COUNTRY COORDINATOR BIOINNOVATION AFRICA

OFFRE D’EMPLOI: COUNTRY COORDINATOR BIOINNOVATION AFRICA

DESCRIPTION DE L’OFFRE

Context and Justification

Africa bears nine global biodiversity hotspots and is home to over 60.000 different plants and still uncounted numbers of animals and microorganisms. Many of them are used in traditional ways, for instance as food supplements, cosmetic and medicinal applications.
Increasingly, Africa’s biodiversity is being used as a source for innovation and natural ingredients, including for food, cosmetics and pharma, although much of its economic potential remains untapped. It is important that these opportunities contribute to local development and the conservation of Africa’s biodiversity and the many ecosystems under threat.

European-African collaboration for biodiversity-based innovation

In the context of the German Marshall Plan with Africa, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) commissioned BioInnovation Africa. The project aims to encourage and support the private sector to invest in Africa and to enter into sustainable and mutually
beneficial business partnerships in accordance with ethical, social and environmental standards.

Project aims

The project will collaborate with business and governmental partners in pursuit of:

• Regulatory compliance – particularly with respect to the national Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations, implementing the Nagoya Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
• Ecological sustainability – foster R&D and sourcing schemes that respect people and support biodiversity conservation.
• Innovation for new products and jobs – promoting technology transfer, long term business partnerships for a reliable supply of natural ingredients and better products.
• Advocacy – showcasing successful and sustainable North-South business partnerships as “proof of principle” will help to increasingly integrate BioTrade and ABS in cooperation portfolios.

Partner countries

In its first three-year phase, 2019 to 2022, BioInnovation Africa is considered to focus on Cameroon, Madagascar, Namibia, and South Africa. These countries are rich in biodiversity, which is already widely used locally and internationally (e.g. Centella asiatica, vanilla, rosy periwinkle, rooibos, baobab, marula, Prunus africana).

To coordinate activities in Cameroon, GIZ is looking for the services of a Country Coordinator (m/w). The duty station is Yaoundé. The selected candidate will have a probation period of three months before confirmation. The contract period is intended to start from September 2020 for two years with possibilities of extension.

Responsibility

The advisor is responsible for

• Managing the improvement of (sub-)national frameworks for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) aiming at conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through advisory services and organising various capacity building formats for actors from government, civil society, research and the private sector and providers of genetic resources
• Supporting the development of mechanisms for using the benefit-sharing scheme for biodiversity conservation measures
• Planning and implementing activities at national level related to the development of actor specific ABS manuals, the organization of contract trainings, the development and implementation of an IT-based permitting system and the development of concepts for financing and support mechanisms
• Bringing together key public, civil society and development actors from the environment domain and related sectors for cross-sector dialogue and inter-sector coordination for relevant project activities
• Assisting the project in knowledge management through the capitalisation of country experiences
• Serving for the project as a country representative for all planned interventions in the country and liaise with respective partners and relevant stakeholders assuring alignment to the GIZ portfolio and compliance with GIZ internal rules and administrative procedures
• Together with the other national advisor, supporting the preparation of annual operational country-specific activity plans in concertation with key stakeholders and assure monitoring and documentation of activities to feed and update the HQ team on project progress, including the preparation of periodic reports
• Assure Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the country package according to GIZ standard

The professional advisor performs the following tasks:

Tasks related to operations

Advising the partner institutions

• Contributes to preparing and implementing the coordination process, joint project activities and work at the national level
• Deals with the design, preparation and implementation of workshops, seminars and other events on issues connected with the project’s area of activity, in particular ABS and benefit sharing frameworks
• Provides technical advice to the government, civil society, research and private sector partners on the improvement of the national regulatory framework on Access and Benefit Sharing, namely:
  • Develop and disseminate actor-specific manuals on the national ABS system together with the Competent National Authority (CNA) and external experts
  • Organize blended training courses to draw up ABS contracts
  • Organize gender-specific training and advice for “providers” for the negotiation of ABS contracts
  • Advise on the design, the development and the possible institutional setup of an IT-based information system
  • Train “users” of the system in the relevant authorities and commissions on the IT system
• Develops mechanisms for using the benefit-sharing scheme for biodiversity conservation measures, namely:
  • prepare and facilitate vulnerability analyses based on IPBES results as well as cost-benefit analyses to identify measures preserving biodiversity (in the context of risk management and sustainability policy)
  • organize and conduct capacity building for the implementation of the selected biodiversity conservation and job creation measures
  • develop a catalogue with defined and localized measures of biodiversity conservation
  • facilitate various formats for knowledge exchange regarding appropriate financing mechanisms and other information needs and trust building, e.g. roundtables
• Advise partner institutions on how to create an enabling institutional environment to integrate manuals, tools and other requirements for ABS and BioTrade in the given institutional set-up
• Assure Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of project activities and assist the coordination at HQ in consolidation/aggregation of M&E data.

