Table Mountain Water Source Partnership Manager at WWF South Africa

Minimum Requirements

• MSc or equivalent, in one of the following: water policy and governance, geohydrology, integrated water resource management, environmental science, ecological economics, water-wise city management, social learning and change or related fields.
• At least 7 years’ experience of convening communities of practice and facilitating multi-stakeholder fora and water governance,
• Technical capacity to translate water stewardship, governance and monitoring approaches into water related strategies/action plans, development of advocacy/educational materials and management of project implementation.
• Experience in convening a community of practice or facilitating a multi-stakeholder platform or partnership. Ability to coordinate, host and lead meetings and workshops with diverse stakeholders, and facilitate discussions in large groups.  Knowledge of social learning theories and practices is a distinct advantage.
• Knowledge of geohydrological modeling, as well as a sound understanding of the relevant groundwater policy environment, and development of education/advocacy materials is strongly recommended.
• Prior experience with integrated catchment management, geohydrological data management, catchment rehabilitation, water conservation and demand management, water-wise city planning, community engagement and stakeholder relations are strong assets. ‘
• Proposal development including the identification of innovative project opportunities, development of diverse teams for implementation, and the ability to promote concepts to potential funders.
• Project management including experience in managing diverse teams, procurement, effective administration and reporting.
• Experience in facilitating knowledge generation and exchange, documenting best practice in an accessible format for implementation by public sector, corporates and private citizens.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning for adaptive management of strategic partnerships and projects.
• Strong written and oral proficiency in English essential and proficiency in Afrikaans and isiXhosa is recommended.
• Proficiency in working in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Professionalism, strong work ethic and a very strong team player.
• Outgoing and warm personality, excellent interpersonal interaction skills and ability to build good relationships and trust with a diverse array of stakeholders at a variety of levels.
• Ability to represent the project and present on behalf of the project partners at variety of different forums.
• A self-starter that can work independently, is adaptable and is passionate about supporting improved environmental sustainability.
• Discipline to work under tight deadlines and deliver against project outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Consolidate, support and grow the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership together with the chair and partners noting that the mission of the partnership is “to achieve improved water security in the Table Mountain Water Source Area by collaborating, based on the shared values of transparency, public accountability, the explicit involvement of Cape Town citizens, demographic diversity as well as the sharing of data, information and research outputs.”
• Grow the Table Mountain Water Source Partnership, as a multi-stakeholder community of practice supporting groundwater resource management and governance.
• Cultivate strategic relationships to increase engagement in the partnership with particular focus on the City of Cape Town and large users.
• Develop networks to support citizen awareness and implementation of best practice.
• Develop financial and institutional structures required to ensure the long-term efficacy of the work of the partnership.
• Manage the function of the Water Source Partnership
• Actively convene and participate in the partnership and any relevant communities of practice within them.
• Identify needs, unlock funding opportunities and manage prioritized groundwater projects through strategic engagements with funders and development and implementation of targeted proposals with the broader partnership and with WWF.
• Development of targeted proposals to: strengthen the sustainability of groundwater use in the City of Cape Town including proposals to: expand the groundwater dashboard and promote its use to inform sustainable public and private extraction; develop and implement supportive groundwater policy frameworks; improve citizen and corporate education and awareness; and implement nature-based solutions which improve water security.
• Coordinate and integrate projects implemented and managed by the different members of the Water Source Partnership and provide progress reports on the activities of the partnership to fulfil funders, partners and internal WWF organizational performance reporting requirements.
• Apply effective project management and technical input to groundwater projects implemented by WWF to ensure projects deliver successful outcomes in a timeous and locally acceptable manner.

Facilitate knowledge generation and sharing and promote use of groundwater data in policy development and decision making

• Build awareness and capacity for sustainable groundwater use through education campaigns and engagement with citizen groups promoting involvement in collecting groundwater data and implementation of best practice.
• Promote expansion of the groundwater dashboard including increased use by the City of Cape Town for decision support, participation by corporates, the promotion of citizen science and inclusion of water quality.
• Facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange on best practice in sustainable groundwater management with partnerships in other strategic water source areas.
• Develop communication materials that tell the stories of the partnership and create opportunities to publicise them in collaboration with the WWF Communications team.
• Support monitoring, evaluation and learning, documenting knowledge generation and lessons learnt in order to improve practice through adaptive management.