World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world’s leading conservation organization, seeks a Manager, for Local Policy Interventions to Tackle Deforestation and Forest Degradation. Under the direction of the Senior Director of the Forest and Climate Team, the Manager will support the Forest Goal team and key WWF country offices and partners in forest geographies in the design and technical support for the implementation of forest and land use policies, interventions, programs and incentive systems that contribute to tackle deforestation and degradation at scale, delivering emissions reductions. In collaboration with forest and climate team members, assist WWF country offices and partners in building support for land policy reforms, including establishing linkages with subnational/national REDD+ programs and Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs), and develop external support through elaboration of funding proposals and/or place-based corporate partnerships.
- Provide advice and analysis on a range of policies including, market and trade measures to combat deforestation and forest degradation, and understand how WWF’s Forest goal team offering fits in potential courses of action.
- Provide expertise and technical support to WWF country offices and their government counterparts regarding options to improve local to national policies and interventions to address the drivers of deforestation and degradation, including land tenure/security and economic incentives (e.g. PES).
- Support government agency staff in assessment of existing and potential public policy initiatives to support increased ambition and performance against NDCs in the forest and land sector.
- Map the roles and responsibilities of relevant institutions and agencies in key geographies and identify opportunities for engagement. Understand key geographies’ policies and goals as they relate to forest governance, sustainable (deforestation free) supply chains and, in general, to tackle deforestation and forest degradation.
- Team with WWF country offices and multilateral finance teams to conceptualize and draft bilateral and multilateral funding proposals with a focus on improved natural resource governance.
- Liaise with the teams working on corporate sustainability and business/procurement teams to contribute to catalyze place-based partnerships (e.g., through funding, sourcing agreements, extension services, data sharing and mapping) to reduce deforestation.
- Develop white papers, case studies and related materials regarding both failed and successful policy interventions to tackle deforestation to support the team’s efforts related to communications, knowledge sharing and capacity building.
- Contribute with programmatic Monitoring and Evaluation for the team’s projects and programs.
- Supports the Senior Director for Forest and Climate for the strategic planning and thinking to advance the team’s goals.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
- Must have 8 years of relevant working experience specifically related to national/subnational public policy design, implementation and/or management as it pertains to the forest and/or land sector. An advanced degree may substitute for 2 years of work experience.
- Excellent written and spoken communications skills in English are required.
- Excellent knowledge of policies relevant to tackle deforestation and forest degradation as they pertain to the developing world.
- Experience working in and with developing country governments on forest and land sector and/or climate policies.
- Excellent critical thinking skills and drive for tackling complex problems.
- High capacity for knowledge acquisition and synthesis, particularly incorporating technical inputs into policy design.
- Familiarity with international forest and climate policy space (e.g., UNFCCC, SDGs, etc.).
- Basic capacity for understanding of geospatial data.
- Basic relevant knowledge of forest ecology, physiology, forest management, conservation or relevant policy.
- Must be able to travel internationally (20% of the time likely).
- Ability to work in a multidisciplinary/multicultural environment.
- Fluent in at least one additional language is preferred, ideally in Spanish or French for interaction with our country field programs.