Regional Program Officer, Central Africa – Wildlife Conservation Society

Reports to: Central Africa Program Manager

Liaises with: Regional Business Manager, Regional Grants Manager, Regional Director,

Country program administrative and technical support teams

Start Date: 1 March 2022

Position Type: Full-time

Application Deadline: 13 February 2022

About WCS

The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO headquartered at Bronx Zoo in New York City working to save wildlife and wild lands and to meet global challenges in over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the world’s oceans. The Africa Program is the largest of WCS’s field programs, with approximately 1,100 staff in 12 country programs focused across three major regions (Central Africa, Sudano-Sahel, Eastern Africa, Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean).

Our MISSION is to save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education and inspiring people to value nature. Our VISION is a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth. Our GOAL is to conserve the world’s largest wild places in 14 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world’s biodiversity. Our VALUES are Respect, Accountability and Transparency, Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion, Collaboration, Integrity.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) seeks a dynamic and motivated individual with excellent communication and organizational skills to support the regional management of WCS’s Central Africa & Gulf of Guinea program. The Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea program is one of the largest of WCS’s 13 Global Regional Programs, spanning Nigeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon. This is a rapidly growing program with a diverse and expanding portfolio of donors, partners and projects. The region presents a set of complex conservation challenges to biodiversity and their habitats and WCS field programs are addressing these through a number of initiatives including protected area management, community engagement, sustainable livelihoods, policy reform and sustainable financing. WCS recently formally established its regional hub in Kigali, Rwanda which hosts a growing team of technical specialists and regional management to support our country programs and field offices.

General Position Summary:

The Program Officer will provide technical, administrative and implementation support to a large and complex program that oversees conservation activities in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Nigeria and the Republic of Congo. The successful candidate will fulfill a key role in program compliance, reporting workflows, agreement review, and information management for the Central Africa regional team. She/he will ensure activities are documented and donor-reporting schedules are well managed and adhered to. The Program Officer will lead by summarizing the requirements of grants issued under each donor, communicating these requirements to the program teams and providing compliance support to project leads throughout implementation as needed. She/he will also support country programs in preparing modification requests to ongoing awards, support donor agreement review and provide overall facilitation and support to the fulfillment of WCS’s mission in the region.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

PROGRAM REPORTING & PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT

• Support the coordination, tracking, preparation and submission of technical reports in WCS Central Africa’s growing portfolio, ensuring they are donor compliant, timely, of high quality and follow an internal review process
• Lead capacity-building efforts for technical report writing and information management capabilities
• Ensure program activities and means of verification are documented in a central location
• Support drafting award modification requests when needed
• Support the drafting of concept notes and project proposals, as appropriate**

KNOWLEDGE & GRANTS MANAGEMENT

• Work closely with the regional team in the management of database and tracking systems, ensuring records and documents are organized and saved accordingly
• Coordinate high level project monitoring and host regular meetings with Program, Project, Management, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), and the Regional Management teams to ensure performance on individual grants is tracked effectively, risks and issues are flagged and corrective action taken as appropriate
• Work closely with the regional team to ensure the monitoring of grants for compliance with WCS’s policies and procedures as well as donor / government / external rules and regulations
• Support knowledge management and communications in accordance with donor regulations
• Support Regional Business and Grants Managers in process mapping and assist with improvement of standard procedures and control of workflows

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Either an advanced degree (Master’s) in the fields of international relations, development, social or natural sciences or similar, or a first degree (Bachelor’s) with demonstrated and appropriate experience
• Minimum 3+ years of experience with European and/or US donors, including grant management and proposal development
• Ability to multi-task and deliver high quality reports sometimes within short deadlines
• Demonstrated experience working as an effective member of a multi-cultural team, with experience working in Central Africa and across time-zones a distinct advantage
• Experience working, coordinating and collaborating with diverse sets of stakeholders, including partner NGOs
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and in French
• Interest in conservation and committed to the mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society