COMBO Project Director

Reports to: Will have two reporting lines – reporting to the Director of WCS’s Business and Conservation Initiative who will be responsible for overseeing the programmatic aspects of the project and to WCS’s Regional Director for East Africa, Madagascar & Western Indian Ocean who will support coordination with country programs and provide direct supervision and administrative support.

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Program/Sector: Eastern Africa, Madagascar and West Indian Ocean region

Start date: April 1, 2020, subject to the signature of the Financing Agreement between the Agence Française de Développement, the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial and the Wildlife Conservation Society

Position Type: Fulltime

Application deadline: 28 February 2021

Internal liaison: WCS Eastern Africa, Madagascar & Western Indian Ocean Regional Director, WCS Conservation Solutions

Expected travel: Approximately 30%. As required within the region and to donor/technical meetings as needed/possible.

Organization Background:

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

Program Overview & Context:

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) awarded WCS and its partner organizations (Biotope SAS, Biotope Madagasikara, Guinee Ecologie, and BioFund, Mozambique), a four-year grant (2021 – 24) to implement the Conservation, impact Mitigation and Biodiversity Offsets Program (COMBO+). In six countries, COMBO+ will build capacity to better address the impacts of development projects on biodiversity through rigorous application of the mitigation hierarchy (i.e. to avoid, minimise impacts, restore damage and compensate for residual impacts). In four of the countries, Uganda, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Guinea, this will be the continuation of a work program begun in 2016 under a previous grant by AFD, FFEM and the MAVA Foundation. Two Asian countries have been added as part the new initiative: Myanmar and Laos. Co-financing for activities in Myanmar, Uganda, and Mozambique is being provided by the Norwegian Government (NORAD).

The program aims to mainstream biodiversity into development decision-making by working with governments, industry and civil society to improve and implement policy to avoid and compensate for impacts to biodiversity and ecosystem services. This approach will support national contributions towards global biodiversity targets by reducing the impacts of development on nature. In support of these efforts, WCS is recruiting a project director to work with WCS and partners to implement the COMBO program across the six countries.

WCS is the primary grantee under the program and will be responsible for contracting the project manager.

As part of its mission WCS actively engages with governments and with business to support best practices to ensure the protection of biodiversity. This involves the adoption and application of the mitigation hierarchy in development planning and project development, including avoidance of impacts on priority biodiversity and compensation for residual impacts.

The COMBO+ Program

The goal of the AFD and FFEM funded COMBO+ Program is to reconcile economic development and conservation objectives in a set of key countries in Africa and Asia, by contributing by 2025 to the development and implementation of policies aimed achieving no net loss, or even net gain in biodiversity, and to the realization of national biodiversity targets.

The program will achieve this through four components:

1. Support and assist governments in the establishment of appropriate governance systems and policies to guide the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy nationally while supporting progress towards national biodiversity objectives. COMBO+ deems this policy approach essential for mainstreaming biodiversity management and protection into national development programs and creating the conditions for both public and private investors to adopt practices that reduce impacts.

2. Develop tools, and guidance for spatial planning and implementation of the mitigation hierarchy, including financing aspects, to address impacts on biodiversity and support progress towards national biodiversity objectives in coordination with stakeholders. The project supports the effective use of data in planning and decision making and for the development of metrics that contribute the measurement of impacts and progress with achieving designated biodiversity targets.

3. Build capacity of governments, civil society, financial institutions and businesses to understand effective implementation of the mitigation hierarchy and its importance for achieving national biodiversity targets. The program will provide input to the recently established IUCN thematic group on impact mitigation and ecological compensation (IMEC) and engage with regional platforms.

4. Develop and apply innovative models and operational protocols to implement avoidance and compensation / offset-related conservation and restoration in practice, through partnerships involving the private sector, public sector, civil society and conservationists. Under this component, COMBO+ will test and monitor the effectiveness of policy applications and the outcomes of mitigation measures.

Job Summary

The Project Director (PD) will be responsible for the management and oversight of the COMBO+ program, including the coordination and implementation of all project activities with the project partners and leads in each of the six countries. Activities of the program fall within four technical components outlined above and a fifth administrative component.

The PD will be responsible for overseeing completion of work plans, liaising with the donors (AFD and FFEM), and ensuring that project objectives are met across the six countries and the five components. In addition, the PD will ensure the effective implementation and complementarity of co-financing programs such as the NORAD-funded project, Mainstreaming biodiversity into the oil and gas sector. The PD will coordinate with the Director of the Mekong Drivers Partnership Program, as well as country leads, for implementation. The PD will also form part of the international technical team; which help oversee the implementation of the project and provide technical assistance. The PD will convene regular meetings of the international technical team to review project progress and anticipate and address any issues arising.

