Vacancies at Nature Conservancy

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU
TNC seeks a Wetlands Conservation Specialist to advance TNC’s freshwater strategy within our strategic geographies. This individual will oversee all aspects of wetland and peatland conservation, stewardship, science, and community relations as part of TNC’s commitment to protecting freshwater systems within these geographies. The initial scope for the Wetland Conservation Specialist will be as the principal driver and manager of wetland conservation activities in the Okavango Basin. They will provide technical and management guidance and oversight to ensure wetland conservation at scale in this region.

The Wetland Conservation Specialist will develop and work closely with key partners in the Okavango basin and the region. They will collaborate with a dynamic, international team of conservationists, scientists, and policy experts from the wider TNC community. The position can be based in any location in Africa where TNC has an office (Kenya, Angola, Gabon, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia) and will require frequent travel to the Okavango basin (Angola, Botswana, and Namibia). The Wetlands Conservation Specialist will report to the Freshwater Conservation Director and will work collaboratively with other experts in the Africa Business Unit and the broader TNC team as necessary.

The Wetlands Conservation Specialist’s key roles and responsibilities include:

• Develop and implement wetlands and peatlands conservation activities in the Okavango Basin Program and in other TNC Africa geographies as needed.
• Coordinate and facilitate science activities that support wetlands and peatlands conservation in the Okavango Basin Program and in other TNC Africa geographies as needed.
• Supports the development of yearly budgets and work plans for wetland and peatlands conservation in the Okavango Basin.
• Oversees monitoring of key deliverables, outputs, and outcomes as per the established work plans.
• Develop and manage key partnerships with public and private organizations from the conservation and environmental management sector.
• Facilitate coordination and collaboration among partners working on wetland and peatland conservation in the Okavango basin for effective and efficient implementation of activities.
• Contribute to the Africa Freshwater Protection Strategy as well as other Africa conservation strategies as needed. Negotiates complex and innovative solutions to advance wetland and peatland management and source water protection in the Okavango basin.
• Widely communicates solutions and best practices related to sustainable wetland conservation and management.
• Applies innovative scientific methods, analyses, tools, and frameworks to address sustainable wetland and peatland conservation needs and engage local community support for local conservation efforts.
• Provide leadership, mentorship, and supervision to direct reports.
• Frequent travel domestically and/or internationally, evening and weekend hours. May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, on difficult and hazardous terrain, and under physically demanding circumstances.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• BA/BS degree and 5 years experience in conservation practice or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Deep understanding of wetland science and conservation practice.
• Experience managing complex or multiple projects, including staffing, workloads, and finances under deadlines.
• Supervisory experience, including motivating, leading, setting objectives, and managing performance.
• Experience in partnership development with non-profit partners, community groups and/or government agencies
• Experience negotiating.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced degree in conservation science or related field with demonstrated experience working in tropical wetlands and/or peatland systems.
• Over 8 years experience in conservation practice or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• International experience in wetlands conservation in multiple countries across Africa and beyond.
• Demonstrated experience influencing, developing, and implementing conservation policy and plans.
• Knowledge of application of remote sensing and geospatial tools/analysis.
• Knowledge of current trends and practices in relevant discipline(s) and regions.
• Knowledge of methods and standards of biodiversity information systems and initiatives or related field.
• Ability to communicate clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means.
• Fluency in both English and Portuguese and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• Demonstrated experience in fundraising.
• Politically savvy.

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WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist will be responsible for the design, coordination, and support for implementation of an M&E and learning framework by the Resilient Watersheds program’s 15+ projects. Reporting to the Region’s Water Funds Director, the position will be based at a suitable TNC office in Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon, Zambia or South Africa.

No relocation or visa sponsorship or assistance is being offered with this position. This is a 2-year term limited position. Extension of tenure will be subject to performance and availability of funds.

