BACKGROUND:

The International Crane Foundation (ICF) is a global conservation organization dedicated to securing all crane species and the ecosystems, watersheds, and flyways they depend on through strong science, community partnership, and practical conservation action across North America, Asia, and Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, we work to safeguard the four threatened crane species—Wattled, Blue, Grey Crowned, and Black Crowned Cranes—by reducing threats, strengthening sustainable land and water management, and supporting conservation practices that benefit both people and wildlife. Our teams in East and Southern Africa and across the Sahel and Sudan Savanna lead programmes in sustainable water management, protected area stewardship, conservation on agricultural lands, climate adaptation, and conservation-friendly livelihoods, all guided by strong strategic planning, research, and monitoring to address priority knowledge gaps, and an adaptive, learning‑driven approach. ICF has registered offices in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia; an integrated partnership in South Africa, hosted by the Endangered Wildlife Trust; is expanding work in the Sahel and Sudan Savanna regions; and maintains many strategic partnerships across Africa.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION:

The Conservation Adaptive Management and Planning Specialist ensures our work in Africa achieves and demonstrates long-term, sustainable impacts for cranes, wetlands, grasslands, and communities. The position ensures that conservation investments and actions are of the highest priority and are guided by effective results and outcome-oriented conservation planning; that project and programme teams embrace evidence-based learning and consistently practice adaptive management, using data, evidence, and other information to test assumptions and adjust actions to most effectively achieve desired impacts; and that evidence of progress and impact are translated and shared with others who are important to scale up and sustain impacts.

The Specialist does not directly supervise anyone but works with many people to ensure the Africa Programme follows ICF’s Adaptive Management framework and practices good conservation adaptive management and planning. The Specialist facilitates, coaches, prompts, and guides teams in their conservation adaptive management and planning practices, and mentors, trains, and builds the capacity of individual staff to lead these processes. The Specialist works closely with the Conservation Adaptive Management and Planning team, the Data Science team, and the Chief Scientist to ensure teams have robust measures of success and that appropriate data are collected, stored, analyzed, and translated into learning and adaptation. This position also works closely with the fundraising team to ensure efficient translation of conservation planning and reporting. The Specialist designs guidance, tools, and software solutions, and manages the Africa Programme’s portion of the ICF Miradi Adaptive Management database, to make it as easy as possible for Africa Programme team members to have their strategic plans guide implementation and to practice adaptive management.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Institutionalise conservation adaptive management and planning into ICF’s Africa Programme: Lead the development, refinement, and implementation of Africa’s adaptive management framework and practice. Ensure conservation planning processes (e.g., situation analyses and theories of change, as guided in the Conservation Standards/Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation and other results-based frameworks) are consistently applied, strategic plans guide implementation, and adaptive management cycles are effectively facilitated across field programmes through assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, learning, and strategy adjustment.
• Create, guide, and lead a clear operational framework that strengthens team alignment, defines roles and responsibilities, and enables the Africa team to effectively put ICF’s adaptive management approach into practice.
• Facilitate, guide, and mentor effective strategic planning, evaluation, learning, and adaptive management processes: Plan and lead effective in-person, hybrid, and online meetings and workshops, utilizing collaborative and learning focused facilitation skills, tools, and techniques. Design and implement technology solutions to support asynchronous group learning.
• Build Africa Programme staff capacity: Build staff capacity in all aspects of the adaptive management process, including helping to onboard new staff, sourcing and providing training opportunities, mentoring staff involved in project adaptive management, prompting and supporting regular reflection and learning, and promoting a culture of adaptive learning across the Africa Programme.
• Design and manage solutions: Manage the Africa portion of the Miradi Adaptive Management database. Design effective guidance, examples, and tools, including software solutions, to make it as easy as possible for teams to follow adaptive management guidelines.
• Small grants: Coordinate, in collaboration with the VP Africa, Regional Directors, and Country Managers, the small grants that the ICF’s Africa Programme provides to individuals and partner organisations across Africa, ensuring that they are well designed to achieve long-term impacts at scale and align with the strategic focus of the ICF Africa Programme.
• Support the investigation and development of new strategic approaches: Support the VP Africa, Regional Directors, and Country Managers with high-level development of new strategic approaches to scale up our impact and respond to emerging pressures and opportunities.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead Adaptive Management Related Internal Reporting: Lead, in close collaboration with the Regional Directors and Country Managers, the annual development and revision of ICF’s internal reports (Project Adaptive Management Reports, Species Score Cards, and Model Project Score Cards). Prompt and guide the internal sharing of strategy, lessons, and adaptations.
• Coordinate with Data and Science Staff: Work with the Data Science team and Chief Scientist to ensure appropriate indicators of progress and impact are identified in strategic plans and are supported by monitoring plans with robust methods for data collection, storage, and analysis. Support the Data Science team in their efforts to develop internal data collection and reporting systems to more efficiently compile, aggregate, and disseminate project and program outcomes to both internal (staff, Board) and external (funding partners, grantees, etc.) audiences.
• Coordinate with Fundraising: Contribute to the design of funding proposals with strong adaptive management and monitoring and evaluation components and provide technical input for donor reports and communication pieces that demonstrate conservation outcomes.
• Compile the monthly reports for the Africa Programme.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:

