboration with communications teams.
• Strengthen IUCN’s brand and reputation as a leading authority on land systems and sustainable landscapes.
• Cross-programme collaboration;
• Work closely with other country and regional programmes (e.g. IWRM, COR, Climate and Biodiversity) to promote integrated, nexus-based approaches.
• Support coherence and synergies across projects, partners, and landscapes.

As Chief of Party, REPLAN project;

• Project management;
• Lead the development of annual activity and procurement work plan, as well as budget based on expected outputs
• Work closely with the finance and procurement team on matters including financial planning, expenditure tracking, sub-contracting to implementing partners and procurement of goods and services to ensure IUCN policies are applied and EUD requirements are followed
• Supervise agreed project management procedures to facilitate project implementation and ensure delivery of high-quality outcomes;
• Supervise the project team, service providers and consultants that work for the project;
• Prepare any required updates / summaries on the projects and participate in project-related meetings with the EUD, project steering committee, service providers, private sector, development partners working group etc.
• Policy and partnership management;
• Build, maintain and manage effective working relationships with partners and donor.
• Ensure that service providers deliver to the highest standards, support project objectives and targets.
• Ensure landscapes team and related stakeholder platforms work coherently.
• Facilitate communications and linkages at sub-regional and national levels, as well as within the REPLAN partners, service providers and EUD.
• Ensure continuous liaison with the relevant Government agencies, NGOs and private sector.
• Technical direction and capacity building;
• Provide technical inputs to the implementation of the different project activities and outputs – by providing technical inputs to workshop presentations, to studies, to advisory services and to other activities and outputs of the project.
• Provide economic, scientific, technical and administrative leadership to the project team and act as the main representative of the project.
• Oversee all cross-cutting activities and ensure their strong support of and synergy with technical implementation objectives and vision, including, but not limited to: communications and outreach; gender and youth mainstreaming, knowledge management.
• Monitoring, evaluation, reporting and safeguards oversight;
• Monitor and report the implementation of environmental and social risk management measures including human right based approaches undertaken through the project cycle.
• Coordinate and contribute to the preparation and publication of national scientific and technical outputs from the project.
• Ensure project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework is developed and operationalized to track progress and measure impact;
• Follow up on 1) the compliance of project implementation with EUD policies, IUCN policies and safeguards 2) the performance of the projects with the target indicators, logical framework, workplan and budget through regular reporting and on-site supervision missions.
• Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time;

REQUIREMENTS

Education;

• A post graduate degree preferably in Natural Resources Management, Climate Change, Environmental Science, Ecology, Project Management, Forest Management, 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 twelve (12) years of proven experience in:

• Sound expertise in large scale resources mobilization;
• Sound expertise in the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of large environmental projects;
• Experience in engaging with donors, partners, central and local government authorities;
• Skills and experience of advocating and influencing policies that support conservation and address the social dimensions of conservation, including community engagement, livelihood, indigenous rights, and social equity;
• Experienced in network development and alliance building for synergistic action;
• Must be a proactive individual committed to continuous learning and attitude towards self-development;