The responsibilities and scope for this position are:

• Develop and institutionalize a strong program-level MEL system for the program
• Develop the program’s Performance Monitoring Plans and provide M&E support in refining results frameworks and identifying relevant indicators to report on results.
• Generate timely and accurate donor reports with necessary data support and own the reporting process including preparing presentations based on MEL data as needed.
• Support the development and application of appropriate data collection tools and methods
• Develop the program’s field-monitoring framework that allows for systematic planning and tracking of implementation activities e.g., templates for specific project’s field monitoring and reporting.
• Provide timely and accurate updates for program activities to the regional dashboard and the TNC Hub.
• In collaboration with each of the Water Fund leads, strengthen data collection to measure progress towards both TNC’s 2030 and program level targets.
• Foster cross site learning, prepare and manage visitor schedules, strengthen a Community of Practice for compiling case studies, sharing of best practices and lessons learned for adaptive management.
• Provide advice to the Resilient Watersheds team on improving program/project performance using MEL findings.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU

• The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist is a core team member of the multi-disciplinary Resilient Watersheds (Water Funds) program that advances environmental conservation, economic development, and human wellbeing goals across the Africa region. The role is responsible for supporting all monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) related to water funds and catchment investment mechanisms, including gathering credible data and related activities. The bearer of this role will benefit from technical support provided to the wider TNC regional and global freshwater strategy and Resilient Watersheds program leaders, through TNC’s Monitoring and Evaluation teams.
• The position will develop a systematic monitoring framework to improve the qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered by the various projects and strategies. They will design and execute relevant trainings, provide technical assistance to TNC partners and the implementing agencies, in relation to monitoring, reporting, and learning. The work will be a blend of supporting the ongoing M&E activities of existing projects and strategies including strengthening existing M&E systems, reporting on outputs and outcomes, and applying adaptive management approaches. They will support the development of Monitoring and Evaluation activities, support the development and maintenance of databases and analytical systems, for new and existing projects, to report on outputs and outcomes that are aligned to the projects and strategies. They will feed outputs from the M&E process to various donor, internal and technical reports and ensure timely and accurate data collection and processing for reporting.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• Bachelor’s Degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, natural resources management, development studies, statistics, project management, social sciences, or related disciplines related field is required. and 5 years’ experience in conservation practice or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience in developing monitoring and evaluation systems, including development of tools and methods, indicators, data quality control and reporting requirements.
• Experience offering MEL technical support during project implementing and providing guidance on monitoring and evaluation for projects to multiple projects across various locations/ countries in Africa
• Experience in partnership development with non-profit partners, community groups and/or   government agencies 
• Experience synthesizing, interpreting, and communicating scientific information.
• Experience preparing reports of findings.
• Experience working and communicating with a wide range of people
• Experience managing project, workloads and finances under deadlines.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, natural resources management, development studies, statistics, project management, social sciences, or related disciplines related field is required.
• Over 7 years’ experience in implementing activities related to biodiversity conservation, partners, and community conservation and/or natural resource management.
• Experience offering MEL technical support during project implementing and providing guidance on monitoring and evaluation for projects to multiple projects across various locations in Africa
• Expertise in rigorous quantitative and qualitative research and analytical evaluation methods including research design and implementation and data cleaning and analysis.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative data collection skills in similar or related fields.
• Strong data analytical skills, interpretation, and presentation of information to a broad range of audiences         
• Experience in designing, managing, supervising, and reporting on digital data collection activities
• Experience analyzing data using GIS and statistical packages such as Excel
• Experience maintaining an online database for monitoring performance and outcomes.
• Experience with strengthening local organizations and building local capacities for MEL.
• Experience working in complex partnerships and with multiple stakeholders.
• Record of peer reviewed publications in scientific journals.
• Good command of English language. Understanding of French, Swahili is an added advantage
• Willingness to travel to remote geographies in Africa and lead prolonged field work and with multiple cultures and economic contexts.
• Demonstrated experience of
  • The development of quantitative and qualitative MEL tools and methods
  • Data analysis skills and knowledge of statistical software such as Excel
  • The selection and definition of SMART indicators
  • Data analysis, aggregation, and reporting methods
  • The production of MEL performance reports
  • Data quality control, overseeing data collection and quality assurance.

