This is a hybrid position which requires 8 days per month in the office. You can be based in our office in Nairobi or Kigali. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission as WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position.
About the Program:
About 65% of Africa’s farmlands are degraded, negatively affecting soil health, water quality and quantity, food production, availability of fodder, wood fuel and other critical livelihood supporting functions. Forests, grasslands, wetlands and other lush landscapes are also facing rapid degradation, and decline, leading to loss of biodiversity, desertification, loss of cultural sites and values and accelerated impacts from climate change. Without urgent action, deforestation and land degradation pose a serious existential threat to more than 60% of people across Africa who rely on the land to feed their families. It also undermines the national and global goals of reversing biodiversity loss and action on climate change.
Yet landscape restoration presents great opportunities for people, nature and climate. Across the continent, \"restoration champions\" are leading a powerful movement—restoring soil health, biodiversity, and addressing climate challenges. Restore Local is WRI Africa’s flagship initiative to invest in this locally led restoration movement, transforming Africa’s landscapes in alignment with the continent-wide AFR100 Initiative.
Restoring Africa’s landscapes requires a comprehensive approach that addresses every aspect of the restoration journey. WRI Africa’s blueprint outlines four essential areas of focus :
1. Develop Capacity: To ensure they are ready to receive funding and deliver impact, Restore Local provides targeted training and builds the capacity of restoration champions.
2. Deploy Finance: Through innovative financing mechanisms that blend public, private, and philanthropic capital, Restore Local directly funds champions who restore vitality to the land. Through its TerraFund program alone, it has made $17 million in investments to date.
3. Secure Policy: Restore Local supports government institutions in creating plans and policies that fund and monitor restoration. It connects policymakers with each other and with technical experts through programs such as the Landscape Policy Accelerator.
4. Monitor, Report, Verify, Learn: Through the TerraMatch platform, which combines cutting-edge geospatial data with on-the ground verification, Restore Local enables restoration champions to share the impact of their work with their community, peers and investors.
Building on nearly a decade of WRI’s restoration work in Africa, Restore Local began in 2023 and is supporting more than 200 restoration champions in growing millions of trees, creating jobs and restoring critical ecosystem functions.
Halfway through its implementation period, Restore Local is now redoubling its effort in its three target landscapes – The Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda; the Greater Rift Valley of Kenya; and the Cocoa Belt of Ghana – and partnering with additional countries to replicate its approach.
Job Highlight:
Reporting to report to the Director of Food, Land, and Water at WRI Africa and the Global Director of Restoration, you will lead one of the most ambitious locally driven restoration efforts on the African continent. You will direct a team of 90+ professionals in 5 African countries, including program managers, technical experts, and field officers implementing restoration.
Your mission is simple in words but challenging in execution: Empower communities to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. Your multidisciplinary team and its 10+ external partnerships will be responsible for finding, funding, managing, and monitoring projects led by restoration champions, building their technical and operational skills, and deploying cutting-edge AI datasets and tested field monitoring techniques. Your team will also build core business process that can shape the development of the “new restoration economy” in other African countries, including in Ethiopia and Malawi. To make this possible, you will manage an annual budget exceeding $20 million USD.
Your mandate will include strategy execution and review, staff and project management, cross-organizational coordination, and fundraising for this large-scale initiative. You will work closely with WRI teams in Africa, the U.S., and Europe, as well as Brazil, India, and Indonesia, to integrate cross-geography learnings and best practices into Africa’s restoration efforts. You will integrate equity into your work.
What you will do:
Program Strategy & Implementation (50%):
Staff/Team Management (25%):
Fundraising & Thought Leadership (25%):
• Work with the WRI leadership and development experts to build, prioritize, and manage a pipeline of prospective funders and investors
• Contribute to successful six- and seven-figure proposals to advance the objectives of Restore Local, with a focus on outcome-based finance mechanisms and innovative monitoring practices
• Work with the Communications team to develop and implement an integrated strategy for influencing public sector leaders, private financiers and philanthropies, and restoration champions to advance the goals of Restore Local
• Represent WRI in diverse communities, including speaking engagements, attending conferences, and participating in other key internal and external meetings
• Help the team develop and prioritize partnerships with external organizations that can help achieve Restore Local’s desired impact; drive decision-making and course corrections when needed.
What you will need:
Potential Salary:
Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.
How to Apply:
Please submit a resume with a cover letter by 19 September 2025. We may close for applications sooner if we receive a high volume of qualified applications.
You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.
What we offer: