Program Coordinator

Lusaka Province, Zambia

This position will be based in Lusaka, Zambia

One of TNC’s primary goals is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that employees around the globe have a sense of belonging and feel that their unique contributions are valued. We know we’ll only achieve our mission by hiring and engaging a diverse staff that reflects the communities in which we work. Recognizing that people bring talent and skills that have been developed outside the scope of a job, we take a holistic approach to recruitment that considers life experience in addition to the professional requirements listed in our postings. Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote a popular saying at TNC, “you’ll join for the mission, and you’ll stay for the people.”

Since establishing the Africa Programme in 2007, The Nature Conservancy’s vision in Africa is to work towards fostering a sustainable future for people and nature, partnering with indigenous communities across 55 million acres on the continent. Our efforts are firmly rooted in people, leveraging scientific and technical expertise as we collaborate with governments and organizations to conserve and enhance Africa’s shared resources in the nine countries we operate.
TNC’s work in Africa transcends three key pillars: securing ownership rights to lands and resources for indigenous people, strengthening leadership and resource management, and helping communities value nature through increasing revenue streams for conservation efforts and socio-economic development. Together with our partners, we are witnessing critical milestones in integrated land and fisheries management, ocean and source water protection, energy development, and sustainable food production working together and strengthening our resolve in tackling global challenges such as climate change, habitat and biodiversity loss that stand to impact the 1.4 billion people that share Africa.

In Zambia, TNC’s work focuses on the Greater Kafue – West Lunga Mega-Landscape. This is Zambia’s largest contiguous conservation landscape, comprising a 10 million-hectare complex of state, community and private lands of exceptional biodiversity and climate value. In this landscape, TNC is working with communities and diverse public and private stakeholders to strengthen tenure and governance over natural resources, develop effective resource governance and management systems and support nature-based livelihoods and economic opportunities for the local communities living in and around this ecologically fragile area. A final critical pillar of TNC’s strategy involves defining, testing and implementing conservation financing models that can resource the long-term effective management of the landscape and the delivery of tangible socio-economic benefits to the communities that depend on it for their livelihoods and survival.

The Zambia Programme Coordinator will support the conservation team to meet the priorities of the Zambia programme and will work closely with the Country Director to provide dedicated support to programme planning and implementation. This position will support the Country Director in coordinating and linking the multiple conservation teams and operations and monitoring, evaluation and learning functions for streamlined programme delivery.

We’re looking for someone highly motivated and passionate about conservation, communities and tangible impact to join the growing TNC Zambia team.

This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative, innovative individual with excellent communication competencies to play a key role in the growth, evolution and success of the country programme, ensuring all components of the country programme are aligned and organised and collaborating around common goals, work plans and deadlines, and are responsive to changing dynamics within the environment in which they operate.

Reporting to the Zambia Country Director, the position will be based at the TNC offices in Lusaka,  Zambia. No employment visas or assistance is being offered with this position except for the local labour employment requirements.

Specifically, the Programme Coordinator will:

• Organise a schedule of regular structured meetings for country teams and, where appropriate, external partners that ensure collaboration, prioritisation, decision-making and learning
• Set the agenda, facilitate and record the outcomes of team meetings, transforming meetings into centres of energy, action and collaboration
• Act as a ‘connector’, ensuring information and learning is communicated across the programme teams and ensuring maximum coordination and synergy between teams and between team members for effective and efficient programme delivery
• Work closely with the monitoring and evaluation team to develop, implement and record the outcomes from a cadence of key pause-reflect-adapt touchpoints for the team
• Actively track workflows, action points and ‘bottlenecks’ impeding the delivery of TNC’s conservation work and liaise with the appropriate parties to remove barriers and resolve challenges, including facilitating the smooth coordination between the operations staff and the conservation staff where necessary
• Develop, maintain and keep updated the programme repository of data and documents and ensure access by all team members
• Understand the programme’s data needs and work with the monitoring and evaluation team, other team members and external resources to ensure it is collated and organised effectively
• Support adaptive management capacity building of team members leveraging the resources available within TNC and improve adaptive management processes regularly through testing and iteration
• Manage the dissemination of meeting outcomes, newsflashes and other internal communications to the team and support the compilation of content for newsletters and other external communication materials
• Organise TNC’s participation in relevant public conservation-related events including organising staff participation and the procurement and delivery of marketing and publicity collateral in collaboration with relevant teams including the regional Marketing and Communications Team
• Working with the Country Director, the Development Team, relevant country staff, partners and stakeholders, organise and coordinate visits by regional and international staff and donors
• Facilitate and manage the deployment of interns or equivalent human resources into the country programme where required
• Travel occasionally, working long and flexible hours as needed.
• Work is diversified and may not always fall under established practices and guidelines.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and five years relevant experience including two years of managing operations functions
• Analytical and project management experience
• Proficiency in project management software and office applications (MS Office suite)
• Experience supporting complex projects and strategic initiatives in an unstructured environment.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams

Desired Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, human resource management, business administration, project management or related fields and 6+ years of related experience or equivalent combination
• Proficient in English and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experiences are appreciated
• Experience in working in a conservation or natural resource management system Knowledge of facilitating teams working on projects with an aspiration of best practice adaptation
• Understanding of the principles of adaptive management
• Ability to organise and facilitate meetings and events.
• Ability to work independently with strong self-motivation
• Demonstrated experience handling confidential information
• Demonstrated attention to detail
• Excellent time management, detail-oriented and multitasking
• Excellent facilitation, organisational and problem-solving skills
• Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organisation and with partners
• Excellent interpersonal skills and education or experience in building cultures and fostering environments that support team health and team cohesion