Biodiversity and Protected Area Management Specialist

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) y the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC)
Promoting Collaborative Social Accountability in the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot (CEPF-111512)

BIODIVERSITY AND PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST

Workplace: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC)

Modality: Face-to-face and virtual

Type of Contract: Contract for a certain amount of time

Term: Partial time

Project duration: 4 years (Remaining time: 17 months)

Report to: Project Manager

People in charge: N/A

Otros: Availability to travel to the interior of the country and weekends according to implementation.

INTRODUCTION

The Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) began the implementation of the projects “Collaborative Social Accountability for Improved Governance in Protecting Biodiversity Hotspots of the Global Partnership for Social Accountability” and “Promoting Collaborative Social Accountability in the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot”, both with financing from the Bank World. The development objective of these projects is to contribute to improving the conservation of biodiversity hotspots located in four Caribbean countries (Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda with adaptive replication in Jamaica and Saint Lucia) through collaborative social accountability mechanisms between governments, citizens, and civil society organizations (CSOs). From now on, the singular reference will be made only as the Project.

The Project “Collaborative Social Accountability for Improved Governance in Protecting Biodiversity

Hotspots” under the Global Partnership for Social Accountability consists of three components:

Component 1: Capacity building for collaborative social accountability. This component will carry out a capacity development plan aimed at equipping community organizations and civil society organizations with the necessary skills to use collaborative social accountability tools and mechanisms for problem solving and conservation of hotspots of biodiversity.

Component 2: Implementation of collaborative mechanisms for social accountability to improve the conservation of biodiversity and the monitoring of critical points. The integration of biodiversity values, climate resilience and citizen feedback in national and local planning will be supported to address the ecosystem and improve the monitoring of hotspots by creating new mechanisms or strengthening existing participation mechanisms in society run by the public sector.

Component 3: Improve knowledge and learning about social accountability for biodiversity conservation in the Caribbean, and project management. Work will be done to establish a learning process to regularly adjust project implementation based on experience and context for specific external dissemination among stakeholders, through:

Develop and implement a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) system designed to strengthen the capacities of community organizations and civil society organizations for learning and adaptive project management.
Carry out periodic internal MEL sessions focused on adjusting the Project's social network in social accountability strategies and operations.
Develop and implement a plan to disseminate Project knowledge and learning products to key target audiences.
Promote knowledge and learning about collaborative social accountability.
Organize workshops and conferences at the national level on social accountability and conservation of biological diversity, as well as regional meetings and events to nurture a regional community of practice among community organizations, civil society organizations and public sector institutions.
Performing management and coordination, including financial management, procurement management, and environmental management and social requirements, and project monitoring and evaluation.

The project “Promoting Collaborative Social Accountability in the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot” from CEPF side is under the Component 4 of the WBG Caribbean Hotspots CEPF project:

Component 4: Strengthened CSO Partnerships for Conservation, which aims to facilitate partnerships with CSOs and other stakeholders to design and implement conservation actions in and around priority Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). This component will pilot collaborative social accountability at priority sites and clusters of priority sites by establishing platforms for collaboration among CSOs, local and national governments, private landowners, and local communities to co-create analyses of and solutions to conservation challenges through constructive engagement. The CEPF project will focus on Antigua and Barbuda, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and St Lucia. In the Bahamas, Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, this component will be led by the RIT, learning from the experience of INTEC.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROCUREMENT

The objective of the projects is to contribute to improving biodiversity conservation in selected key biodiversity areas located in the Dominican Republic, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Lucia and Jamaica, through collaborative mechanisms of social responsibility between governments, citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs).

The person hired will support the implementation team, ensuring that the actions and agreements established in the project for the protection and conservation of biodiversity are adequately integrated and developed. The project will employ inclusive participatory methods focused on engaging and empowering targeted communities along with poor and marginalized populations, especially women, youth and people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, who are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of biodiversity degradation and resilience to climate change.

DUTIES AND RESPONSABILITIES

Elaborate and follow up on environmental responsibility frameworks and support research on knowledge products.
Define and promote the actions of the CSOs related to the KBAs that consider: the defense of natural resources, the conservation of key biodiversity elements, including their habitats and the development of human resources in charge of their control and surveillance, for their integration into the annual operational plans of the local public institutions.
Strengthen or integrate the objects and ecological elements of biodiversity conservation of the KBAs to the project's actions, considering the environmental laws of each country, so that their application is specific to each of these areas.
Strengthen or integrate the ecological objects and elements of biodiversity conservation of the KBAs to the actions of the project, considering the environmental laws of each country, so that their application is specific to each of these areas.
Support the execution of project actions in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, related to the environmental indicators of the project in these geographies.
Collaborate in the development of the iteration of the training plan, its implementation and evaluation.
Support the development of technical training, mentoring and guidance to civil society organizations with which the project will work.
Support the training of partners and other stakeholders as needed.
Identify, explain and assist civil society organizations, public sector counterparts and private sector partners in the application of collaborative social audit tools, biodiversity conservation issues, climate change, protected area management, environmental management, and other topics of interest to the project.
Work with civil society organizations and public sector institutions to identify communication and action mechanisms to strengthen biodiversity protection in priority areas.
Travel to the areas of interest to meet and interact with stakeholders, identify their needs and develop solutions within the framework of the project.
Plan, conduct and/or contribute to talks, seminars and workshops, as set out in the project work plans.
Coordinate with the gender, youth and minorities specialist to ensure gender mainstreaming in all aspects of the technical implementation of the project.
Support in the production and development of formal and informal presentations on project activities and results, as required.
Work closely with relevant local/national/regional government staff, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, and the private sector, as required for the achievement of objectives.
Contribute to the production of programmatic reports required by donors, participate in project evaluations and other reports as needed and required.
Support the project manager in processes and activities as delegated.
Participate in project team meetings, as well as established follow-up meetings with partners and donors, and other meetings as required.
Prepare reports on lessons learned and best practices in Biodiversity.
Represent INTEC and the project in activities where delegated to participate.
Ensure compliance with INTEC's institutional policies and the requirements established by the donor in the respective agreement.
Carry out his/her work in accordance with INTEC, CI and WORLD BANK codes of conduct.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

The person hired must have the following qualifications:

Undergraduate degree in Biology, Ecology, Environmental Science or related field.
Graduate degree in Natural Resources Management, Environmental Management or a related field, preferably.
A minimum of three (3) years of practical professional experience, including work related to biodiversity conservation and protection, protected area management, rural communities, working with NGOs and governmental entities.
Demonstrable experience working with species conservation plans.
Biodiversity control and monitoring frameworks.
Effective implementation of conservation actions.
Fluent oral and written communication in English and Spanish.

APPLICATIONS SUBMISSION

Applications should include a cover letter outlining the candidate's suitability for the position including the salary expected for the position, a detailed CV and contact details of three reference persons known to the candidate in a professional capacity. Please send the required documents to: Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo., no later than March 25, 2024 at 17:00 hrs. AST.

For any additional information, please contact Manuel Hernandez, Project Manager, at his email address: Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..