Water and Landscape Restoration Associate

This is a hybrid position which requires 8 days per month in the office. You can be based in our WRI Africa office in Nairobi or Kigali. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission.

About the Program:

WRI’s Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land, converting them to socially, economically, and environmentally productive lands. WRI’s restoration efforts in Africa supports the goals of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, AFR100, where with other partners, we have identified more than 700 million hectares of cleared and degraded forest and agricultural lands suitable for restoration across Africa. Through Restore Local, WRI is supporting landscape-focused restoration in three anchor landscapes in Africa: the Ghana Cocoa Belt, the Kenya Greater Rift Valley and the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, DRC, and Rwanda. Done well, landscape-scale restoration can revitalize African landscapes, while enhancing human well-being through food, energy, and water systems. Such efforts can conserve, restore, and sustain Africa’s rich natural heritage while generating evidence for scaling within and across landscapes.

Restore Local aims to restore Africa’s vital landscapes by investing in locally led restoration at scale, providing local communities and businesses across the continent with the support they need to revitalize their landscapes. Restore Local aligns its work with a four-part blueprint, creating training and mentorship opportunities, directly funding restoration champions, securing policies that reward farmers, and helping communities track their restoration progress with the right monitoring, reporting, and verification protocols. Collaborating with key partners and stakeholders, it focuses on delivering this blueprint in the three anchor landscapes and readying important infrastructure for replication and scaling across AFR100.

Job Highlight:

Reporting to the WRI Africa Water Lead and working with WRI’s Senior Manager for AFR100, you will lead WRI’s water and climate-sensitive restoration research and monitoring activities in GRV and LKR. You will lead water-related research, analytics, and monitoring, including research that can help decision-makers understand water risks, prioritize locations and types of nature-based solution interventions, implement restoration approaches with positive water outcomes, and monitoring the water impacts of ongoing land restoration efforts. You will contribute to initiatives aimed at building restoration economies in GRV and LKR by operationalizing outcome-based financing for water results from restoration interventions. You will be working with teams across Africa, and colleagues around the world. You will integrate equity into your work.

What will you do:

Research (35%):

• Design and lead targeted research to build the evidence base for the protection and restoration of landscapes the water cycle and hydrological functions in GRV and LKR, e.g., identifying land and water management approaches have the greatest water-related benefits
• Lead processes to define measurable water-related results and impact pathways for restoration interventions in GRV and LKR
• Help establish the baseline for water quantity, water quality, and related water risks. This will include analytics to evaluate water supply (e.g., surface water, groundwater, soil moisture), water demand (e.g., irrigation, industry, municipality, livestock, environment), potential impact of climate change on water risks (e.g., water scarcity, floods, drought)
• Lead geospatial analysis through GIS and Remote Sensing to understand impacts of deforestation/land degradation and, conversely, restoration on water quantity and quality
• Contract and oversee external experts as necessary, ensuring high-quality deliverables, such as data collection, GIS analysis, GRACE groundwater analysis, SWAT modelling, or atmospheric moisture tracking
• Be an internal and external thought leader on water cycle restoration, linking the work to broader Food, Land and Water initiatives

Monitoring (35%):

• Provide expertise on technical solutions and tools, including remote sensing to measure and monitor water outcomes and water-related ecosystem services benefits (such as groundwater recharge, sediment control, and flood reduction), helping integrate these into WRI’s Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification system for landscape restoration
• Work with the Restoration and Water and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning teams to create a monitoring plan—with select indicators on water quantity and quality—for monitoring water-related outcomes of restoration interventions in the Restore Local portfolio, including customization to GRV and LKR
• Implement this monitoring protocol in collaboration with external vendors as necessary, rolling it out as a pilot across GRV and LKR or in select projects

Program Management, Fundraising, and Communication (30%):

• Support identifying investable restoration projects with water outcomes in GRV and LKR, and support in reaching out to potential investors
• Work with the WRI restoration initiatives and external experts, support the design and implementation of a capacity building program to develop the knowledge and skills of local entrepreneurs and community organizations to better assess the water benefits of restoration and become expert water and land restoration practitioners
• Focus on the WRI Africa’s priority landscapes. Support cross-team efforts with concept note and proposal development to help secure funding within GRV, LKR and beyond where relevant
• Contribute to thought pieces and knowledge products to expand understanding and visibility of the work.

What will you need:

• Education: You have completed a master’s degree in hydrology, geography, forestry, social and/or environmental science, natural resource management
• Experience: You have 7+ years of relevant, full-time work experience
• Experience in a donor-funded development context leading program implementation, preferably in the Great Rift Valley and Lake Kivu and Rusizi Basin
• GIS and remote sensing expertise at the intersection of hydrology, climate, and land
• Experience of working with international organizations, national governments and relevant experience working in Africa (experience within the GRV and LKR is preferred)
• Experience in the forest, water resources or natural resource sector in Africa
• Experience nurturing partnerships with diverse stakeholders, such as local communities, NGOs, government institutions, donor representatives, and local and international staff
• Demonstrable knowledge of the Great Rift Valley and Lake Kivu and Rusizi Basin landscapes of actors and political instruments
• Demonstrable writing, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills
• Experience designing investable water and restoration-related projects is preferred
• Languages: Verbal and written proficiency in English. French skills are desirable
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position is based.

Potential Salary: 

Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.

How to Apply:

Please submit a resume with a cover letter by 12 December 2024. We may close for applications sooner if we receive a high volume of qualified applications.

You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

What we offer:

• A competitive salary
• Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US
• The chance to have an impact and to develop your career within a mission driven organization with access to varied learning and training opportunities. 
• A workplace that strives to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• The opportunity to join and get involved in different working groups and affinity groups to shape the future of WRI
• Commitment to hybrid working model with flexible working hours
• Generous leave days that increase with tenure.

About Us:

Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean. WRI has a global staff of over 1,800 people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.

The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

Our mission and values:

WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Our values are shared ideals that bind us together: Integrity, Innovation, Urgency, Independence and Respect.

Our culture:

WRI is committed to advancing gender and social equity for human well-being in our mission and applies this principle to our organizational and programmatic practices. We are committed to providing equal opportunities in employment; we embrace all diversity and encourage women, the LGBTQ+ community, persons with disabilities, Afro-descendants, and Indigenous people to apply. Recognizing our strong commitment to gender equality, WRI has also been awarded EDGE certification.

Our team in Human Resources carefully reviews all applications.