IUCN recruits 01 Regional ESMS Specialist

IUCN recruits 01 Regional ESMS Specialist

• Expected start date: 01 October 2025
• Type of contract: Fixed-term (15 months with possibility of renewal)
• Closing date: 15 August 2025

Background

Compliance with the delegation of authority

The Regional ESMS Specialist position is expected to comply with the IUCN Delegation of Authority (DoA) current at any particular time, and the sub-delegations issued thereof. Such compliance must be exercised with due diligence and regard for the letter, spirit and purpose of the DoA.
Background

IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,300 Member organisations and the input of more than 16,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. The IUCN Secretariat has offices located all around the world and is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland.
Every four years, the IUCN membership adopts a quadrennial Programme that guides the work of the Union, especially that of the IUCN Secretariat. The Secretariat implements the IUCN Programme through a growing portfolio of over 400 projects across the world that are designed to respond to country, donor, and IUCN priorities. IUCN has put in place an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) to provide a systematic procedure to check IUCN projects for potential adverse environmental and social impacts and to assure that negative impacts are avoided or minimised to the extent possible while promoting positive impacts. The ESMS procedures and policies are explained in the ESMS Manual and in the ESMS standards available at www.iucn.org/esms.

Currently the application of the ESMS procedures is assumed by the global ESMS Coordinator, but delegation of some of this work is intended to increase the ESMS’ performance, timely delivery and operational efficiency and to ensure the review is geographically closer to the projects and its stakeholder.
To achieve these enhancements, IUCN is hiring an ESMS Specialist for the Regional office for Central and West Africa, PACO. He/she will be responsible for the application of the IUCN ESMS policy on the regional project portfolio, including the strong and growing GEF and GCF Portfolio. This position will contribute to the region’s leadership in safeguard quality assurance and will play a key role in improving IUCN’s ESMS practices and culture. It will require safeguard subject-matter expertise and experience as well as aptitude in advising and training on the need and benefits of safeguard application.

Job description

Major responsibilities

As the regional specialist for the application of the ESMS, this position is the lead responsible for ensuring that ESMS procedures, standards and principles are applied to the regional project portfolio and that projects are in full compliance with respective policies, throughout the entire project cycle.

He/she will also build ESMS capacity in the region to enhance ESMS compliant project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk management strategies. This involves coaching and training of regional staff, project managers and implementation partners (including senior Government officials) as well as supporting recruitment, onboarding and training of project ESMS officers.

This position will monitor the application of safeguard tools in the region, distil lessons learned and, together with the global ESMS Coordinator, ensure that the system is further developed and refined to improve effectiveness and efficiency in its application.
This position will report to the Programme Support Unit Manager based in the regional office with a functional reporting line to the global IUCN ESMS Coordinator.

Specific duties

Regional portfolio ESMS application

Leading and ensuring application of ESMS procedures on the regional project portfolio, specifically:

Environmental and social due diligence at project design stage

• Screen projects on environmental and social impacts, define risk category, identify necessary impact studies and safeguard tools/plans;
• Advise proponents on stakeholder engagement and mainstreaming ESMS during project design and implementation phase;
• Support proponents in contracting experts for environmental and social assessments; where issues are less complex, carry out targeted assessments and stakeholder consultation;
• Appraise the quality of final ESIA reports, environmental and social management plans (ESMP) and other safeguard tools;
• Ensure appropriate budgeting for ESMS activities;
• Support proponents in technical reviews of proposals with donors;
• Conduct final compliance check and prepare ESMS clearance of projects.

ESMS support during project implementation

• Provide ESMS training for executing agency (EA) and other implementation partners at project inception; Appraise any ESMS deliverables that are due in the inception phase;
• Support the EA in reporting progress to donors on implementation of safeguard tools and compliance with all ESMS requirements;
• Cover ESMS aspects of annual project supervision missions;
• Manage ESMS project data including entries to the Project Portal.

