🇸🇱 Job Vacancy @ Concern Worldwide – Climate and Environmental Team Leader

• All project team members and partners in district, but especially the other team leaders (Nutrition and Gender and Market Access and VSLA & WASH); other project teams in District. Relevant counterparts in LANN-NSC project in Port Loko.
• Base Manager/Area Coordinator; District & Freetown finance, system and HR staff; So-WASH Engineering Manager; Freetown PDQ Coordinator, MEAL Coordinator, Equality and Gender Advisor, Advocacy and Communications Manager, Accountability Supervisor and Partnership Manager, Yoti  Yoti Project Coordinator, Sector Programme Coordinators.
• Relevant Community, Chiefdom and District stakeholders from Ministries and District Council as well as Private sector actors.

Relevant head office advisors

Project specific:

• Coordinating closely with the National partner(s), oversee and ensure quality of activities and outcomes for the following ‘Increased inclusive climate smart food production (availability)’ key outputs in both district:

Adoption of inclusive climate smart food production practices

• Take a lead role in the Climate Vulnerability Capacity Analysis (CVCA) process;s
• Take a lead role in the design, testing and piloting and monitoring of climate adaptation / mitigation interventions that come out of the CVCA that enhances sustainable agriculture to support women and youth’s food security, livelihoods, and resilience to reduce and adapt to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation;
• Serve as the technical lead for environment and climate change issues and responsible for designing innovative and impactful solutions to climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as contribute to resilience building of ecosystems, project participants and livelihoods;
• Support the assessment of agricultural practices (crops, livestock, and fisheries) and barriers to adoption of climate smart food production;
• Support in promoting climate smart best practices that increase and diversify sustainable (and profitable) agricultural production and climate smart, adaptive post-harvest management in identified value chains.

Better and more inclusive community management of natural resources

• Provide technical support to partner leading the NRM activities related to climate adaptive and climate mitigation.

Other:

• Support project assessments in area of expertise (Baseline, Market assessment and young people led assessment of opportunities and interest of young people in production;
• Based on market assessment provide technical input into opportunities that come out related to climate smart/adaptive food processing, skills trainings etc;
• Provide technical support to WASH interventions related to ensuring they are climate smart and adaptive.

Responsibilities:

Programme design and planning 

• Collaborate close with District Delivery Managers in developing annual, monthly and weekly activity plans for the climate change and environment adaption and mitigation component of the Yoti Yoti Project;
• Develop monthly and weekly work plans with their team (which are harmonized with partner plans where needed) based on the overall project work plan and timeframe, and monitor progress against these plans recommending actions to rearrange plans where necessary;
• In coordination with the Climate Change Officers, ensure that field level activities are accurately planned and implementation plans are realistic;
• Participate in field assessments and needs identification surveys that may be requested for the development of new project proposals.

Programme implementation 

• Serve as the technical lead for environment and climate and responsible for designing innovative and impactful solutions to climate adaptation and mitigation;
• Oversee, manage and ensure quality implementation of activities and achievement of Yoti Yoti Project outcomes under related to climate and environment ‘availability’ pillar. Coordinating with counterparts in project partners to harmonise approaches and promote sharing and learning;
• Participate in project community entry meetings and identification of vulnerable households using PRA tools;
• Submit weekly work plans aligned with the overall programme implementation plan and monthly reports to District Delivery Manager;
• Take a lead role in the Climate Vulnerability Capacity Analysis (CVCA) and design, testing and piloting of climate adaptation / mitigation interventions based on the assessment;
• Support and effectively contribute to resilience building of ecosystems, project participants and livelihoods and support your team on building capacity of community structures on climate resilience initiatives;
• Develop and design effective community mobilisation strategies in engaging with community structures in promoting climate smart and environmental friendly initiatives in target communities;
• Work closely with the So-WASH Engineering Manager to conduct field level assessment for the construction of climate smart irrigation or WASH facilities to be piloted in target communities;
• Supervise any construction of climate smart irrigation infrastructure work in target communities through the provision of weekly technical supervision to ensure quality control and compliance with approved Technical Designs and that technical issues are flagged to the So-WASH Engineering Manager as soon as they arise;
• Lead the team in community engagement process and implementation of climate change and environmental related activities. Build and maintain effective professional relationships with community leaders, Chiefdoms, District stakeholders, project animators and implementing partners to aid successful programming;
• Ensure all expenditure is authorized and spent in accordance with Concern’s internal procedures and in line with project budget;
• Participate in the market assessment and value chain analysis that are gender and young people sensitive;
• Contribute to the designing and delivery of training models, learning processes, resources, materials and workshops in your technical area of expertise;
• Participate as active participant in relevant project training of trainers.