Networking and cooperation

• Supports cooperation, regular contact and dialogue with partners, assists with PR work and cooperates with the “providers” of biological resources, relevant organisations, non-governmental agencies and individuals in the project environment and with other GIZ projects to improve and maintain good working relationships
• communicates local and the partners’ interests and efforts, forwards these and encourages sharing ideas and information for the benefit of the project

Knowledge management

• ensures knowledge transfer to project information
• develops ready-to-use strategies and technical concepts, including guidelines, manuals and procedures as mentioned above
• draws up reports and presentation documents
• prepares appropriate input for various project reports including annual reports, and contributes to the other reports required by the programme manager and GIZ Head Office
• assists and guides short-term experts provided by external service providers with country-specific studies and analyses conducted in the project context.

Coordination tasks

• assists with general project planning and develops project concepts including preparation, organisation and moderation of planning exercises and their implementation, management, monitoring, quality management, evaluation, communication and documentation
• coordinates relevant project activities at local level in consultation with the responsible manager in the country and with the project coordination at GIZ Head Office and in cooperation with the partners, both as regards implementation and preparing organisational aspects
• compiles the relevant information for joint activities and assignments
• handles order management on behalf of GIZ (e.g. offer preparation, impact monitoring, project progress review, reporting)
• oversees and handles all procedures and rules of GIZ for a compliant administrative management of all local project activities in line and direct cooperation with the GIZ Country Office and administrative manager of the hosting bilateral GIZ programme.

Human resources management and leadership of national personal

• Provides multifaceted support and coordination to technical staff that enables them to achieve their tasks and objectives
• Manages directly all national staff; including leave planning, evaluation, disciplinary measures, training proposals in concertation with GIZ Country Office
• Follow up staff health insurance registration and HIV-Mainstreaming in collaboration with the GIZ Country office.

Financial and logistics management

• Manages funds (including budget planning and consumption follow-up) and equipment
• Supervises the administrative management (invoice verification, accounting, supervision of procurement, equipment, stationery, furniture, consultancies, local subsidies at the level of the GIZ, request for funds, cash control).

PROFIL REQUIS

The ideal candidate offers the following qualifications, capacities, experiences and personal skills:

Professional education

• Masters/MSc in the area of environmental and/or policy sciences, environmental economy, geography, or similar with a focus on the management and conservation of biodiversity and/or environmental policies and regulations.

Professional experience

• At least 7 years’ professional experience in a comparable position
• At least 5 years’ professional experience in the setup and operationalisation of environmental guidelines and standards for various stakeholders groups, preferably with respect to the national ABS framework, and in the establishment of benefit sharing mechanisms to involve local communities into value chains
• At least 5 years of sound knowledge on all necessary administrative and organizational procedures and requirements of project implementation at GIZ on the country level.

Knowledge and Expertise

• Proven track record of at least 5 years in organizing Capacity development measures and knowledge exchange for stakeholders in the field of nature-based value chains
• Experience in multi-stakeholder processes and inter-ministerial coordination
• Knowledge in environment financing, national conservation, and sustainable use concepts is an asset
• Very good working knowledge of ITC technologies (related software, phone, email, the internet) and computer applications (e.g. MS Office), knowledge of IT based solutions for approving and monitoring legally-binding activities or alike is an asset
• Sound knowledge of the institutional landscape in and around the environment/biodiversity domain

Personal skills

• Clear and diplomatic communication (oral and written)
• Ability to communicate adequately with interdisciplinary / multi-institutional teams (units / research organizations, NGOs and Governmental agencies, organizations and donors)
• Team worker and constructive attitude in case of difficulties or conflicts (responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view)
• Capacity of reflection of own work and willingness to learn
• Developed attitude and awareness of service delivery

Languages: Fluent written and oral knowledge of English/French and at least one local language widely used in the country

Duty station: Yaoundé, Cameroun

Duration of contract: From September 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2022 with possibility of extension

Internal classification: Band 5T supervised by Programme manager and/or component manager

Application deadline: July 20, 2020

Application submission: Interested and suitable applicants should forward their applications including a detailed Curriculum Vitae (maxi 2 leaves), a one-page cover letter addressing the applicant’s motivation and three (3) professional references via the GIZ-CM online recruitment platform:

Feminine candidates are strongly encouraged!

Important note: Only internal applications will be accepted. Recruitment at GIZ is not subject to any fees. Only selected candidates will be contacted. Unsuccessful files will be destroyed six months after the date of publication.