Grievance management and incident reporting

• Set-up the regional mechanism for receiving grievances and complaints in line with IUCN’s three-staged grievance process;
• Support the EA in developing the procedures for the project-level grievance mechanism;
• Maintain a register of grievances and report on progress resolving grievances to the IUCN Head of Oversight;
• Ensure timely reporting of incidents and implementation of corrective actions.

Build ESMS capacity in the region

To enhance ESMS compliant project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk management strategies, regional ESMS capacities need to be further strengthened. This involves:

• Train and coach regional staff on the ESMS to ensure consistent application of procedures and standards as well as pro-active integration of ESMS principles into project design;
• In collaboration with the global ESMS Coordinator, develop ESMS training materials and deliver training sessions to regional staff, project managers and implementation partners (including senior Government officials);
• Ensure adequate recruitment, on-boarding and assume functional reporting of new project ESMS officers in the region.

ESMS development, refinement, and learning

Together with the global ESMS Coordinator, ensure that the system is further developed and refined to improve effectiveness and efficiency in its application. This involves:

• Capture lessons learned and feed-back from the EA and project stakeholders and suggest refinement and improvements of the system;
• Contribute to enhancement of safeguard tools and institutional processes to increase effectiveness of ESMS application;
• Generate lessons on the ESMS application identifying good practices and synthesising these practices for dissemination within and outside the institution, including delivery of sessions for the IUCN Academy ESMS training;
• Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Please Note: The above TORs contain the main responsibilities and duties of this position. However, in an ever evolving organisation such as IUCN staff members are expected to show flexibility in their approach to work and be willing to undertake other tasks that are reasonably allocated to them but which are not part of their regular TORs.

Where any task becomes a regular part of staff member’s responsibilities, the TORs should be changed in consultation between the manager, the staff member and the HR Unit. Any one of the three may initiate the consultation

Requirements

• Master’s degree in social sciences (sociology, anthropology, indigenous people’s studies etc); or comparable qualification with an environmental focus (e.g. natural resource management or environmental management) but only if combined with extensive experience in assessing and managing social aspects in conservation (e.g. promoting rights-based approaches, improving socio-economic benefits or managing social risks in conservation projects etc);
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience, including working at a regional level in West or Central Africa;
• Expert knowledge and practical experience in carrying out environmental and in particular social impact assessments and in applying safeguards/performance standards, in preparing and implementing safeguard tools or integrating safeguard requirements into project design; familiarity with GEF and GCF safeguard polices and national safeguards frameworks in the region;
• Extensive practical experience in engaging with indigenous peoples, marginalized, vulnerable or minority groups and local communities and guiding FPIC processes;
• Experience in analysing and addressing gender risks and familiarity with social risks related to environmental law enforcement;
• Demonstrated capacity to work collaboratively within a diverse team, coach colleagues and design and implement training courses;
• Very good inter-personal skills and high degree of cultural sensitivity;
• Very good communication skills both written and oral; ability to represent IUCN externally and liaise with donors and peers in other organizations.
• Strong analytical skills, diligent working style and ability to quickly evaluate complex situations;
• Articulative and able to gain a quick understanding of projects and possible social and environmental impacts presenting them effectively to a larger audience.
• Self-driven and able to work independently with minimal supervision and remotely.
• Fluency in English and French is a requirement, good knowledge (speaking and writing) of Portuguese or Spanish an advantage. Familiarity with other languages of the region a plus.

Applications

• Applicants are requested to apply online through the HR Management System, by opening the vacancy announcement and pressing the « Apply » button.
• Applicants will be asked to create an account and submit their profile information. Applications will not be accepted after the closing date. The vacancy closes at midnight, Swiss time (GMT+1 / GMT+2 during Daylight Saving Time, DST). Please note that only selected applicants will be personally contacted for interviews.

Other job opportunities are published in the IUCN website: https://www.iucn.org/involved/jobs/

Pour postuler, veuillez cliquer sur ce lien : hrms.iucn.org.