Gender and Social Safeguards Advisor Full Time

Line manager: Technical Director WCS Congo

Workplace: Ouesso

Country/Sector Program: Congo

Type of position: Full-time

Planned travel***:*** Regular travel to WCS Congo’s areas of operation in Northern Congo.

Context

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is an American non-profit organization founded in 1895. Its mission is to preserve wildlife by understanding critical problems, developing scientific solutions and taking conservation action that benefits nature and humanity. With over a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, a presence in more than 60 countries and experience in creating more than 150 protected areas worldwide, WCS has accumulated the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships needed to ensure that wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, this knowledge is applied to solving species, habitat and ecosystem management issues, which are essential to improving the quality of life of rural populations whose livelihoods depend on the direct use of natural resources.

Program overview

For the past 30 years, WCS Congo has been the government’s main conservation partner, helping the Ministry of Forest Economy (MEF) to manage wildlife and its habitat in several of the country’s national parks, reserves and protected area buffer zones. In these sites, WCS develops and implements actions for effective wildlife protection, community-based natural resource management, ecological monitoring, scientific research and environmental education. The program is the largest in WCS’s global portfolio and reports to the regional program for Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. WCS Congo’s current program portfolio includes management of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (PNNN) through a public-private partnership with the government of Congo, wildlife management in the park’s important buffer zones, co-management of the Lac Télé community reserve, a national program to support reform of marine resource conservation and management, and a major policy support program for the central government in Brazzaville.

Job summary:

The role of the Advisor will be to accompany, sensitize and train WCS agents to take into account social safeguards and human rights when deploying activities, to support a rights-based approach framework in collaboration with project managers and to oversee the deployment and implementation of the grievance redress mechanism at WCS intervention sites. In addition, this position will lead all gender mainstreaming activities in the Ndoki Likouala landscape.

Main responsibilities:

In collaboration with the regional social safeguards coordinator based in Kigali, the advisor will:

• Oversee the initial pilot phase of the GRM for PNNN, adapt the GRM based on lessons learned from the pilot phase, and ensure quality control and operational supervision of field deployment throughout the main implementation phase.
• Work closely with the Regional Social Safeguards Coordinator to identify and train GRM staff in GRM procedures, and delegate GRM responsibilities appropriately.
• Ensure extensive coordination with partners inside and outside PNNN, particularly CIB, throughout the GRM steering and implementation phases.
• Ensure operational supervision (including work plans and quality control) of the MRG field implementation team.
• Manage the GRM database, ensuring that all submissions are tracked and documented in a timely manner
• Record, report and disseminate lessons learned from MRG deployment.
• Train WCS staff (including rangers), partners, and community members on GRM

On more general issues of social safeguarding:

• Train staff working in and around protected areas on human rights and social safeguards
• Support relevant aspects of the implementation of the social safeguard strategy among Ndoki Likouala Landscape staff and partners – with regard to indigenous peoples and local communities – in close coordination with the Community Development Manager.
• Ensure that community development teams in Northern Congo understand and are aware of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent process, and that the process is fully documented.
• Support community development teams in designing socio-economic surveys or studies, taking into account approaches based on community rights, gender and ethnic group dimensions.
• With the regional safeguard manager, design indicators to monitor the effectiveness of social safeguard mechanisms in the Ndoki Likouala landscape.
• To provide technical advice and input into the strategic development of projects and programs aimed at empowering indigenous peoples and improving their inclusion in decision-making and small-scale rural entrepreneurship mechanisms.
• Support the national program to ensure that the best international standards are applied to our activities, in line with donor requirements and WCS policies concerning social safeguards.

On the grievance redress mechanism: The grievance redress mechanism (GRM) for Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park and Lac Télé Community Reserve needs to be reviewed/developed and adapted to ensure it continues to meet international requirements and standards. The system, which will be inspired by the pilot model developed by WCS, is designed to understand, manage, monitor and mitigate community concerns and conflicts related to activities carried out by the park and its partners.

On gender aspects:

• Ensure the active participation and equal access of women, men, and Indigenous Peoples to project benefits and decision-making processes, including FPIC and GRM.
• Integrate gender into all WCS Congo activities, including the design of core indicators for gender-sensitive surveys.
• Work closely with the Community Development Manager to ensure that a gender equality and social inclusion perspective is incorporated into all community engagement and research activities.

Minimum requirements :

• Graduate degree in social sciences (international development studies, human rights, gender studies, human geography, conflict mitigation/resolution, natural resource management).
• Proven experience in conflict management.
• At least 5 years’ experience in the design, implementation and monitoring of programs/projects, particularly about social guarantees and/or social protection for marginalized and vulnerable groups.
• Qualifications and experience in implementing gender mainstreaming strategies in developing countries.
• Proven experience of working with marginalized and vulnerable groups.
• Fluency in French with English skills preferred.
• Willingness to visit a remote site
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, and proven ability to work as part of a team.
• Results-oriented work ethic

Tagged as: Congo, Wildlife Conservation Society