Regional Specialist, NBS Stakeholder Engagement, Africa

South Pole is an energetic, global company offering comprehensive sustainability solutions and services. With offices spanning all continents across the globe, we strive to create a sustainable society and economy that positively impacts our climate, ecosystems and developing communities. With our solutions, we inspire and enable our customers to create value from sustainability-related activities.

Job summary:

As a Regional Specialist, NBS Stakeholder Engagement, Africa, you will lead the community and stakeholder engagement components of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) projects throughout their lifecycle across the Africa region, focusing on adhering to robust internal and external carbon standard certification guidelines.

In this role, you will take ownership of producing high quality project description documentation and monitoring reports to ensure the smooth and seamless validation and verification of NBS projects across Africa. You will lead the development of transparent and equitable benefit sharing mechanisms, support and/or conduct local stakeholder consultation, and design logframes to monitor the impact of NBS projects on relevant communities and other stakeholders.

You will advise and support project partners on the actions needed to fully integrate community ownership and decision making into project governance structures. You will ensure mainstreaming of gender issues into project design, governance, and development.

You will remain up to date on the guidelines and requirements of major carbon standards in relation to stakeholder and local community engagement and maintain internal tools to support the sharing of such knowledge with colleagues and partners globally.

Main tasks & responsibilities:

Reporting to the Regional Senior Manager, NBS Implementation, Africa, your primary responsibility will be to produce high quality project description documentation and monitoring reports, focusing on the “community” sections. Working with the broader Community, Biodiversity, Implementation (CBI) team, you will also support the implementation of local stakeholder engagement and ensure community ownership and decision making is firmly integrated into project design and governance.

This involves assisting with project planning and execution, advising project partners, and ensuring compliance with our environmental and social safeguard principles, transparency, equity, and integrity throughout the project lifecycle.

Additionally, you will be responsible for evaluating opportunities and managing risks throughout the project cycle, including continuous monitoring and evaluation processes.

Project documentation development (60%)

• Produce high quality written project description documentation and monitoring reports, focusing on the “community” sections.
• Design transparent and equitable Benefit Sharing Mechanisms, integrating community ownership and decision making into project governance.
• Develop and implement indicators and monitoring frameworks to assess the impact of NBS projects on local communities and other stakeholders.
• Support and conduct local stakeholder consultations, integrating the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).
• Develop and maintain tools that detail changes in major carbon standard methodologies and guidelines as relates to stakeholder engagement.
• Support the VVB and carbon standard audit process for NBS projects.
• Assist project managers with planning and strategy development.

NBS project implementation (30%)

• Conduct regular NBS project site visits to monitor community engagement processes.
• Conduct local stakeholder consultations and monitor project impacts.
• Train and support project partners to host local stakeholder consultations, ensure effective project governance, integrate community ownership and decision making, monitor project impacts on local communities, and conduct social impact assessments.
• Develop and collaborate on appropriate tools required when undertaking stakeholder engagement for internal team use.

Business Development (10%)

• Assist the project screening and Due Diligence processes, ensuring alignment with South Pole's social sustainability strategy and adherence to organizational standards and objectives.
• Leverage your existing network to develop new community based NBS projects for the voluntary and regulatory carbon markets.
• When required, cultivate a network of projects, external partners, clients, companies, standards, methodology developers, investors, businesses, and communities engaged in the field of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), adhering to both compliance and voluntary schemes in the region.

Requirements:

Essential -

• University Degree in social science and related fields. Minimum of 5 years of work experience in NBS projects focusing on climate mitigation, natural resources conservation, and socio-environmental development, particularly within rural settings and with local communities.
• Understanding of carbon finance essentials and carbon project development and certification, including familiarity with carbon standards like CDM, VERRA, GS4GG, CCBS, the CAR, among others.
• Ability to create high-quality written documents (PDD and MR) in English and conduct quality control for others.
• Relevant experience (+2 years) related to design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, preferably in ecosystem services, restoration, sustainable productive systems or preservation-related fields.
• Strong understanding of social and environmental safeguards, principles, and methodologies related to sustainable development projects.
• Business-quality communication skills (verbal and written) in English.
• Capacity to solve relatively complex project-related problems independently and receive general direction on new assignments or projects.
• Ability to manage targets and priorities and develop own goals.

Desirable -

• Ability to design, develop and implement strategies to fulfill the company’s regional targets on NBS and capacity to communicate and execute them.
• Ability to work under supervision on diverse assignments, apply company policies, processes, and procedures, and identify critical routes to resolve various issues/problems on time.
• Ability to manage targets and priorities and develop own goals.
• Fluency in additional languages is a plus, especially those local to the region.

What we offer:

At South Pole, we care about our employees as much as we care about the planet. South Pole is not just an employer, we are a Team. South Pole does not just offer people a job, we offer you a career. By joining our team, you will find strong purpose and deep meaning in everything you do. You will have the chance to make a real difference for our clients and for the planet, working alongside a passionate team of like-minded colleagues, while building your knowledge/skills and developing your career in a fun, dynamic, international and fast-growing organisation.

We’re a planet of 7.5 billion unique and different people. We all have a contribution to make; South Pole is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status or disability. Our recruitment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.