Job at African Parks Network

Role Profile

The Programme Manager: Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) will define and lead the AP programme to enable community-led conservation efforts in the landscape through CBNRM and other initiatives (e.g. restoration). Engaging communities actively in conservation begins with the recognition and protection of their established use and access rights.  AP can then support these rights-holders to establish community-led governance structures, and to build capacity for sustainable resource management on community land.

The Programme Manager - CBNRM is responsible for:

• Defining policy and procedures for park teams on how to:
  • Identify opportunities for CBNRM, and integrate into park plan and budget;
  • Create conservancies or other sites outside of protected areas (where possible) with legal definition and protection of rights;
  • Establish governance mechanisms, and build capacity to enable sustainable resource utilisation;
  • Create revenue models to enable benefit flows and long-term sustainability.
• Supporting implementation of pilot projects and codifying best practice;
• Supporting efforts to secure funding for CBNRM, and parks’ implementation of benefit-sharing mechanisms;
• Building team capacity to support community-led conservation (e.g. managing partnerships, facilitating consultations).

Role requirements

• Post-graduate qualification in Agricultural Sciences/International Development/Conservation/ Rural Development or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in CBNRM, with a focus on execution with rural communities in Africa. Experience with cooperative management or social enterprise development is a plus.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English. French and/or Portuguese fluency is a plus.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with ability to work across cultures and to foster collaboration.
• Affinity with conservation and social development in Africa.
• Willingness to travel to remote rural settings.

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Role Profile

The Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Manager is a new role that will contribute to strengthening data-based decision making for community development. The ideal candidate will understand M&E in social sciences, combined with the ability to leverage technology tools, and the ability to coach others. These competences will be applied to establish effective implementation monitoring and impact assessment for community programmes – and to support parks in improving data collection, analysis, and reporting. The MEL Manager will promote learning within the team to enable transfer of best practice across sites.

The Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Manager is responsible for:

• Reviewing and confirming standardised metrics and monitoring tools to enable reliable reporting to demonstrate impact, and inform and help guide strategic planning processes;
• Supporting parks in the fulfilment of M&E requirements for funding grants and other required external reporting;
• Developing and producing dashboards and key reports for Community Development programmes – in collaboration with Business Intelligence;
• Identifying M&E data needs for projects in park plans, and supporting adaptation of data collection tools;
• Supporting the deployment of data collection tools and training of park teams on effective data collection and management, with assessment of data integrity;
• Supporting parks and consultants on major initiatives to assess impact and build community understanding (e.g. socio-economic study, CCI, BNS).

Role requirements

• Post-graduate qualification in Social Sciences/International Development/Conservation/ Development Economics or a related field.
• Must have a demonstrated understanding of Monitoring & Evaluation, theories of change and evidence-based decision making;
• Experience working with and providing training on web platforms or apps that facilitate data collection, such as ArcGIS Survey123, KoboToolbox, Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.
• Experience designing surveys for project evaluation and operational data collection, as well as with the analysis and interpretation of data;
• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English. French and/or Portuguese fluency is a plus.
• Good relationship management, with ability to work across cultures and to foster collaboration.
• Affinity with conservation and social development in Africa.
• Willingness to travel to remote rural settings.

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Role Profile

The Rights and Safeguards Manager will contribute to embedding a conservation approach that is consistent with international human rights, and with safeguards standards, with both internal and external stakeholders. This role requires an understanding of international human rights, and safeguards frameworks, with an emphasis on the specific issues that apply to the conservation sector in Africa. Such issues include prevailing debates on land tenure and the legacy displacements of communities to create protected areas, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the different models for conservation management.

The Rights and Safeguards Manager is responsible for:

• Promoting an integrated approach to conservation that recognises and respects the rights of IPLCs – and supporting consistent compliance with human rights across AP operations;
• Supporting the adoption and consistent application of the Environmental & Social Safeguards standard operating procedures across AP-managed parks;
• Guiding efforts to support communities to register and protect their rights to land and natural resources;
• Designing tools and templates for the monitoring, and reporting of Environmental and Social Safeguards (ESS) risks and mitigation efforts;
• Guiding training of the AP safeguards team and of external partners to build understanding and application of human rights, and safeguards standards;
• Representing AP externally with partners and stakeholders, contributing to a network to agree ESS standards and processes for conservation in Africa.

Role requirements

• Post-graduate qualification in Human Rights/Law/International Development/Conservation or a related field.
• Must have a good understanding of legal and policy considerations for human rights in a conservation context.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, with a track record in managing issues relating to human rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, land tenure, social safeguards, and/or conservation law.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English. French and/or Portuguese fluency is a plus.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with ability to work across cultures and to foster collaboration.
• Affinity with conservation and social development in Africa.
• Experience of working in Africa, and willingness to travel to remote rural settings