BACKGROUND:

IUCN’s Tanzania Country Programme supports priorities defined under Tanzania’s National Development Plan, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, National Climate Change Strategy, Agriculture and Water Sector Development Strategies and Marine and Fisheries Action Plans, Blue Economy Policies and Strategies, IUCN Intersessional Plan 2021-2024 as well as relevant Multi-lateral environmental agreements. Our 2030 strategic goals include sustainable land and landscapes management, conservation of critical natural habitats, Integrated water resources management, capacity building for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and Coastal and ocean resilience (COR) building.

IUCN’s Tanzania Country Programme is currently implementing a project called “PAMOJA TUHIFADHI BAHARI YETU – with a short form Bahari Yetu”. This is a 4-year project (2024 – 2028) with the overall goal of improving environmental protection and biodiversity conservation of the coastal and marine ecosystems in Tanzania. This project is funded by the European Union through the ‘Blue Economy for job creation and climate change adaptation programme’: a 110 M EUR programme that aims to contribute to a climate resilient Blue Economy on the Tanzanian coastal cities and ecosystems. The project is implemented in parts of the Mtwara, Coastal and Dar es Salaam regions and Unguja Island in Zanzibar. The project consists of four components:
i. Protection of Marine Resources Biodiversity,
ii. Strengthen Community-led Management of Coastal Forests,
iii. Combat plastic litter in marine and estuary water bodies,
iv. Improve institutional capacities for research, monitoring, surveillance and management of coastal and marine resources.

The project is designed to feed into the Great Blue Wall Initiative. The Great Blue Wall is a Western Indian Ocean (WIO)-born, Africa-driven roadmap to achieve a nature positive world by 2030. It aims at unlocking unprecedented nature-based recovery efforts through the establishment of a transformational movement. Its goal is to dramatically accelerate and upscale ocean conservation actions while enhancing socio-ecological resilience and the development of a regenerative blue economy by catalyzing political leadership and financial support. This will be achieved by spearheading the establishment of a connected network of nature-people positive seascapes (or regenerative seascapes). This network of seascapes will be connected by a living blue wall that will act as a regional ecological corridor formed by conserved and restored critical blue ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses and corals. While the Great Blue Wall will act as a wall against climate change impacts and biodiversity loss, it will also shelter coastal communities and create the enabling conditions and necessary mechanisms to empower local stakeholders to become stewards of the ocean while accelerating the development of a regenerative blue economy. The Great Blue Wall is an action-focused and action-driven regional response to 3 interconnected crises, i.e. Biodiversity – Climate – Socioeconomic with three clear objectives to be achieved by 2030:
– Effectively and equitably conserve at least 30%of the ocean by 2030
– Conserve and restore critical blue ecosystems to achieve net-gain by 2030
– Unlock the development of a regenerative blue economy that directly benefits coastal communities while also delivering conservation outcomes.

The Marine Governance and Ecosystems Officer will drive the implementation of ocean governance and blue ecosystems management component of the project. This position reports directly to the Programme Manager. He/she will serve as a member of the Country COR Team that helps set strategic directions and define priorities for IUCN’s broader engagement on Marine and Coastal issues at the country level and, accordingly, works with the other members of the team in strategic planning; monitoring and evaluation; and learning, innovation and knowledge generation at the overall Programme level.

The Marine Governance and Ecosystems Officer will be based in Mtwara, Tanzania with frequent travel to Unguja Island.

Implementation and portfolio management;
Coordination, planning, budgeting, management and oversight of project’s ocean governance and ecosystems management activities;
Day-to-day coordination of projects implementation and activities delivery to ensure the highest quality of outputs and outcomes as well as guarantee that activities are implemented in line with project workplans and budgets;
Support and coordinate implementing partners and consultancies with focus on ocean governance and ecosystems management to ensure effective delivery of their tasks;
Support national COR team on technical reporting and on the development of a regional Blue Planet and Blue Nature annual reports.

External engagement and communication:
In consultation with Programme Manager ensure that IUCN is adequately represented in relevant country fora and facilitate discussions on relevant marine and coastal emerging issues to position IUCN as a reference in the country;
Provide evidence-based support and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues on emerging issues and policy debates;
Communication of lessons learnt to key decision-makers and other stakeholders within the country, region and globally as appropriate, including via the web, print and media;
In collaboration with others, identify and manage potential risks associated with IUCN’s public positions in the country and design strategies to mitigate the risks that have been identified;
Act as a focal point for facilitating and supporting the involvement of IUCN Commissions, Members and other members of the Secretariat in the development and implementation of programmatic activities.

Programme Development and Resource Mobilization:
As appropriate contribute to fundraising activities including development of concepts and projects documents. This will involve establishing, maintaining and nurturing good relationships with donors, funding agencies and other technical partners so as to ensure the financial viability of the Tanzania Country Portfolio and COR programme;

Monitoring and Evaluation;
Contribute to the development and implementation of the project and COR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework;
Support project monitoring and evaluation;
In collaboration with the Project Technical Manager ensure IUCN work is accountable to donors and other stakeholders through the establishment and management of effective accountability mechanisms and processes;
Provide leadership to use data for project decision making, for the implementation of management actions based on the findings of monitoring, and to ensure that feedback from stakeholders inform programme development;
Lead seascapes governance and ecosystems management reporting processes and requirements.

Other responsibilities:
Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time.