Regional Director, Africa at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Kenya

Major Functions:

• Leads the strategic planning, conservation strategy and future institutional development of WWF in Africa as the leading conservation INGO in Africa and enables the Africa offices to play a leading role in the WWF Network;
• Provides thought leadership on key issues at the highest organisational level.
• Secures key partnerships and high level political commitment within and outside Africa to deliver conservation impact such as Africa Development Bank, African Union, NEPAD, SADC and African Governments and business leaders to ensure optimal communication and mutually beneficial relationships.
• Develop a highly effective, entrepreneurial and impact driven Africa leadership team
• Builds strong and high-performing offices in Africa equipped with core capacity to deliver impact, and creates a culture of commitment and high standard of work ethics and conservation impact amongst all level of staff;
• Ensures the fulfilment of the organizations mission of ‘people living in harmony with nature’ by ensuring relevance of our conservation work to people and development in Africa
• Ensures the delivery of the conservation strategy and implementation of initiatives on the ground
• Ensure cohesion and consistency across country offices and support senior staff across locations to utilise their full potential to deliver conservation impact

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provides overall direction and leadership in executing WWF strategic objectives, Practice strategies and institutional vision in Africa to achieve the highest conservation impact and outcomes;
• Ensures that Practices overall and Practice initiatives in the region are successful and contribute to the global targets;
• Opens doors & works with the Africa Conservation Director to identify, pursue and maximise opportunities and networks to deliver the most viable transboundary WWF global practice conservation outcomes in Africa
• Working with Conservation Director to identify and pursue crucial opportunities for joint action with other conservation groups on the continent to lead unified conservation agendas as the global deal for nature
• Ensures that WWFs conservation work on the ground is aligned to its social policies, clearly upholding the human rights of people and communities.
• Further strengthens WWF’s profile, reputation and credibility in Africa and influences policies to achieve WWF’s global programme priorities;
• Initiates and leads strategic regional partnerships with governments, corporate, civil society etc relevant to WWF’s institutional vision and global initiatives in Africa;
• Ensures effective communications, in partnership with Country Offices, with WWF Network, governments, international organisations, other non-governmental organisations, industry and public to ensure strong profile of WWF and its activities, as well as leveraging opportunities between national, regional and global levels;
• Ensures WWF in Africa has a solid long term organisational development strategy and is financially strong to deliver on its conservation agenda;
• Ensures Country Offices are adequately resourced and are effectively and efficiently managed in all key areas – conservation, operations, finance, HR, communication, policy and partnerships;
• Ensures the compliance of country offices in Africa with WWF International and WWF Network policies, standards and procedures, including the Compact;
• Provides effective leadership and line management for all members of the senior leadership team at the Africa Secretariat and Country offices;
• Builds a culture of performance, positivity, engagement, creativity and work ethics within all offices in Africa;
• Leads staff effectively through creation of a shared vision ensuring all staff in Africa understand their contribution;
• Perform other duties as requested by the COO at WWF International or his/her delegate.

Required Functional Skills:

• At least 10 years professional experience in a leadership role with demonstrated success in conservation and leading national, regional or international organisations;
• Proven knowledge and experience of the not-for-profit sector, preferably of environmental and/or developmental non-government organisations;
• Proven knowledge and experience of human rights and community based approaches to conservation
• Experience working with and influencing high level government officials other key senior stakeholders in Africa;
• Good understanding of key conservation challenges in Africa and linkages with global priorities;
• Proven track of leading and building an organisation;
• Experience in designing and implementing conservation projects on the ground;
• Broad knowledge of operational issues and performance management, including the development and implementation of successful strategic Business Plans;
• Advanced degree in Environment/Conservation related areas, Business Management, International Relations/Development or other related fields;
• Exposure to and understanding of policy and partnership related work;
• Prior knowledge of the WWF Network an advantage;
• Excellent written and spoken English. French will be an added advantage.

Required Behavioural Skills:

• A proven leader with the capability of growing an organisation’s impact and building future leadership and talent in the organization;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to represent an organization at a range of local and international fora, in the media and with the general public;
• High level negotiation, collaborating and influencing skills and the capacity to develop and maintain strong relationships at all levels in the business, not-for-profit, scientific and political communities;
• Networks at the highest levels of Government and Business;
• Very strategic and demonstrated experience in developing, implementing and evaluating strategic plans;
• Track record of building organizational talent by nurturing performance culture and encouraging empowerment and delegation;
• Decisive, courageous and resilient;
• Passion for conservation and WWF’s mandate;
• Committed to equal opportunity employment policies;
• High level of integrity;
• Experience and a good understanding of operating in different cultural environment and managing remote teams;
• Ability to drive change and high performance;
• Demonstrates WWF behaviors in way of working:Strive for Impact, Listen Deeply, Collaborate Openly, Innovate Fearlessly;
• Adheres to WWF’s values:Knowledgeable, Optimistic, Determined and Engaging.