Openings at African Wildlife Foundation

About the Role

The Senior Manager for Classroom Africa will be responsible for the leadership of the program; overseeing the strategy review, program development and implementation while ensuring a key focus to overall AWF priorities and strategic direction in a landscape-based model.

Required capabilities for this position are a strong commitment to the program and organization by exhibiting a willingness to travel 50% of the time; being a team player with interpersonal skills and an ability to work closely and collaboratively with the landscape and country teams. Experience managing a large (5 – 7 ongoing projects) multi-million-dollar portfolio is necessary. Adaptability, flexibility, and commitment to the strategy are all necessary attributes.

Responsibilities

• Continuous improvement of Classroom Africa Strategy – v2.0
• Lead the implementation of the CA strategy in line with AWF’s priority landscapes
• Collaborate closely with landscape directors/managers and Country Directors in the adaptation and integration of the new strategy, ensuring a sense of ownership for the CA programs in their landscapes
• Support and facilitate dialogue with the Conservation Leadership Board sub-committee (Board Representatives) on the strategy review and general direction of CA
• Support fundraising efforts for effective implementation of the new strategy.

Manage and expand Classroom Africa program

• Lead the development and implementation of Conservation Education programs across AWF landscapes in Africa.
• Support landscape and country teams to integrate program-planning documents to the chosen program management system for general operations, new school development and ongoing support for each school.
• Supervise the Conservation Education Officer in ensuring that plans are updated on a weekly basis to set priorities and ensure effective management of the program.
• Provide oversight and guidance to the officer (s) and partners on programs and ensure quality implementation
• Ensure all programming aligns to AWF Rights based approach
• Support in setting up a criterion and a process for taking on infrastructure development or rehabilitation
• Supervise Construction Project Manager to ensure any school infrastructure projects align with Classroom Africa’s new strategy, are thoughtfully identified and coordinated through country programs.
• Support any maintenance activities of ongoing schools by developing and adhering to maintenance plans.

Collaboration with Youth and Leadership Programs

• It is critical that Classroom Africa works closely with the youth program and Conservation Leadership programs to:
• Ensure a flow of potential conservation leaders from the landscapes where we work
• Ensure effective marketing and story telling for the broader program
• Together with the landscape and country teams, develop the implementation of an overall partner strategy to ensure effective engagement and advancement of objectives and goals.
• Together with the landscape and country teams, develop and oversee implementation of an approach to improve quality of education for each school and achieve aims of academic excellence, including professional development for teachers.
• Work with relevant team members (both Classroom Africa team and landscape teams) to identify conservation education partners for each school, develop a conservation education work plan, and coordinate delivery of activities.
• Work with relevant team members (both Classroom Africa team and landscape teams) to identify relevant professional development partners for each school; with the head teacher and local education authorities, coordinate needed trainings.
• For each school, assess (if any) the needs for technology and media; identify partners and/or supplies for needed books and technology assets. Where technology is used, ensure training materials are procured and conduct training.
• Remain up to date on industry knowledge by tracking and reading publications, maintaining networks, following professional organizations, and attending conferences or seminars if needed.
• Build and maintain relationships with communities, education authorities, schools and other stakeholders as necessary to ensure effective operations of schools and successful achievement of Classroom Africa objectives at each school.

Site selection and program expansion

• Work with senior management, Senior Director of Project Management and Partnerships and Country Directors to develop potential new landscape proposals for Classroom Africa engagement; identify potential conservation need (impact) of Classroom Africa in a proposed landscape.
• Participate in school site scoping with landscape and country teams and other relevant parties / stakeholders as appropriate.
• Develop new site proposals for Classroom Africa Sub- Committee review and approval.
• Working closely with landscape teams, lead engagement with communities and local education authorities in the development and negotiation of new partnership agreements.
• Working closely with landscape teams support the develop program partner agreements, obtain necessary internal approvals, and work with landscape teams to execute agreements with communities and relevant education authorities.

Financial and operational management

• Oversee and approve financial transactions (payments, invoices, contract development) for the Classroom Africa program.
• Monitor expenditures to ensure program operations and schools are within the approved budget.
• Identify programmatic funding gaps and needs; liaise with the fundraising teams to ensure efficient communication of Classroom Africa fundraising priorities.
• Prepare financial reports for the Classroom Africa Sub-Committee, and senior management as requested.
• Document and publicize the impact achieved within target landscape.
• Develop CA annual budgets and support approval process by the leadership
• Continuously support the M&E team in the improvement of the
• Update programmatic M&E metrics for the Classroom Africa program and provide analysis for regular reporting.
• Collate data metrics for AWF Board of Trustee updates.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in education, environmental science, project management, or related field.
• Seven years of experience developing and managing programs in Africa.
• Experience managing complex projects with multiple partners, donors and stakeholders.
• Experience in identification and cultivation of field partners, development of partnership agreements, and management of partner engagements.
• Experience working and negotiating with communities and government agencies in an African context.
• Experience and ability to engage with senior management, trustees and donors.
• Ability and willingness to travel at least 50% of the time sometimes to very remote locations.
• Proven track record of ensuring timely, efficient and successful implementation.
• Ability to think strategically, to understand program’s role in larger conservation efforts, organizational strategic objectives and to develop creative, pragmatic approaches to forward planning.
• Ability to be team leader, including management of team resources (both financial and human), providing guidance and mentorship to junior staff, and ensuring team’s delivery of goals.
• Excellent English oral and written communication skills, interpersonal skills, flexibility, and cultural sensitivity; fluency in French considered an asset.
• Understanding of basic financial principles, budgeting, and cost analysis.
• Patience, listening skills, and a sense of humor.
• Demonstrated commitment to conservation of wildlife and wild lands.