• Advanced degree in conservation management, conservation biol

• Institutionalise conservation adaptive management and planning into ICF’s Africa Programme: Lead the development, refinement, and implementation of Africa’s adaptive management framework and practice. Ensure conservation planning processes (e.g., situation analyses and theories of change, as guided in the Conservation Standards/Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation and other results-based frameworks) are consistently applied, strategic plans guide implementation, and adaptive management cycles are effectively facilitated across field programmes through assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, learning, and strategy adjustment.
• Create, guide, and lead a clear operational framework that strengthens team alignment, defines roles and responsibilities, and enables the Africa team to effectively put ICF’s adaptive management approach into practice.
• Facilitate, guide, and mentor effective strategic planning, evaluation, learning, and adaptive management processes: Plan and lead effective in-person, hybrid, and online meetings and workshops, utilizing collaborative and learning focused facilitation skills, tools, and techniques. Design and implement technology solutions to support asynchronous group learning.
• Build Africa Programme staff capacity: Build staff capacity in all aspects of the adaptive management process, including helping to onboard new staff, sourcing and providing training opportunities, mentoring staff involved in project adaptive management, prompting and supporting regular reflection and learning, and promoting a culture of adaptive learning across the Africa Programme.
• Design and manage solutions: Manage the Africa portion of the Miradi Adaptive Management database. Design effective guidance, examples, and tools, including software solutions, to make it as easy as possible for teams to follow adaptive management guidelines.
• Small grants: Coordinate, in collaboration with the VP Africa, Regional Directors, and Country Managers, the small grants that the ICF’s Africa Programme provides to individuals and partner organisations across Africa, ensuring that they are well designed to achieve long-term impacts at scale and align with the strategic focus of the ICF Africa Programme.
• Support the investigation and development of new strategic approaches: Support the VP Africa, Regional Directors, and Country Managers with high-level development of new strategic approaches to scale up our impact and respond to emerging pressures and opportunities.
• Lead Adaptive Management Related Internal Reporting: Lead, in close collaboration with the Regional Directors and Country Managers, the annual development and revision of ICF’s internal reports (Project Adaptive Management Reports, Species Score Cards, and Model Project Score Cards). Prompt and guide the internal sharing of strategy, lessons, and adaptations.
• Coordinate with Data and Science Staff: Work with the Data Science team and Chief Scientist to ensure appropriate indicators of progress and impact are identified in strategic plans and are supported by monitoring plans with robust methods for data collection, storage, and analysis. Support the Data Science team in their efforts to develop internal data collection and reporting systems to more efficiently compile, aggregate, and disseminate project and program outcomes to both internal (staff, Board) and external (funding partners, grantees, etc.) audiences.
• Coordinate with Fundraising: Contribute to the design of funding proposals with strong adaptive management and monitoring and evaluation components and provide technical input for donor reports and communication pieces that demonstrate conservation outcomes.
• Compile the monthly reports for the Africa Programme.

• Advanced degree in conservation management, conservation biol

• Advanced degree in conservation management, conservation biol