Community Outreach Lead

The Community Outreach Lead – Eastern Kafue Nature Alliance shall be primarily responsible for the implementation and coordination of the project’s activities related to maternal and child health, clean water, gender and human wellbeing and their integration into the project’s community conservation program. The position will be based in TNC’s Mumbwa Office and will report to the Chief of Party. This is a 5-year term limited position, dependent on the duration of funding from USAID, and extension of tenure will be subject to performance and availability of funds

Essential Functions

The Community Outreach Lead – Eastern Kafue Nature Alliance will provide expert technical support to the project’s primary target beneficiaries, being the local communities that depend on the landscape for their livelihoods and survival, and to the public and private collaborating partners, private market actors and contractors with which the project will engage. Specifically, they will provide hands-on strategic guidance and technical oversight for community capacity building and practices for improving community health and reducing the human, economic, and ecological burdens of high maternal and child diseases, mortality, and water insecurity. These activities will involve strong liaison and collaboration with local communities and community health groups (e.g. Safe Motherhood Action Groups), relevant Government agencies (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development), private market actors and other NGOs in the landscape.

Responsibilities And Scope

• Cultivates and develops partnerships with key stakeholders in the landscape, including communities, government agencies, project implementing partners and private sector actors.
• Works closely with the project’s subrecipients and contractors delivering outcomes for maternal and child health (MCH) and clean water to ensure activities are coordinated and effective and offer long term beneficial outcomes to the communities and to conservation.
• Ensures close coordination between the project’s investments in health and clean water and the project’s conservation and nature-based economic development activities.
• Working with and supporting project partners, ensures communities living in target GMAs and surrounding areas have increased access to basic MCH services and information through trained community MCH volunteers, are linked to health facilities and practice positive health-seeking behaviors related to MCH.
• In consultation with local authorities and communities, project partners and other stakeholders, determines the target communities for clean water provision (ensuring mitigation of any Human Wildlife Conflict risk) and supports the activities of the project’s contractors drilling and rehabilitating boreholes.
• Supports the coordination of chiefdom-based Community Liaison Assistants as they mobilize community institutions in project activities; facilitating cross-cutting activities with other project components.
• Collaborates with project partners and other stakeholders in the landscape to ensure consistency, synergy and effective messaging of community conservation and health-related topics.
• Contributes to developing terms of reference for community outreach-related subawards and contracts and reviews reports submitted by subrecipients.
• Establishes community outreach-specific goals and priorities in the execution of the project workplan.
• Contributes to the development of the Gender Action Plan and takes the lead in ensuring its implementation in the field.
• Ensures the effective and coordinated use of gender tools with engaging with communities and ensures all community outreach activities are implemented in accordance TNC’s Gender and Reproductive Health policy and practice in collaboration with TNC Africa’s Gender & Reproductive Health Advisor.
• Ensures that all principles of participatory dialogue, planning and decision making include Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in natural resource governance and management are adhered to throughout the project management cycle.
• Works as a part of the project implementation team and as part of the broader TNC Zambia’s conservation team, ensuring close communication, collaboration and learning with peers across project and teams,
• Works with the project’s monitoring, evaluation research and learning (MERL) staff to implement the MERL Plan, report on project activities, measure outcomes in accordance with project requirements and document key lessons learned from stakeholder engagements and community interactions
• May require frequent travel to remote locations and evening and weekend hours.
• May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations and under physically demanding circumstances

Minimum Qualifications

• BA/BS degree in Environmental Health, Health Education, Social Sciences, or similar relevant field
• 5 years’ practical experience in community-based health and/or nutrition education and community mobilization
• Experience working with or in collaboration with Ministry of Health at district level
• Experience in health and/or clean water management donor-funded project implementation
• Experience in partnership development and management with government partners, non-profit organisations, private sector and/or community groups
• Experience in negotiating and conflict management
• Communication skills in written, spoken and graphical means in English
• Experience with computer skills (e.g. Excel, Word)

Desired Qualifications

• Five years working experience in health education, communication or related field
• Experience in gender inclusion and integration in community work
• Experience in community conservation and/or conservation education
• Experience in resource stewardship e.g. managing and tracking budgets
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of community health projects
• Cultural sensitivity
• Ability to communicate in the local languages spoken in the project area
• Ability to work independently with strong self-motivation

To apply for job ID 50659, submit your materials online by using the Apply Now button at https://careers.nature.org/.