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About WWF International in Africa

For more than 60 years, WWF has been a leading voice for nature. Its mission is to build a future where people live harmoniously with nature. To achieve this, WWF works to conserve biodiversity —the web that sustains all life on Earth— reduce humanity’s ecological footprint and ensure the sustainable use of natural resources for current and future generations.

The WWF International Africa Regional Team oversees the WWF Internationally Managed Offices in Africa. The team provides management oversight and support to Country Directors and their senior management teams, ensuring that the offices have the required strategies, programmes, and resources to deliver high conservation impact.

About the Role

The Director of Conservation Impact, Africa, will collaborate with the Regional Directors of the Congo Basin and East & Southern Africa, the Regional Team, and the Country Office (CO) Directors and Conservation Directors. They will ensure that country teams develop strong, locally relevant conservation strategies aligned with global goals, the WWF International Strategic Plan, and the Roadmap 2030 objectives and targets.

The Director of Conservation Impact will also support the development of impactful programme portfolios, robust monitoring frameworks and systems, and the necessary expertise and leadership capacity. This will ensure that teams can achieve their conservation and policy ambitions in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, and the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Purpose of the Role

The Director of Conservation Impact, Africa, will support Country Offices (COs) in the regions in developing strong conservation strategies aligned with global goals, outcomes, and initiatives, ensuring impact that is relevant to subregional and national priorities and contexts. They will collaborate closely with colleagues to enhance impact monitoring at all levels —project, programme, landscape— ensuring that robust and relevant data is effectively consolidated at regional and global levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

Regional and Country Office Strategic Planning and Implementation Support

• Lead the development and implementation of a strategic regional framework that consolidates country office and regional priorities, articulates WWF’s value addition, and supports the achievement of Roadmap 2030.  
• Support the COs in developing their conservation strategies aligned with Roadmap 2030 Outcomes and Targets, including a portfolio of impactful programmes which are designed to deliver the strategy, attract funds, and effectively integrate resource mobilisation and operational components.
• Work with the Global Lead on Impact Monitoring, the Global Conservation Division, and the COs to develop robust conservation strategy monitoring frameworks aligned to common indicators and the Roadmap 2030 framework.
• Coordinate with country offices to gather, analyse, and report data on conservation impact for internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure that offices establish solid baselines and SMART indicators at programme and project levels.
• Ensure effective performance monitoring of the implementation of conservation plans by promoting timely and effective reporting against agreed-upon Dashboards and KPIs, based on annual and strategic plans.
• Work with the Africa Chief Operations Officer to identify opportunities and enhance the operational excellence of country offices, ensuring optimal conservation delivery.
• Through the regional quality assurance and network governance processes, support the development and implementation of strong country office projects and programmes.

Portfolio and Initiative Development

• Work with WWF International Country Offices, National Offices, Practices, and the Global Conservation Division (GCD) to identify emerging opportunities for conservation delivery and high-potential initiatives that need support for upscaling.
• Enhance the conservation impact of key projects by conducting regional reviews of high-value and high-risk proposals, ensuring robust conservation design, a clear theory of change, and the appropriate capacity and expertise for successful delivery.
• Work with the Director, Programme Quality and Resource Acquisition, Africa, to identify proposals for early collective engagement and enhancing quality and conservation impact.

Environmental and Social Safeguards Policies (ESSF)

• Support the development, integration and implementation of ESSF and Inclusive Conservation approaches in landscapes and seascapes, projects, programmes, and strategies. Collaborate with Regional Heads, ESSF Africa, and other Network partners to help offices build ESSF and Inclusive Conservation capacity.

Regional Opportunities and Thought Leadership

• Develop a common understanding of regional trends and opportunities to deliver impact.
• Provide timely advice to the Regional Director on emerging opportunities and challenges for conservation delivery.
• Promote and support relevant partnerships in the region for conservation delivery and policy influence.
• Develop best practices based on experience in key conservation programmes in Africa that can be leveraged across the region and can inform broader WWF standards.
• Engage in relevant regional policy discussions, as appropriate, to support WWF’s ambitions in strengthening Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and advancing National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) in alignment with global agreements.
• Convene the regional conservation leadership (country office conservation directors, transboundary landscape leads, and regional programme leads) to support learning and best-practice sharing within the region, including exchanges where viable.
• Act as a conduit between the region and its priorities with the Conservation Director’s Forum (Conservation Director’s community).
• Represent the region and regional team in relevant internal and external steering groups and fora.
• Work with Conservation Impact Directors and their teams in other regions to facilitate learning and sharing of best practices and expertise.

Skills and Experience

• At least 10 years of experience in senior roles in conservation or development with a Post-Graduate qualification in Environmental or Conservation Science, Development, or equivalent experience. Additional qualifications in relevant disciplines (e.g. data analysis and management, impact monitoring and reporting, research, etc.) would be an advantage.
• Good understanding of conservation trends in Africa, development challenges and the impact of global trends on Africa.
• Knowledge and experience in best-practice conservation design, theory of change, and monitoring and evaluation approaches and tools for impact monitoring and reporting.
• Proven track record in managing diverse teams and leading internal and external multi-cultural stakeholder processes.
• Excellent written and verbal English language skills. Knowledge of any other languages in the region is an advantage.
• Excellent chairing, facilitation and influencing skills.
• Change management skills to support culture change.
• Excellent data analysis and presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work with diverse, geographically dispersed teams in complex organisational environments.
• Demonstrates alignment with the core values of the WWF organisation: Courage, Collaboration, Respect & Integrity.