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Position Summary

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 Partnership Development Specialist fulfills a key role in supporting partnership development, engagement with key major funders and prospects and oversee progressive improvements in systems for capturing and sharing information and generating successful funding approaches.

The Partnership Development Specialist will contribute to ABCG’s resource mobilization objectives through identification of funding opportunities and in coordination with member organizations, support the development of high quality, compelling solicited and unsolicited grant applications to ABCG’s current and prospective public-private development partners. Primary objectives for the position include:  Identification of new funding opportunities to support ABCG’s work at country and regional levels; donor reports; support to the development of strategic grant applications, timely review and submission of concept notes and proposals; provision of donor intelligence and assurance of strategic alignment of ABCG objectives with donor priorities and objectives; assisting and supporting other relevant units with outreach and stewardship of major donors and prospects; and managing ABCG’s resource development knowledge and information sharing platform. This position works closely with ABCG member organizations, government, multilateral, and private donors, and other regional-global partners.

Primary Responsibilities and Scope

Partnership Outreach and Engagement

• Researches online solicited funding opportunities for potential Concept Note of proposal submission; liaises with ABCG member country office teams to coordinate resource mobilization activities.

 Reporting, Proposal Development and Coordination

• In accordance with USAID (and other donor) grant management guidelines and requirements, prepares draft reports.
• Investigation, identification, and verification of new solicited funding opportunities for relevant campaigns and/or initiatives.
• Supports member organization RM teams in all stages of ‘pre-award’ functions (concept note/proposal development, planning, drafting, editing, internal clearances and submission of high value solicitation documents) and efficient transfer of approved awards to relevant Program/Grant Management units.
• Coordinates and cultivates relationships with major funders and prospects, by hosting funding partners visits in AWF’s headquarters in Nairobi or organizing delegations to funder offices, with particular attention to funders based in Nairobi and across the Africa region  
• Working closely with ABCG’s Communications and Engagement Specialist, increases visibility of ABCG’s work and outreach to major current funders and prospects.
• Increases in the number of secured new funding

 Strategy, Analysis and Reporting

• Maintains efficient knowledge sharing and information portal in AWF SharePoint system for capturing and sharing information and managing donor intelligence to enable successful funding approaches and institutional understanding of ABCG-specific resource development activities.
• Supports the ABCG Steering Committee on reporting progress in key areas of the funding strategy and preparation of briefing materials for donor presentations and/or meetings.

Program Management

• Leads the ABCG donor reporting process for bi-annual technical reports, and preparation of annual workplans for submission to USAID in collaboration with the ABCG Director, as well as ABCG member technical staff.
• In coordination with CoE, develops templates and format technical outputs in adherence to USAID’s Graphics and Standards Manual, and Branding and Marking Plan.
• Helps ensure compliance with U.S. government policies and procedures, in collaboration with the ABCG Director and host institution grants management staff.
• Supports the ABCG Director in other relevant tasks as requested.

 Key Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in business administration, international relations, communications, or a related field. A first degree with professional experience will be considered
• 3-5 years of demonstrated and progressive experience in program management and/or resource mobilization/partnerships.
• Expert knowledge in web-based research.
• Expert knowledge and understanding of the funding landscape for international development/conservation organizations.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and competing priorities across time zones where ABCG members are located (Africa, USA)
• Fluency in English; Swahili and French would be an advantage. 

Desirable Qualifications

• Project management experience
• USAID Grant Management/Reporting experience

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Description

Reporting to the Senior Officer, Project Management, the Project Management Assistant will provide support in tracking project management and delivery, reviewing project progress, monitoring project risks and change and documenting lessons learned. The position will be based in Nairobi, AWF headquarters.

Responsibilities:

• Provide project management support by developing detailed work plans, tracking implementation progress and key deliverables.
• Ensure work plans are uploaded into the project management system (Envisio), inclusive of projected activities due dates, expected deliverables, resources and allocated budgets.
• Support compilation and review of reports and means verification documentation ensuring adherence to stipulated guidelines.
• Maintain a repository of documented project implementation deliverables including internal progress reports, means of verification documentation and technical donor reports on Box.
• Work with the Senior Officer, Project Management to train users of Envisio to ensure better use of AWF’s project management system.
• Run periodic project performance and progress report dashboards from Envisio to be shared with project leads.
• Assist Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team with tracking and following up on data collection requirements of each project, ensuring both donor and AWF compliance.
• Upload project performance metrics on Envisio, design and update dashboards from data collected from projects.
• Maintain and update the project risk and issues management logs.
• Produce reports from Envisio highlighting implementation status, deviations from actual plans and areas requiring action.
• Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Project Management, International Relations, Business Administration, Environmental Studies or any closely related field.
• 2 years’ experience in project/program management.
• NGO experience preferred.
• Strong planning, coordination and analytical skills.
• Computer literacy to use all MS Office Packages i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Excellent Interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in project management software/system is an added advantage.
• Proficiency in report writing.
• Attention to detail.