Community Development Manager at African Parks Network

The Role

• African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 19 national parks and protected areas in 11 countries covering over 14.2 million hectares in: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The role is core to African Parks’ objective to have communities central to the achievement of the conservation objectives and to build a constituency for conservation. The role will based at its Head Office in Johannesburg, South Africa, with frequent travel to existing and future parks under mandate. The Community Development Manager will report to the Chief Operating Officer.

The primary purpose of this role will be to:

• Provide strategic support to the parks on the development and implementation of their community development and outreach activities
• Develop and maintain relationships with development partners
• Coordinate and support the implementation of impact investment initiatives, core to and in or adjacent to our parks.

Key Responsibilities:

Articulation of the African Parks Community Development philosophy into: ‒ A management framework for community development for the parks ‒ Input into appropriate strategic community development concepts for the Parks ‒ High level partnership arrangements with specialized external partners and donors (with Fundraising) ‒ Messaging and communications framework, specific to the community development philosophy, for governments and other external stakeholders (with Marketing)

• Scout, conceptualize and share community development opportunities for and with Parks
• Provide strategic support to the parks in detailing and executing their community development strategies
• Develop detailed partnership arrangements to be used as frame agreements for roll out across the parks
• Develop and implement a framework for impact investment approaches in the parks
• Develop, maintain and manage the relationships with impact investors (together with Fundraising)
• Work with, and provide advisory expertise to, Community Development resources in the parks

Minimum Requirements:

• 10 years’ experience in community development in Africa
• Relevant qualification, e.g. in sustainable development
• Extensive experience in Africa
• Good command of English, and preferably French or Portuguese
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Strong business and commercial acumen
• Proven track record in government relationship management
• Team player
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management
• Excellent negotiation skills

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to join Africa’s leading wildlife conservation organization and make a significant contribution to the protection and sustainable development of the continent’s protected areas and the development of its communities.