Major Responsibilities:

The following represent the specific responsibilities and tasks of the Project Director. Some of these responsibilities may be modified over time to reflect changing needs and circumstances throughout the life of the project. Any such modifications will be agreed among the partners and the PD:

Management (Administration and Finance)

1. Ensure the global launch of the project (either in person in Paris, France, or else virtually due to COVID-19) and the launch of the project in each of the six countries. The PD will support organisation of the inception meetings in each country, including participation of stakeholders, and coordinate with WCS country programs, Biotope SAS, Biotope Madagasikara, Guinée Ecologie and BIOFUND, the principle COMBO+ Program partners;
2. Work with the staff in each country to support the development of annual technical and financial work plans that will guide the project implementation process.
3. Support implementation of work plans by country and international teams, including through regular project coordination calls, country visits and technical assistance as necessary; The PD will organize regular (e.g. monthly) calls with the international team to take stock of the progress of the project and address any issues arising from project implementation. Regular calls with country programs will also be scheduled to promote dialogue and discussion among countries and to share experiences.
4. Coordinate input from the international team to support project oversight and leadership and plan and organise technical assistance to the country programs;
5. Work with country program directors to prepare terms of reference and recruit project coordinators, as necessary (e.g. Madagascar), following WCS and AFD recruitment procedures;
6. Work with country leads, the international team and partners to prepare terms of reference and support recruitment of project consultants and contractors including project auditors and national technical assistants embedded in government. For hiring of auditors, coordinate directly with the WCS finance office and follow WCS and AFD procurement procedures;
7. Oversee implementation of the project budget, coordinating the financial planning and reporting with the project’s financial manager; ensure adequate and timely financial reporting by partners and countries; and compliance with reporting standards for audits.

Outreach and Communications

1. Work with partners to develop a communication and outreach strategy to increase awareness of the COMBO+ program globally, ensuring its dissemination in relevant media;
2. Coordinate external communications for outreach and capacity-building with teams and partners, including website management, organisation of webinars, development of training tools, participation in public events and other online and physical outreach and engagement with a range of government, industry, civil society stakeholders and relevant international platforms such as IUCN, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and regional organizations such as the African Union, SADC, EADC and ECOWAS, among others. This will include ensuring the design and development of the website at Comboprogram.org during year one of the project as well as ensuring its regular update;
3. Engage and coordinate with other organizations and projects, including national conservation trust funds, University of Queensland and IUCN IMEC thematic group, working on similar initiatives, where such liaison will contribute to the achievement of project objectives;
4. Oversee production of specific project deliverables and outputs, storage of project documents and outputs; and
5. Support the development of a repository for documents that is accessible to all partners (i.e. a secure login as part of the COMBO website).

Reporting and Donor Engagement

1. Coordinate and provide timely technical reporting to donors and ensure each country team reports to a sufficient standard;
2. Organize and coordinate evaluation activities and events, including annual project committee meetings and mid-term and final evaluation workshops;
3. In conjunction with the WCS Director of Business and Conservation, WCS Regional Director for East Africa and with country program directors, and program partners, meet with donors to explore additional funding to expand project activities in current countries and expand the program to others;
4. Undertake other activities as needed to ensure the success of the project.

Minimum Requirements:

The criteria for the selection of the successful candidate include:

• Management Experience – the candidate will have excellent organisational skills and demonstrated experience in large project or program management including financial planning and budgeting as well as experience in supervising staff
• Partnership Experience – the candidate will be highly adept at and have demonstrated experience in overseeing relationships with a range of partners from different sectors as part of project or program delivery
• Technical Expertise – the candidate should have knowledge of application of the mitigation hierarchy in development project planning and implementation and including mainstreaming of biodiversity into development and conservation financing; experience working with development projects on reducing impacts, strategic environmental assessment and environmental and social impact assessment is valuable
• Policy Experience – the candidate will have experience working with government ministries or agencies to develop and/or implement environmentally related policy
• Language – the candidate will be fluent in both English and French and will demonstrate excellent writing and communication skills. Ability in Portuguese and other languages would also be desirable.
• Capacity Building Experience – the candidate will have experience in developing capacity building programs and supporting training programs; experience engaging a variety of stakeholders is an important requirement for the position.
• Field Experience – the candidate will have demonstrated successful working experience in Africa and/or Asia
• Education – the candidate will have at least a Master’s Degree in a relevant field (management, public policy, economics, geography, environmental science, ecology, planning etc.) as well as at least 10 years of relevant experience.