This role involves providing crucial operational delivery and coordination support for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) marine and coastal resilience and governance initiatives, which utilize the seascape approach. The Project Officer is central to ensuring the timely and effective implementation of multi-country programmes, specifically the WIOCOR and BBNJ portfolios.
Major Responsibilities
1. Implementation and Portfolio Management
- Provide day-to-day operational and coordination support for the implementation of IUCN’s marine and coastal resilience and governance initiatives under the seascape approach.
- Coordinate logistics, procurement, and documentation for workshops, training, and field activities.
- Maintain project trackers, calendars, and follow-up actions to ensure timely implementation.
- Support the preparation of Terms of Reference, contracts, and payment requests in line with IUCN procedures.
- Follow up with consultants and partners to ensure deliverables and reporting milestones are met.
- Manage shared email inboxes and ensure clear communication with all stakeholders.
2. Coordination and External Engagement
- Manage and nurture IUCN’s Communities of Practice, including grantees, fellows, and expert networks supporting marine ecosystem governance and blue economy initiatives.
- Support the planning and execution of training and capacity-building programmes for community members and technical partners.
- Support coordination of cross-cutting stakeholder processes.
- Liaise with national and regional partners for timely delivery and coordination.
- Coordinate the organization of harmonization workshops and consultations.
3. Events and Knowledge Exchange
- Oversee logistics for in-person and virtual workshops, training sessions, and stakeholder dialogues.
- Support management of participant lists, invitations, speaker coordination, and event documentation.
- Prepare reports, meeting summaries, and lessons-learned notes from events.
- Support knowledge exchange through synthesis of best practices and learning materials.
4. Communication, Outreach and Resource Mobilisation
- Manage communication flow with stakeholders, fellows, and partners in coordination with the COR Communications Officer.
5. Project Management and Oversight
- Maintain consolidated workplans, deliverables trackers, and reporting calendars for WIOCOR and BBNJ portfolios.
- Monitor progress across countries and partners, ensuring alignment with donor requirements and internal deadlines.
- Assist with budget monitoring and coordination with finance to ensure expenditure aligns with planned activities.
- Maintain an updated filing and knowledge management system for all project documents (contracts, reports, workshops, correspondence).
6. Other Responsibilities
- Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time.
Requirements and Qualifications
The successful candidate will have a background in project coordination and management, community engagement, or programme operations, coupled with a strong understanding of marine and coastal resilience and multi-stakeholder partnership dynamics in the region. IUCN is seeking a hands-on, highly motivated, gender-sensitive, and results-oriented professional demonstrating autonomy, innovation, and strong coordination abilities.
Education:
- An advanced university degree (MBA/MSc/MA) preferably in relevant disciplines.
- Computer literacy in relation to office applications (word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint), use of internet, and online communication tools.
Work Experience:
- Minimum 5 years of relevant experience is required in the following areas:
- Proven expertise in day-to-day project coordination and operational delivery, including planning, budgeting, procurement, and reporting within multi-country programmes.
- Experience in stakeholder engagement and community coordination, including working with government partners, civil society, local organizations, and regional bodies on environmental or ocean issues.
- Demonstrated capacity in organising and managing training workshops, technical meetings, and multi-stakeholder dialogues.
- A good understanding of marine and coastal ecosystem management, ocean governance, and community resilience frameworks is considered a strong advantage.
- Proven ability to produce high-quality technical and administrative documents, such as Terms of Reference, decision sheets, briefing notes, reports, and knowledge products.
- Familiarity with results-based management (RBM), monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and project cycle management.
- Experience in supporting expert networks or communities of practice, including tracking deliverables and maintaining partner communications.
- Ability to apply a gender-sensitive lens in programme delivery and stakeholder engagement.
- Regional experience in Eastern and Southern Africa or the Western Indian Ocean region is highly desirable.
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