District Technical Assistant, WWF Zambia World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

Job Title: District Technical Assistant, WWF Zambia

Department/Projects: Climate Change Adaptation in Forest and Agricultural Mosaic Landscapes

Location: Petauke, Nyimba, Sioma and Sesheke.

Report: Project Manager, WWF Zambia

Contract Tenure: 2 years renewable up to a maximum of 3 years

Supervises: None

CONTEXT

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has awarded World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to implement the Climate Change Adaptation in Forest and Agricultural Mosaic Landscapes Project. The project will use a landscape approach that engages and strengthens uptake and diffusion of technologies and practices for adaptive capacity through Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOs), Farmer Field Schools, viable cooperatives, and other community-based organizations within local communities, including community forestry. The project will be implemented in four districts that are vulnerable to climate risks and hazards (droughts in particular) and have high rates of forest degradation and deforestation, and these are Petauke and Nyimba in Eastern Province and Sioma and Sesheke in Western Province.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Zambia will be responsible for executing the project, in close collaboration with the Zambian Forestry Department (FD), Ministry of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). WWF Zambia will coordinate activities with national bodies related to the different project components, as well as the project partners. The project be guided by the Project Steering Committee on policy issues and linkage to relevant national bodies. The project will be guided by the Technical Committee, one in Eastern Province and one in Western Province as the main bodies governing the project activities undertaken in the respective provinces.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION.

The District Technical Assistant will under the supervision of the Project Manager lead and facilitate the implementation of actions to strengthen the management capacity of key district level stakeholders within productive landscapes for climate resilience actions to ensure community managed forests and agricultural landscapes are resilient to climate change. These actions will be undertaken at district level in consultation and participation with Community Leaders, Forest and Farm Producer Organizations, District Farmers Associations, government forestry and agriculture extension services, partner NGOs and other support institutions.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Particular responsibilities of the District Technical Assistant are listed below.

• Lead and facilitate implementation of capacity assessments for forest and farm producer organizations (FFPOs), District Farmers Associations, government forestry, partner NGOs and other support institutions to implement participatory approaches at landscape level, including community forestry
• Develop and implement plans to strengthen the capacity of forest and farm producer organizations, District Farmers Associations, government forestry, partner NGOs and other support institutions
• Participatory assessments and community engagement at landscape level to reach a common understanding of landscape components and their actual and potential use including markets.
• Facilitate the implementation by the target communities, and the FFPOs within them, community forestry management and other climate adaptation measures including, as appropriate: climate smart agricultural practices, landscape level planning, participatory climate risk assessments, woodland restoration, water catchment management, and agroforestry.
• Prepare and implement work plans for district level activities
• Monitor and report performance of district level activities
• Contribute to the creation and sharing of knowledge by synthesizing and documenting findings and lessons learned, success stories and best practices, strategies and approaches of the project, drafting relevant materials for dissemination.
• Work closely with the M&E and Knowledge Management Expert to monitor planned activities in order to identify best practices as well as constraints/implementation bottlenecks and to take necessary actions to overcome the constraints.
• Contribute to implementation of Environmental and Social safeguards
• Produce district level technical reports and contribute to overall project technical reporting

REQUIRED QUALIFICATION

• A Bachelor’s degree in Environment, Forestry, Natural Resources Management, Agriculture or a closely related field.
• A Master’s degree in the relevant field will be an added advantage
• A minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience working on community-based projects in relevant sectors.
• Experience in at least four of the following: SLM/SFM, climate smart agricultural practices, agroforestry, woodland restoration, and water catchment management
• Knowledge of landscape level planning and participatory climate risk assessments
• Excellent Coordination and facilitation skills
• Fluency in oral and written English
• Excellent interpersonal and general communication skills in local languages
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages, (MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, etc.).
• Willingness to travel
• Excellent report writing skills and regular reporting

Reporting to the Project Manager, the District Technical Assistant will work as part of the PMU. The District Technical Assistant will ensure the availability of information on progress and performance regarding the implementation of the technical components of the project at district level. The District Technical Assistant will deliver progress reports on a monthly basis. These reports will include: i) status of district level activities; and ii) challenges encountered on the ground during execution of the project component.