DRC: Communications Manager, Okapi Wildlife Reserve

Apr 19, 2021 | Wildlife Conservation Society
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About WCS: 

The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international NGO headquartered at Bronx Zoo in New York City working to save wildlife and wild lands and to meet global challenges in over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the world’s oceans. The Africa Program is the largest of WCS’s field programs, with approximately 1,100 staff in 12 country programs focused across four major regions (Central Africa, Sudano-Sahel, East and Southern Africa, and Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean). Our MISSION is to save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education and inspiring people to value nature. Our VISION is a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth. Our GOAL is to conserve the world’s largest wild places in 16 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world’s biodiversity. Our VALUES are Respect, Accountability and Transparency, Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion, Collaboration, Integrity.

About OWR:

Created in 1992, the OWR, at just under 14,000km2, is the single largest protected tract of intact lowland tropical forest remaining in the Africa. OWR is situated in the larger Ituri landscape, comprising more than 40,000km2 of contiguous forests. The Ituri forests are home to the a rich diversity of peoples and the global significance of ecosystem services and biodiversity of the area and the OWR in particular is widely recognised. The OWR was inscribed on the list of Natural World Heritage Sites in 1996, and the OWR is also listed as a Key Biodiversity Area.

Under the auspices of a ten-year management agreement between the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) that delegates the management of the reserve to WCS, the OWR management will contribute to the long-term goal of bringing peace and well-being to the people indigenous to the forests of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve while ensuring that the forests are intact, healthy and full of life, and the rivers are clean and flowing. This will be achieved by implementing solutions that will overcome the root causes to the threats to biodiversity, ecosystem services and ecological processes, and also to overcome the barriers to an effectively managed reserve. The program does this in exceptionally challenging circumstances: the Okapi Wildlife Reserve is a large area of lowland, tropical rainforest in an area of the world renowned for its insecurity, and weak governance and institutions. The program will achieve its goal and outcomes through four pillars of activity: 1) Improved security and reduced criminality through developed capacity; 2) Improved management effectiveness through developed capacity and operationalisation of the management agreement; 3) Improved well-being of rights-holding people – through a multi-pronged approach including: well managed access to and use of natural resources, strengthened institutions and institutional capacity, efficient and effective partnerships, economic development that functions within an environmentally and socially sound framework; and 4) Sustainable financing of the management, operation and development of the reserve achieved through a suite of innovative and traditional financing mechanisms and tools.

Purpose:

The Wildlife Conservation Society is seeking a dynamic, creative and experienced Communications Manager to oversee an important and exciting outward-facing communications portfolio for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.

The Communications Manager will build the reserve’s communications unit. S/he will report directly to the Head of Programs and s/he will provide regular updates to the OWR Management Unit – that is chaired by the Reserve’s Director and that is the executive body in charge of all day-to-day management activities and personnel in the OWR. Candidates will need to demonstrate that they have the necessary experience and skills to manage communications within a dynamic and complex program in a remote location. They will need to demonstrate that they are able to grasp the complexities of situations and use a wide range of communication and behavioural change tools to respond to situations as well as having the foresight to develop materials proactively. The Communications Manager is based full time on-site at the OWR headquarters in Epulu, Ituri Province.

Responsibilities:

The Communications Manager shall design and implement a portfolio of outputs and products to support the OWR’s new management team, to create products, outputs and programs that lead to behavioural change among target groups of people, and to raise visibility of this exciting reserve. S/he will lead a small team of staff and guide partners to ensure effective implementation of interventions within the portfolio. The Communications Manager will lead the development and implementation of a communications and behavioural change strategy – that includes aspects such as branding and marketing – that is targeted at reserve-level, provincial, national and international audiences among a wide range of target groups, including (but not limited to) DRC national and provincial government actors, donors and philanthropists, the international community, local activists, communities and indigenous peoples.

Through this, the Communication Manager will work to achieve the following results:

• A broad foundation of understanding and support for OWR’s values, mission and objectives built
• Measurable changes in the knowledge, attitudes and practices among target groups achieved
• Key constituents kept up to date with news from OWR
• The reserve and future tourism promoted
• Working with the Community Development Department, materials (in all appropriate languages) that lead to (measurable) behavioural change among target groups (especially among peoples living within and surrounding the reserve) developed and deployed
• Coordination of messaging and internal communications among all partners working in the OWR improved
• Working with the fund-raising and development personnel, innovative high-profile events organised and delivered.
• High consistency and quality of all outward-facing communication achieved
• With OWR’s Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, Adaptation and Learning (MEAL), an M&E system to measure the successes of communications and behavioural change developed and implemented – and therefore understood

Qualification Requirements

• Significant experience developing and implementing communications and behavioural change strategies (>7 years of experience)
• Significant experience engaging with international, national and local media
• Demonstrated experience engaging a diversity of target audiences using a broad range of contemporary media and tools
• Understanding of the tools that can be used to measure the success of communication and behavioural change a significant advantage
• Demonstrated openness and sensitivity to the socio-cultural environment of OWR
• Ability to work and write in both French and English; sensitivity to local languages – especially in the development of communication materials
• Ability to live and operate in remote areas under challenging conditions
• Dynamic, energetic, creative and ambitious

Application process

In order to apply for this position and if you meet the above qualifications, skills and experience, you should apply by emailing a detailed application/cover letter and CV together with the names and contact information of three references to: africaapplications@wcs.org. When submitting your CV and cover letter please send as separate attachments in your email and title as follows:  <LastName_CV> and <LastName_coverletter> Please include “Okapi Communications Manager” in the subject line of your email. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interviews. If you have any queries related to this position please contact: africaapplications@wcs.org 
 
Application Deadline: Midnight, 23 April 2021