Reports to: Direct line to Country Director – WWF Cameroon
Delegated by the Country Directors of WWF in Gabon and the Republic of Congo (RoC) Central African Republic (CAR) and DRC
Dotted line to the Conservation Director Impact Africa
Supervises: Direct line to Regional Thematic Program Coordinators/leads, Dotted line to Country Conservation Leads
Works closely with: Landscapes, Practice ship team members, and practice focal points.
Date: January 2020
I. Mission of the Department: coordinate with and provide support to Country Directors to ensure that consistent and integrated approaches are developed to deliver transformational conservation impacts at scale and maintain WWF’s influence in the Congo Basin.
II. Major Functions
- Develop a common understanding of sub-regional trends and opportunities, and identify and accelerate the development, design and implementation of high quality initiatives that capitalize on these opportunities and deliver the greatest conservation impact on country and WWF global practice outcomes.
- Oversee the country strategic plan review/elaboration and ensure that the plans align with country and practice strategies/priorities.
- Contribute to prioritize and align institutional partnerships in the sub-region based on the Pan-Africa conservation strategy as it develops and country strategies.
- Promote WWF social policies and uphold social and environmental safeguard standards in the sub-region.
- Supervise and manage regional thematic program Coordinators/leads embedded in country offices - Cameroon, CAR, Gabon, DRC and RoC to achieve the objectives within the agreed time frame as defined in the Pan-Africa conservation strategy.
- Leverage synergies and develop capacity across countries.
- Establish and leads the technical conservation team.
- Ensure Conservation audits/evaluations.
- Act as Secretary of the Congo Basin Support Group.
III. Major Duties and Responsibilities:
Regional Conservation leadership
- Develop a common understanding of regional trends and opportunities for delivering impact against WWF Global Practice Outcomes;
- Lead the development of multi-year and annual overarching plan to deliver conservation initiatives in the sub-region;
- Ensure that WWFs conservation work on the ground is aligned to its social policies, clearly upholding the human rights of people and communities;
- Facilitate collaboration frameworks, guide and provide oversight and support for seamless delivery of transboundary conservation initiatives;
- Support learning and ensure development of global communities of practice on best practices & partnerships for delivering conservation initiatives and operational excellence in the sub-region.
Support to Country Offices conservation work
- Provide timely advice to Country Directors on emerging opportunities and challenges for conservation delivery in specific locations;
- Ensure that WWF offices have established solid baselines and SMART indicators for their biodiversity targets and footprint objectives at program and project levels; and support offices in developing robust and sharp conservation strategies, clearly contributing to global goals and responding to trends, opportunities, whilst supporting in developing the appropriate delivery models for these strategies;
- Ensure effective performance monitoring of the implementation of conservation plans, by promoting timely and effective reporting against agreed Dashboard and KPIs, based on annual and strategic plans.
Support to Regional thematic programs, Global Practices and other broader frameworks
- Support regional thematic Program Coordinators/leads in developing and implementing program’s strategies in the sub-region and deliver conservation impacts at scale;
- Support the Practices in uncovering innovations within the sub-region and advise on how these can be best supported, incubated, prototyped and accelerated;
- Identify capacity and operational constraints to the effective implementation of practice strategies, Area of Collective Action and Innovation (ACAIs) and high impact initiatives (HIIs) within the sub-region (including how regional focal points are able to engage in Practice structures and processes); advise Country Directors, Practices and WWF Regional Office for Africa (ROA) SMT on these matters.
Regional policy and partnerships
- Identify sub-regional (Central Africa) policy opportunities in line with country offices’ and WWF Global Practice Strategies and represent WWF in these fora as requested;
- Identify and pursue crucial opportunities for joint action with other conservation groups in the sub-region to co- lead and promote unified conservation agendas such as the global deal for nature and people;
- Represent WWF with sub-regional partners and help to manage these relationships as requested by Practices and Africa Policy and Partnership Head;
- Participate and take up policy and partnership level engagement as necessary to influence change at all levels;
- Support country offices in networking with key governments and private sector institutions to grow key stakeholders/partners toward influencing conservation impact at scale;
- Support the WWF leadership in Africa strengthen WWF’s relationship with priority pan-African institutions at the sub-regional level, including the African Development Bank, African Union Commission and NEPAD, AMCEN, ECCAS - Economic Community of Central African States, COMIFAC and other selected RECs.
Communication and Fundraising
- Support the ‘packaging’ of initiatives in a way that is compelling to funders and interacts with donors as needed and requested;
- Provide inputs to communications products/campaigns to ensure accurate information will be published to promote the image of the organization and its conservation activities;
- Acts as spokesperson for conservation issues in the sub-region to the media, WWF Network, partners and the outside world when required and in coordination with the Country Directors.
IV.Profile:**
Required Qualifications:
- At least Masters’ degree (PhD preferred) in Environment, Natural Resources management related field;
- At least 15 years in a senior conservation leadership role;
- Experience of working in an international, matrix organization;
- Proven track record of managing internal and external multi-cultural stakeholders to influence and drive change;
- Clear evidence of enabling conservation delivery and experience in the Congo Basin;
- Good knowledge of the various national political, socio-economic and ecological contexts in the sub-region;
Fluent in French and English- any other language/s of the sub-region an asset.
Required Skills and Competencies:
‘Leading through influence’ skill and management style with focus on creating enabling environment for others;
Demonstrated success in managing multi-disciplinary teams and multiple donor budgets;
Proven knowledge and experience of human rights and community based approaches to conservation
Strong ability to bring together and inspire various teams together for impact delivery;
Entrepreneurial approach and eye for spotting innovation;
Superb interpersonal skills which helps connecting people, expertise and hence multiplying conservation impact;
Superlative diplomatic and communication skills to bring teams and stakeholders together;
Demonstrates WWF behaviors in way of working: Strive for Impact, Listen Deeply, Collaborate Openly, Innovate Fearlessly;
Adheres to WWF’s values, which are: Knowledgeable, Optimistic, Determined and Engaging.
V.Working Relationships:**
Internal – Works closely with Country Directors and Country Conservation Leads in the sub-region, Initiative leads, relevant Practices, their core teams and other relevant stakeholders within the broader WWF network.
External – Creates and fosters close collaboration with external partners in governments, intergovernmental institutions, business and industries, NGOs and local communities to promote the Practice strategies and achievements in order to consolidate the impact of the Practices and Initiatives in the sub-region.
This job description covers the main tasks and conveys the spirit of the sort of tasks that WWF proactively anticipates from staff member. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary according to organizational needs.