Overview

The Greater Gola Landscape, covering 350,000 ha and straddling the Sierra Leone/ Liberia border, is the largest remaining block of Upper Guinea Forest.  The Gola Programme is implemented as a partnership between the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), the Gola Rainforest Conservation Leadership Group, the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia (SCNL), the governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia, local communities and the RSPB.

Partner Development Assistance Officer (Greater Gola Landscape)
Reference: DEC20216378
Location: Liberia
Salary: £27,574.00 – £30,590.00 Per Annum
Benefits: Pension, Life Assurance and Annual Leave
Duration: 2 years

Job Summary

You will lead RSPB technical assistance and knowledge transfer to enable measurable capacity development for both the (SCNL) and

the (CSSL) focussing on three specific work areas

  • Supporting the development of the structure, function, profile, impact and resilience of our partners by supporting the CEOs to enable their organisational functions and operations to grow and work effectively
  • Building individual capacity building of partners’ staff and volunteers to enable them to realise their professional potential within each partner organisation
  • Supporting both SCNL and CSSL to deliver and over time build their strategic roles within the Greater Gola Landscape through direct cooperation and wider collaboration

Main Responsibilities

All reference to ‘partners’ refers to both SCNL in Liberia and CSSL in Sierra Leone, while recognising that each partner could be at different stages in terms of their organisational development and individual capacity in each work area

  1. Supporting the CEOs and senior partner staff to achieve and maintain compliance with Minimum Operating Standards as defined by the RSPB Capacity Development Standards Group according to recognised UK legal requirements of donors working internationally (e.g. Governance; Finance; Safeguarding)
  2. Supporting facilitating Strategic & Operational Planning to enable partners to define their vision, mission and high-level objectives with measurable performance indicators for both conservation impact and organisational development on a regular multiyear cycle
  3. Supporting the development of partners’ organisational functions and individual capacity to ensure effective core operations (i.e. Finance, Human Resources, Administration) to operate as a professional Civil Society Organisation under national law
  4. Supporting the Development of diverse income streams for partners by assisting with identifying, co-designing and applying for funding from philanthropic, institutional, corporate and individual donors as well as creating profitable trading in goods or services to generate adequate financial resources so that partners can implement their Annual Operating Plans
  5. Strengthening partners’ effective communications based on analysing stakeholders and audiences, creating communications tools to build awareness of partners’ work, along with identifiable branding and profile in priority traditional and digital media
  6. Strengthening the partners’ ability to analyse national policies, plan advocacy campaigns either publicly or using inside track advocacy and then identify and influence key decision-makers
  7. Strengthening the partners’ ability to plan and implement baseline scientific or socioeconomic research to generate evidence to inform biodiversity conservation by facilitating individual technical assistance and experiential learning
  8. Strengthening the partners’ impact for both species and site conservation by facilitating individual technical assistance and experiential learning across aspects of species recovery and site management or habitat restoration
  9. Strengthening the partners’ ability to understand socioeconomic needs of rural communities in areas of high importance for biodiversity conservation by developing sustainable livelihoods by individual technical assistance and experiential learning
  10. Cooperating with RSPB, organisations colleagues and contractors working in capacity development to gain and share knowledge across the range of topics covering all aspects of contemporary partner development assistance

Qualifications, Qualities & Abilities

Essential

  1. Master’s Degree in biodiversity conservation, organisational development or relevant related fields, or extensive comparable experience
  2. Proven ability of delivering capacity building for Civil Society/Non-Governmental Organisation development covering topics including: Strategic & Operational Planning; Governance and Leadership; Risk Assessment & Mitigation; Financial and Human Resources Management; Grant writing and Fundraising; External branding and communications; Community/Stakeholder engagement; Policy Analysis & Advocacy
  3. Proven ability to work internationally in tropical developing economies with cultural sensitivity in diverse teams.
  4. Accomplished spoken and written communication skills in English to enable stakeholders’ clear understanding of project objectives, activities and outcomes, with experience working with people with varying levels of education and for whom English is not a first working language

Desirable

  1. Proven ability to enable or deliver measurable biodiversity conservation impacts through Civil Society Organisations ranging from species to site conservation and policy advocacy
  2. Evident diplomacy skills to engage and negotiate, resolve conflicts and avoid or overcome challenges working with people from diverse sectors and backgrounds

This is a 2 year Contract Full Time role for 37.5 hours per week.

The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

Closing date: 23:59, 31 January 2022
We are looking to conduct interviews for this position in early February.

For further information please contact heather.mitchell@rspb.org.uk.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.