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WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER

• The Agroforestry Carbon Assistant will provide technical support to a portfolio of Water Fund - NCS projects that demonstrate scale, impact and durable lasting outcomes for people, climate and nature with a focus including Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. The Agroforestry Carbon Assistant works across watershed conservation programs and projects in East and West Africa to support the design and implementation of NCS projects developing technical specification for tree planting activities and assessment of their impacts in accordance with carbon standard certification requirements. Reporting to the East Africa Forestry Specialist, they will work closely with the entire AFCC team in addition to other colleagues. The position will be located in any country in Africa where a TNC has an office (Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Zambia). No employment visas or assistance is being offered with this position except for the local labor employment requirements.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU
The Agroforestry Carbon Assistant will focus on tree growth models and carbon stock computation providing input and technical support to NCS projects with tree planting, in support of Africa water funds and resilient watersheds projects. They will;

• Work closely with TNC Water Funds team and other project contributors in a collaborative approach to progress carbon project development, ensure projects are designed and implemented in accordance with best practice standards.
• Manage a complex workload providing technical support across a pipeline of projects focusing on water funds but spanning different geographies at different stages of development.
• Provide advice and guidance to projects on technical agroforestry elements of projects, including site-species selection, restoration management plans, interventions design etc.
• Compile and manage a database of tree growth models and allometric equations for estimation of tree biomass growth, and carbon stocks and sequestration.
• Develop technical assessments of project biomass and soil carbon pool impacts from tree planting and restoration initiatives, including development of baselines, ex ante estimations and leakage calculations.
• Design and deliver monitoring, reporting and verification plans for tree planting and restoration projects that meet carbon standard certification requirements.
• Review current information and data availability, identify gaps, and develop plans for collection of biomass, carbon and tree growth data.
• Act independently and exercise independent judgment to identify and solve problems.
• Demonstrate sensitivity and integrity when working across complex challenges.
• Work diligently in an organized approach to drive processes and coordinate the exchange of information, documentation and data between TNC and partners.
• Work as a critical team member.
• Keep up with recommended global methods for measuring and modeling carbon impact for agroforestry, tree planting, forest destruction avoidance or restoration initiatives, and make recommendations to the Conservancy and other stakeholders, share relevant knowledge and learnings to drive TNC’s agenda to improve carbon projects quality.
• Will be required to travel to the field up to 30% of their time.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• Bachelor’s degree in forestry, natural resource management, international development or related field, and 3 years related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of tree carbon cycle, forestry and agroforestry
• Experience of design and developing agroforestry, tree planting and/ or restoration initiates with high levels of community participation.
• Database management and using excel equation builder or like estimate and model carbon stocks
• Organized worker delivering to a high quality, and able to work across multiple projects simultaneously with a varied workload.
• Written and verbal communication skills experience in English.
• Team player that is politically savvy and diplomatic with experience negotiating complex projects.
• Analytical skills experience and able to synthesis information and data for project documentation
• Relationship building experience to work closely with a variety of partners, i.e., community members, government officials, internal scientists.
• Experience completing tasks independently with respect to timeline(s).
• Experience with communication via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and other relevant languages.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Over 5 years’ experience working in agroforestry, carbon projects and database management
• Knowledge and experience of community-based natural resource management and sustainable development agenda in Africa.
• Passionate about agroforestry, restoration, and community sustainable development, with an ambition to become an accomplished carbon project builder understanding of carbon project development cycle.
• Experience of working with communities at grassroots level.
• Fluency in French or Swahili an added advantage.
• Basic GIS skills
• Strong interpersonal skills, including ability to negotiate, influence, and persuade.
• Multi-lingual skills and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• Ability and willingness to apply science to decision-making and guide activities.
• Knowledge of ecological land management principles.
• Knowledge of current trends and practices in conservation, land management and natural resource preservation.

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WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER

• The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Specialist provides technical and scientific support to TNC’s Africa Climate and Forest Protection Strategy team, TNC’s Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst (AFCC) program, TNC Country Programs working on Climate and Forest Protection, and other TNC staff as appropriate to advance the Africa Climate and Forest Protection Strategy under TNC’s 2030 Goals. They strengthen MEL processes and build capacity of TNC staff, partners, community members and the implementing agencies in designing and executing relevant trainings and providing technical assistance in relation to monitoring, reporting and data management.
• The MEL Specialist sets targets and collects data in priority areas. The MEL Specialist conducts scientific surveys and research, records data, writes reports, and develops proposals in order to support implementation of conservation programs within Africa Climate and Forest Protection Strategy in the target countries. The position develops a systematic and functional monitoring framework to collect and aggregate the qualitative and quantitative evidence gathered by the various projects, including reporting on outputs and outcomes. They formulate the overall MEL plan, tracking progress, and ensure the implementation of the plan. The role also provides technical support toward design and implementation of specific Africa Climate Strategy projects. The position will report to the Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst Director with a dotted line to the regional MEL Director for technical MEL guidance and linkage with MEL actions across ecosystems and countries. The position will be based in TNC office in Kenya or Tanzania.
• No relocation or visa sponsorship or assistance is being offered with this position. This is a two-year term limited position. Extension of tenure will be subject to performance and availability of funds.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU
The MEL Specialist will be responsible for the design, coordination, and implementation of the MEL framework for the Africa Climate Strategy, and they will also support other strategy programs such as the Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst.

