Back Consultant: Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin Landscape Restoration Field Coordinator

Consultant: Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin Landscape Restoration Field coordinator

6 months Consultant to be based in Bujumbura, Burundi

About the Program:

The World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land, converting them to socially, economically and environmentally productive lands. WRI’s restoration work in Africa supports the goals of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), where with other partners; we have identified more than 700 million hectares of cleared and degraded forest and agricultural lands suitable for restoration across Africa.

Done well, landscape-scale restoration can revitalize African landscapes, while enhancing human well-being through food, energy and water systems, which conserve, restore and sustain the continent’s rich natural heritage while generating evidence for scaling within and across landscapes. In WRI Africa, restoration is anchored within the Vital Landscapes Pillar, that aims at revitalizing and protecting landscapes for people and planet. The Vital Landscapes Pillar aims to build the resilience of our natural ecosystems to sustainably provide vital ecosystems services such as food, water, carbon sequestration and climate regulation. Through Restore Local, WRI is accelerating locally-led land restoration across three priority landscapes, including in the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

Job Highlights:

We are looking for a consultant to serve as the Landscape Restoration Field Coordinator, who will ensure effective day-to-day field coordination and delivery of Restore Local activities within the Burundi part of the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Landscape (LKR), working closely with the LKR landscape restoration manager. You will be a technically competent landscape restoration expert, who can coordinate field activities and support implementation of restoration activities that comprise of various thematic areas - finance, capacity building, food security, monitoring, policy and facilitate government and non-government stakeholder engagements at subnational level within the Burundi part of LKR to achieve the shared goals of landscape restoration. In this position, you will support the landscape manager and a diverse team of restoration experts with field-based planning, implementation and coordination of WRI’s Restore Local activities in Burundi part of LKR.

You will particularly support WRI’s restoration policy work in the Burundi part of LKR through guiding and contributing the technical content and supporting the execution of the restoration policy program in collaboration with restoration policy experts.

You will report to the LKR Manager. This position is open to Burundi nationals and will be fully based in Burundi, with preference to candidates based within the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin landscape.

The Consultant will carry out the following responsibilities:

1. Field coordination and stakeholder engagement (70%):
   • Support the day-to-day coordination and follow up of Restore Local activities in the Burundi part of the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Landscape
   • Coordinate field implementation of activities with partners to ensure effective delivery of landscape restoration objectives.
   • Mobilize and lead local restoration partnerships including community-based organizations, small and medium enterprises, registered women and youth groups, local governments, development partners, and technical collaborators at sub national levels in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Support processes to tailor WRI’s Restoration programs and tools to fit the context in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Support the deployment of WRI’s Restoration programs and tools in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Support technical assistance in the development and implementation of the Forest Landscape Restoration activities taking place in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Organize and support the planning of key events related land restoration in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Represent the landscape manager in meetings within sub-national government, project consortia, and other partners in the Burundi part of the landscape
   • Perform any other duty as assigned by your supervisor and agreed upon by both parties
     1. Policy Accelerator (30%):
        • Work with LKR Landscape Manager to engage with sub-national government officials and other local leaders to understand existing restoration policies, their policy challenges and systemic constraints impeding changes
        • Support the identification of restoration policy bottlenecks in collaboration with government officials, local leaders and policymakers.
        • Coordinate with LKR Landscape Manager to determine which policy bottlenecks to prioritize and design road maps addressing them.
        • Participate in processes to define relevant capacity building needs on restoration policies to improve the design, capitalization, and implementation of good restoration policies.
        • Support the planning and implementation Policy Accelerators events relevant to LKR (in-person and virtual workshops)
        • Support cross-institutional collaboration amongst Policy Accelerator participants in the Burundi part of LKR and unite them towards a common goal and bottleneck to be addressed in the Program.
        • Support identifying a network of policymakers to support implementation of landscape restoration policies.

          Duration of the assignment:

          The duration of this consultancy assignment is for an initial six months, renewable for an additional 6 months depending on performance and availability of funds.

          What will you need:

          • Education: You have a completed bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences, social science, natural resource management, forestry, agriculture, rural development, geography, or similar field
          • Experience: You have 6+ years of work experience in forest and landscape restoration and field level supporting implementation of natural resource management, forestry, agriculture, environmental management projects, or related fields.