Programme Officer At Space for Giants

About Us

Space for Giants is an international conservation organization, based in Africa, founded in 2011. Our mission is to protect the natural ecosystems on which Africa’s large wild animals depend, ensuring they are valued by local people. We currently work in 11 countries across Central, East and Southern Africa, focussing on some of the most pressing challenges facing the conservation of megafauna today. We have three thematic pillars of work to achieve our mission which are: 1) The protection and management of natural ecosystems and associated value creation for local citizens; 2) Combating the illegal wildlife trade; and 3) Promoting Human-Wildlife Coexistence. We pride ourselves on our highly collaborative approach with national governments, recognising the importance of being relevant to elected leaders and their constituents, striving to ensure that our conservation work is aligned with their priorities. To read more visit: www.spaceforgiants.org

Role Summary

The Space for Giants Conservation Department oversees a diverse range of programmes including Human Wildlife Coexistence, Protected Area Management and Conservation Monitoring and Evaluation. With strong project management skills and experience, the Programme Officer will work primarily (but not limited to) within the Conservation Department supporting the Managing Director of Conservation to ensure project delivery and targets are met. The Programme Officer will ensure that projects are compliant to delivery plans, budgets, reporting requirements, and will ensure that content is generated for and from these to feed into grant applications and impact reporting. A significant component of this role will be generating various content materials (proposals, business plans, reports, baseline assessments, powerpoint presentations, M&E frameworks, satellite imagery mapping, topic research, budgeting etc.) as required for existing and new landscapes within the portfolio. The candidate may be involved in other projects as requested by the MD Conservation.

Job Description

1. Support to the Managing Director of Conservation

• Provide daily support to the Managing Director (MD) of Conservation as directed, especially focused on content development, project reporting, grants writing and communication;
• Provide operational and project management support to the MD of Conservation and the Conservation Landscapes team in delivering on Space for Giants protected area management ambitions. This includes developing content material as required, planning and coordinating the delivery of exercises (aerial surveys, socio-economic surveys etc., stakeholder engagement), presentations to stakeholders;
• Provide project management support across the Conservation programme from conception to implementation as required and by tracking and reporting on updates for all projects, tracking key deliverables, targets, budgets vs actuals;
• Provide operational support to the MD of Conservation in setting up meetings, taking meeting notes, circulating these to all participants, and following up on all actions required;
• Development of project proposals, conducting site assessments and supporting the development of business plans for different protected areas;
• Support the development of nature based solutions for protected area management (e.g. Carbon credits, biodiversity tokens, PES) in close collaboration with the Carbon Department. This will include supporting SFG to develop its carbon pipeline through the various stages of project development (scoping, feasibility, PDD) and involve GIS work, research and strategic planning, report writing, project registration with relevant Carbon Standard and coordination among various stakeholders;
• Coordination between the Conservation Landscapes programme and Carbon Programmes, in ensuring information flow between the programmes, tracking of deliverables, reporting etc.;

2. Financial Management & Fundraising

• Support the MD of Conservation to develop and submit annual strategic objectives and associated budgets for approval;
• Development of concept notes, institutional proposals/grants, presentations, etc for use in reporting and fundraising;

3. Impact Measurement

• Support the MD of Conservation to implement an impact measurement framework to measure the departments impact and support the Communications Department in reporting on this;

4. Any other relevant tasks related to the role as directed by the direct supervisor.

Person Specification

Must have:

• Minimum Master’s degree level education or equivalent experience relevant to field of conservation management;
• At least five years of working experience within the conservation sector, particularly with regards to protected area management, community conservation and project development, including proposal writing;
• Proven experience in working with African Governments and other Stakeholders within the conservation space;
• Excellent written and oral English communication skills (French, Portuguese an advantage);
• Experience writing high quality descriptive reports;
• An understanding of nature based solutions, especially the voluntary carbon market;
• Excellent GIS Skills for mapping out protected areas and their attributes (please do not apply if you do not have an excellent command of GIS – the applicant will be expected to use it);
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to identify trends and patterns of information;
• Independent thinker and showing initiative in developing innovative approaches;
• Exceptional interpersonal and organizational skills, ability to facilitate communication between different locations and ability work independently to meet deadlines
• Willingness to undertake some work related travel;
• Working knowledge of various types of conservation technology (e.g. SMART, ER, Satellite Mapping Software, Survey 123, etc.);

Ideally has:

• Experience in the conservation sector
• Prior experience of Africa
• Knowledge of Google Suite/Drive, analysis in Google sheets

Additional Information

• Uphold the cultural values and code of conduct of Space for Giants: Passion, Integrity, Respect, Sustainability, and Innovation.
• This is a full-time position. You may be required to work long hours beyond the traditional 8:00am to 5:00pm as and when submission deadlines require. Additional work hours may be required on occasion so as to fulfil responsibilities.
• You must be ready to travel domestically and internationally.
• You must be willing to work in variable conditions, including when in the field
• The position will start immediately when the successful applicant has been selected and is available to take up the position.