The Senior Community Based Natural Resources Management Officer will be responsible for liaising with the local community, Save Valley Conservancy and partners to ensure the project activities are implemented as per schedule and scope and reporting on project’s progress, project’s plans, etc. This position reports to the Project Manager and will be based in Chiredzi town in Zimbabwe.

Key Responsibilities

Project Management

• Lead and be the key contact person for field implementation of all project activities;

• Work with communities around Save Valley Conservancy and facilitate community consultative meetings to develop and implement ward-level land use plans;

• Support communities to link with and benefit from income generating working with the Enterprise Development Officer in activities/enterprise training and development;

• Work directly with communities to facilitate the implementation of community projects and design of sustainable strategies for operation and maintenance of resulting services;

• Support establishment of multiple water points for productive and multiple water uses;

• Assist in the development and implementation of a community engagement strategy by the Save Valley Conservancy;

• Work directly with communities in the landscape to promote community led development including preparation and prioritization of community development plans for local improvement;

• Ensure gender equality and social inclusion in the implementation of all programs.

• Coordinate implementation of all activities with other NGOs, Donors and Civil Society organizations.

• Contribute and support effective monitoring, evaluation and learning processes and initiatives, ensure effective data and information management and contribute to regular and periodic planning and reporting on project activities;

• Support processes to build absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities of local communities to deal with climate change related challenges;

• Convene stakeholder meetings to identify and agree on methods to reduce Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC), improve the reporting and implement strategies to reduce HWC in hotspot areas within the target communities;

• Organize/facilitate the registration, verification, mobilization of project beneficiaries and engage on monitoring of the subsequent meetings with the community and other stakeholders;

• Generate and compile activity reports as means of verifications for each action in liaison with the project MEAL Officer.

Capacity Building

• Facilitate and support trainings of communities in climate change resilience building;

• Conduct cross learning exchange visits to other successful community conservancies in Africa;

• Establish wildlife-based enterprises and develop wildlife programs in the areas identified through the land use planning process;

• Strengthen platforms for community participation in natural resources governance and management;

• Support process and lead implementation of activities to strengthen and build capacity for water point management and governance structures.

Rights

• Commit to respect, protect and promote Human Rights at all times irrespective of ethnic group, gender, race, sexual orientation, age or class by adopting a rights-based conservation approach.

Other

• Participate in any other forums

• Coordinate with the HQ based Youth department to ensure that the Youth and Gender strategies are aligned and incorporated at the Country level

• Undertake any other relevant work as needed

REQUIREMENTS

• A Masters’ degree in Community Development, Natural Resources Management or a related field. Bachelor’s degree and substantial experience may be considered;

• Solid understanding of resilience building and related interventions is a key attribute;

• Professional, mature, culturally sensitive, flexible, team player and interpersonal skills with the ability to build effective relationship with a range of people;

• Good contextual knowledge of local community and social/cultural constraints, realities and organizational relationships is a must;

• Experience in project management, including delivering outputs within deadlines in Zimbabwe and the region;

• Fluency in Shona and other locally spoken dialects essential and proficiency in English (both spoken and written);

• In-depth background in CBNRM/community development work;

• GIS and knowledge of SMART or other monitoring software is desired;

• Excellent analytical and research skills;

• Excellent communication skills;

• Excellent organization skills;

• Excellent meeting facilitation skills;

• Self-driven with an ability to work with minimum supervision;

• Commitment to AWF vision and mission.