Policy Integration and Community Rights Manager

Organization Background

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of vulnerable communities whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

Program Background

WCS's office for the Southeast Asian Archipelago (SEAA) region is based in Singapore and is responsible for WCS conservation programs in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The SEAA region contains the third largest expanse of tropical rainforests and the majority of the Coral Triangle, the global center of marine biodiversity. The region includes over 25,000 islands and comprises the world's second, third, and sixth-largest islands (New Guinea, Borneo and Sumatra). Our current efforts focus on protecting Nature's Strongholds, including the Leuser Ecosystem and Endau Rompin landscape and some of the region's most important coastal ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal wetlands, including in the Bohol Sea (Philippines), North Sulawesi, North Maluku, Aceh, West Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia), and Sarawak (Malaysia).

Within the SEAA region, WCS has operated for many years in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the Philippines, WCS has recently opened a branch office and, leveraging its historical project-based legacy, is now, together with local partners, designing a conservation program that will complement the many ongoing terrestrial and marine efforts in the Philippines. We are initiating efforts to build a small and impactful team, develop government, civil society, and NGO partnerships, and build out the knowledge base to inform WCS's broader conservation strategy and approach in the Philippines (for example, marine conservation, illegal wildlife trade, rights and communities, forests and climate change, and health).

WCS's initial program focus is on marine conservation and management of the Bohol Sea, adopting an integrated (land-sea) and ecosystems-based approach to conservation. The work will be implemented in partnership with the local community, peoples' organizations, and other NGOs/academe and delivered in close coordination with government agencies.

Job Purpose

Policy Integration and Community Rights Manager will engage with agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in Cotabato City and their site-based counterparts in Tawi-Tawi to develop rights-based marine and fisheries governance frameworks that are aligned with the 30x30 targets anchored on the Philippines Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP).

This position will support improving environmental governance covering provincial and municipal local government units in Tawi-Tawi. These will include fisheries, forestry, wildlife, protected areas, pollution, and other complementary environmental laws rules and regulations that will align local policies with WCS national strategic programs under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). This position will also monitor and implement the WCS Safeguards Plan for Tawi-Tawi, ensuring that WCS activities comply with the environmental and social safeguards mechanisms and policies onsite. With the supervision of the Associate Director for Policy and Partnerships, this position will develop and roll out the appropriate capacity-building and community engagement activities to ensure that the Safeguards Plan is operationalized within the institution and with partners.

Major Responsibilities:

1. Policy Development

• Engage the local government units in Tawi-Tawi, as well as people's organizations, fisheries councils, and community leaders, to strengthen local fisheries, biodiversity, and marine governance policies.
• Provide technical support in drafting and aligning environmental laws and regulations in Tawi-Tawi with BARMM and national frameworks.
• Facilitate policy workshops, consultations, and technical meetings with BARMM Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy (MENRE), the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR), and the Ministry on Indigenous Peoples Affairs (MIPA) and other agencies and community partners to scale up conservation efforts.
• Support integration of climate resilience and rights-based approaches in governance processes across Tawi-Tawi and BARMM.

2. Safeguards Implementation

• Build, strengthen and organize networks and partnerships with people's organizations, religious leaders, women's groups, and civil society organizations in project sites.
• Monitor compliance of site-based activities with organizational Gender, Equality, Diversity and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) frameworks, ensuring inclusive participation and protection of marginalized sectors and integration into policy development and governance processes.
• Co-develop an implementation, socialization, and monitoring framework for the Stakeholder Engagement Plan, the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMF), and other related protection plans, including roll out of the Grievance Redress Mechanism.

3. Other tasks

• Support organizing public forums, consultations, events, and activities of the country program, when necessary.
• Ensure compliance with financial, procurement and record-keeping systems.
• Contribute to project work and financial plans, baseline data, monitoring and evaluation tools and indicators, collection and sharing of lessons learned, as well as project reporting, donor communications, and knowledge-sharing across WCS programs.
• Organize relevant awareness-raising activities and national or local campaigns, and the development of IEC materials, when applicable.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the line manager.

This job description reflects the assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

• A university degree on environmental science, development studies, or other relevant disciplines. Juris doctor or a Bachelor of Laws degree an advantage.
• Minimum five years of professional experience on policy work and analysis and relevant experience in environmental and social impact assessments/management.
• Familiarity with environmental and social safeguards frameworks and standards, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) issues, gender, conservation, and development issues in the Philippines.
• Familiarity with the customary practices and traditions of Tawi-Tawi and the BARMM.
• Experience with research and publication writing and implementing advocacy initiatives.
• Must be solution-oriented and have strong problem solving and analytical skills and the ability to creatively contribute to thinking on issues.
• Proven ability to work with a dynamic team, and develop, engage, and work with multiple stakeholders, including government stakeholders, NGO partners, and international organizations at various levels.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and proficiency in spoken and written Filipino and English.
• Must demonstrate good coordination, organization, and time management skills.
• Must have significant attention to detail, be well organized, self-motivated, honest, resourceful, effective, and efficient with the ability to prioritize.
• Receptive to building and maintaining positive relationships with people from all backgrounds, genders, cultures, and viewpoints.
• Willing to travel locally/internationally, and work in Tawi-Tawi and other conservation sites within the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape.
• Align with WCS Core Values of respect, accountability and transparency, innovation, diversity and inclusion, collaboration, and integrity.

Preferred Requirements:

• Preferably can speak and understand Tausug, Sama or any of the local languages of Tawi-Tawi,

WCS is an equal opportunity employer, and the organization complies with all employment and labor laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in hiring and ensures that candidates from all backgrounds are fairly and consistently considered during the recruitment process. We are dedicated to hiring and engaging in a diverse workforce. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment and look for future team members who share the same values. The organization provides equal employment opportunities for all qualified candidates. The organization does not discriminate for employment based on gender, race/ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, caste, genetic information or any other covered status or characteristic protected by laws and regulations/and similar categories.

It is everyone's responsibility to ensure that we do not tolerate discrimination or harassment based upon a person's membership in one of these protected categories in areas such as recruitment, selection, job assignment, supervision, training, promotions, job grading, transfers, termination, compensation, benefits, educational opportunities, WCS sponsored recreational activities and facilities.

The organization complies with the spirit and intent of relevant local laws and WCS's employment policies.

Job Type: Full-time

Experience:

• project coordination, administration, or NGO program support: 3 years (Required)

Work Location: In person