The responsibilities and scope for this position are:

• Design an M&E system that supports the development of both project M&E plans and the overall framework, including indicators for all Africa Climate Strategy programs and AFCC projects, in order to effectively capture project performance and continuous monitoring.
• Facilitate the project teams to develop relevant MEL Plans. Including, outlining the key objectives along the results chain with clear and agreed outcome, result and output statements combined with the SMART indicator sets and the MEL arrangements for data collection, analysis and reporting.
• Set the baseline studies as required for the key indicator sets.
• Ensure MEL arrangements are clearly agreed and suitably tailored to TNC’s, the project partners’ and relevant stakeholders’ MEL mechanisms, capacity and resources.
• Manage partners to ensure all relevant indicators pertaining to their projects are regularly tracked, updated and reported as agreed.
• Provide MEL capacity-building support to relevant team and project partner members.
• Provide timely updates in the regional performance dashboards and manage the TNC Hub database for the TNC Africa Climate and Forest Protection work.
• Undertake data quality assurance of partners’ self-reporting of progress; Coordinate follow-up with partners to address any gaps and/or inconsistencies.
• Conduct site visits to promote appropriate monitoring of project activities and to enhance data validity and quality.
• Participate in evaluation exercises including, mid-term program evaluation and project review and learning sessions.
• In collaboration with project leads, strengthen MEL data aggregation and analysis to measure and present a robust assessment of progress and lessons of performance against output, outcome and impacts targets. Utilize the MEL findings to generate lessons and provide clear evidence-based recommendations to inform adaptive implementation by the projects and/or strategy.
• Contribute to the preparation of project proposals and reporting according to donor requirements.
• Organize review of program work plans with partners and other stakeholders in liaison with Project Managers.
• Foster and support cross-project learning, lessons learning workshops and strengthen a Community of Practice for the sharing of best practices and lessons for adaptive management.
• Participate in and provide MEL support in specific coastal and marine conservation projects as needed as will be assigned by the Supervisor.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• B.S. Degree in science or in a related field and 5 years of experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience in MEL, conservation practice, social sciences, development studies, statistics, project management, or related disciplines.
• Supervisory experience, including motivating, leading, setting objectives and managing performance, workloads and finances under deadlines.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in climate mitigation and or adaptation. 
• Experience in developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation systems and plans including,
  • The development of quantitative and qualitative MEL tools and methods                                                                                                                             
  • Data analysis skills using GIS and knowledge of statistical software such as Excel.
  • The selection and definition of SMART indicators
  • Data analysis, aggregation and reporting methods.
  • The production of MEL performance reports.
  • Data quality control, overseeing data collection and quality assurance.
• Experience in providing MEL capacity building, mentoring and delivering MEL technical support to project implementors and partners, preferably to multiple projects across various locations/ countries in Africa.
• Experience in evaluating partner MEL performance reporting
• Experience in designing and maintaining a database for monitoring data for multiple projects. 
• Excellent facilitation and communication skills (oral and writing) and fluency in in English.
• Technical writing and communicating scientific information to a broad range of audiences and stakeholders desired.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Over seven (7) years of experience working with MEL in the field of environment conservation, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, development and/or other.
• Multi-lingual and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• Strong expertise in the social sciences and social-ecological systems.
• Specialized training in M&EL and experience incorporating project learning into adaptive management.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with web-based data management and visualization systems for monitoring performance and outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of common software applications especially Excel.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with other parties to obtain different data sources.
• Strong oral, written and presentation skills, communicating clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and other relevant languages.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience in conducting training and building capacity of teams in M&E.
• Experience in partnership development with non-profit partners, community groups and/or   government agencies.
• Knowledge of methods and standards of biodiversity information systems and initiatives or related field.