Africa Regional Lead, Conservation Strategy at The Nature Conservancy

YOUR POSITION WITH TNC

The Conservation Impact System Team (IST) in the Chief Conservation Office plays a critical role in supporting global conservation implementation by managing TNC’s conservation system that supports teams in planning, measuring and adapting their work to accelerate progress and maximize impact. There are two core practices and learning areas the Impact System Team supports as TNC works to achieve our 2030 Goals: 1) monitoring, evaluation and learning to improve data quality and drive accountability to impact; and 2) adaptive management at the strategy and portfolio level to drive accelerated impact. The Conservation Strategy Team (CST) is dedicated to this second core practice & learning area of the IST (adaptive management to drive accelerated impact). The team is responsible for the continued development and implementation of TNC’s strategy and portfolio management guidance and support to conservation teams, managers, and the Chief Conservation Officer.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

The Africa (AFR) Regional Lead, Conservation Strategy will lead the work of the CST in TNC’s Africa region, supporting conservation teams there to adaptively manage their strategies towards scaled impact, and supporting conservation leadership to manage and resource teams towards enabling that impact.

The AFR Regional lead will cultivate an understanding of what drives customer satisfaction (customer = TNC conservation teams) in AFR and will be charged with ensuring customer success. The lead will serve as a cross-cultural broker, ensuring that the offerings and methodologies are culturally relevant and meaningful to teams across Africa.

The AFR Regional Lead will build and maintain strong, trusting relationships with key leadership in AFR, collaborating with them to ensure regional leadership and TNC conservation teams have support in strategy development, adaptive management and portfolio management as they work towards impact. The AFR Regional Lead will also work with regional leadership to make prioritization decisions about where to focus time and resources, and how to influence enabling conditions in the region. The Africa Regional Lead will also collaborate closely with their Africa Regional counterpart on the Conservation Data Team.

The AFR Regional Lead will oversee the delivery of CST support, including directly providing support to teams, and as needed, the vetting, hiring and management of external consultants to augment delivery of CST support. They will take a learn-by-doing approach to the development, implementation, and iteration of strategy development, adaptive management & portfolio management support, to quickly learn what works and what doesn’t work and adjust accordingly.

Salary Information:

This position may be based in any Africa region where TNC has an established entity. The region has a strong preference for someone in Nairobi, Zambia or Cape Town.

This position is not eligible for relocation, visa or immigration assistance. Please submit a cover letter with your resume.

Who We Are:

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We’re rooted in our mission and guided by our values, which include respect for all people, communities, and cultures. Whether it’s career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there’s many reasons to love life inside TNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube   to hear stories from staff or visit  Glassdoor.

One goal is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that all our colleagues around the globe feel a sense of belonging and that their unique contributions to our mission are valued. In addition to the requirements in our job postings, we recognize that people come with talent and experiences outside of a job and consider each applicant’s unique experience. Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote a popular saying at TNC, “you’ll join for the mission, and stay for the people.”

Build enabling conditions for adaptive management in the AFR Region

• Build trusting relationships with key TNC leadership in the AFR region 
• Work with Africa regional leadership to identify top priority teams needing adaptive management support, and focus support on them
• Collaborate with AFR regional leadership, supporting prioritization and strategic decision-making to advance the impact and mission of adaptive management in the region
• Collaborate with other AFR leadership team members to help influence and advance specific enabling conditions in the region for adaptive management

Provide targeted adaptive management coaching, aligned with regional needs

• Provide customized conservation strategy, implementation and/or adaptive management coaching, facilitation, and/or training support to teams, while staying grounded in agile/adaptive management principles and values
• Ensure support provided to teams is regionally and culturally appropriate, using a collaborative approach to design approaches and engaging local contractors as needed
• Take a holistic view of support for conservation teams, identifying approaches that are well suited to the context teams sit within
• Ensure conservation strategy and adaptive management support provided to teams is aligned with and supportive to the regional portfolio management process, and supports teams to close key evidence gaps identified through that process
• Support other members of the AFR regional team to use adaptive management toolsets as they support other high priority teams and programs

Grow Conservation Impact

• Measure / monitor value provided by CST support, ensuring that our work is leading to magnified conservation impact in the Africa region  
• Identify opportunities to scale up support models that meet the broader needs of the region and expand conservation impact at landscape scale.
• Collaborate cross-conservancy to bridge, co-create, recommend, and create pathways to the regional needs that require collaboration to achieve beyond personal or CST scope
• Identify potential opportunities to expand CST’s value proposition in a way that expands conservation impact while staying true to the mission of the CST
• Support CST’s work in other regions by proactively recognizing potential collaboration areas, capturing and sharing learnings, and participating in cross-regional experimentation

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