MEAL

• Ensure involvement of communities in the planning, monitoring and implementation of climate smart and environmental friendly initiatives at various levels;
• Support the District Delivery Manager to organise and implement the project baseline study and needs assessment – highlight areas of the adaptation of District context.
• Work with the MEAL team in design plan and monitoring tools, to monitor activities, outputs and impact and adapt the programme as needed;
• In collaboration with Concern’s MEAL team, identify and document lessons learnt and case/impact stories on the Climate change adaptation and resilience initiatives in the project;
• Participate in project planning and review meetings with staff and stakeholders and ensure that key recommendations and learnings are incorporated into day to day project implementation;
• Ensure all aspects of Climate change adaptation and resilience activities adhere to Concern program quality standards and policies (PM&E, accountability and mainstreaming) in a coherent and integrated manner;
• Ensure that the project activities under their responsibility are accurately reflected in the integrated MEAL system, identifying activities to be monitored and data to be collected.

People Management: 

• Line manage four Climate Change and Environment Officers (2 per district), contributing to their capacity building and career development through technical support and on-the-job training and coaching, including a thorough induction at the start of their contract;
• Ensure that all team positions have accurate job descriptions and that each member of the team fully understands deliverables, which are expected of them, by setting SMART objectives, and that they are aware of the success criteria relating to their work;
• Ensure that all staff are aware of and comply with all of Concern’s Policies and Procedures;
• Monitor and review performance of your direct reports and hold them accountable for executing their job as per the agreed job description and performance objectives; give corrective feedback where required and take decisive action in the case of poor performance; conducting regular Performance Development Reviews; setting and identifying areas of staff development needs;
• Ensure that work within the team(s) is planned and organised in a way which will meet the organisation’s needs in the most cost effective manner possible; ensuring that team members are given appropriate workloads and are working efficiently;
• Routinely observe and monitor the co-facilitation of field activities to ensure they are carried out to the highest quality, providing critical and constructive feedback to Field Officers.

Other responsibilities:

• Promote full accountability and staff, compliance with Concern’s Code of Conduct & Associated Policies, to ensure maximum protection of programme participants and the efficient and transparent use of Concern’s resources;
• Support the fulfilment of Concerns commitments to accountability (as outlined in the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) to which Concern is a signatory) – including in relation to the functionality and accessibility of Concern’s Complaints & Response Mechanism (CRM);
• Under the supervision of the District Delivery Manager, ensure the mainstreaming of cross cutting themes by field officers in all activities: Gender and Equality; Environment and climate adaption, Protection, DRR and Partnership;
• Foster partnerships with key government line ministries and other institutions working on climate change and environment issues;
• Participate in relevant meetings at District level;
• Complete any reasonable task requested by the Line Manager.

• University degree in Environmental Science/Sustainable development or other relevant social sciences.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in climate change and environmental issues with adequate experience of practical situations in Sierra Leone.
• Experience in implementing climate smart / nutrition sensitive agriculture and/or NRM is an added advantage.
• Minimum 4 year working with local/national/INGOs desirable
• Field experience in community based projects working directly with communities, partners and government officials.

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements:

• Strong team leader – demonstrated experience in line management and building cohesive high performing teams.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including report writing.
• Good budget and financial management skills.
• Initiative and ability to work with minimal supervision; ability to work both as part of a team & independently.
• Enthusiastic, energetic and motivated.
• Ability to motivate and inspire others.
• Ability to work as part of a team for shared results and learning.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent supervision skills.
• Good MS Office skills (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
• Experience in working with district sector offices (such as welfare, gender and equality, agriculture, environment, nutrition and/or health), local/national NGOs and INGOs.
• Strong spoken skills in Temne and Krio.
• Valid motorbike license and ability to ride (desirable).

• Raising awareness and being updated on HIV & AIDS issues.
• Protecting him/herself and colleagues.

Sharing information with colleagues and avoiding stigma and discrimination.

Therefore, each staff member of Concern is expected to be sensitive to equality issues in their relationships with colleagues and in their work and to participate in implementation of gender mainstreaming plans, both at the workplace and in programmes.

Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organisation, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, working or volunteering with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking.