Portfolio Specialist, Ghana Cocoa Belt, Restoration Initiative at World Resources Institute

About The Job

Overview

• This position must be located in Ghana’s Cocoa Belt. Existing work authorization for Ghana is required and candidates not based in the Cocoa Belt region should be willing to relocate.

Job Highlight:

• As a Portfolio Specialist in the Ghana Cocoa Belt region, you will support and manage a cohort of growing community-based organizations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are restoring degraded land across the landscape where you will be based.
• In this new position, you will understand, guide, resource, and manage the implementation of a new cohort of agriculture and forestry organizations that have received funding and capacity training to restore land. 
• You will directly support leaders that are organizing communities to grow trees and restore land.
• Specifically, you will work with sector experts to screen, score, and interview community organizations that have applied for funding through the TerraFund for AFR100 request for proposal process. You will ensure that funded projects align with the WRI vision and integrated program for the landscape. 
• You will ensure that fund projects' staff understand the program’s monitoring, reporting, and verification protocols, are adequately reporting on their progress through WRI’s online TerraMatch system, and have access to capacity-building opportunities. You will travel across the Ghana Cocoa Belt regularly to directly understand the capacity needs of funded organizations and connect them with real-time support and training.
• This is a unique opportunity to contribute to the Restoration Initiative’s commitment to invest significant capital and capacity in the restoration of the Ghana Cocoa Belt’s farms, forests, and pastures.
• You will join a growing team of finance, public policy, project management, product development, and monitoring experts that are working to turn the goal of AFR100 – Africa’s ambitious commitment to restore 100 million hectares of land by 2030 – into a reality.
• You will report to the Ghana Cocoa Belt Landscape Lead and the Restoration Initiative’s Land Restoration Project Manager. 
• This position is fully remote but could become hybrid depending on available office space at WRI’s partner organizations in Ghana.

What you will do:

• Project Management (90%)
  • Coordinate the selection process for local organizations that submit applications to TerraFund for AFR100 requests-for-proposals, ensuring that each applicant receives thorough vetting from experts at WRI and partner organizations
  • Catalog the technical assistance needs of funded and aspiring organizations and connect them with a local and international coalition of subject matter experts to fulfil those requests
  • Develop and manage the workplans of local organizations in the Ghana Cocoa Belt that receive funding from TerraFund for AFR100, explaining expectations to them and ensuring that they complete their work
  • Work closely with WRI’s partners, including One Tree Planted, Realize Impact, and national and local government agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure smooth management of funded projects
  • Serve as the resident TerraMatch expert for funded projects in the Ghana Cocoa Belt and work with the TerraMatch product team to support the design of new platform features that address their needs and challenges
  • Liaise with the project monitoring team to ensure that project developers understand the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirements of TerraFund for AFR100 and can provide accurate geospatial shapefiles for satellite analysis
  • Coordinate and conduct site visits to funded projects, ensuring that logistics run smoothly
  • Contribute and contribute to donor reporting by collecting information from the field and stories from projects
• Research & Communications (10%):
  • Liaise with the Ghana Cocoa Belt Landscape Coordinator, AFR100 Community Coordinator and Product Specialist, TerraMatch to ensure that guidance materials for requests for proposals and project MRV are tailored to the local context and are well communicated.
  • Update the wider WRI and AFR100 teams about project progress (and challenges) specific to the Ghana Cocoa Belt.
  • Conduct high-level research into the pipeline of community organizations and enterprises in the Ghana Cocoa Belt for dissemination to donors, government officials, and the public.

What you will need:

• Education:
  • You have a completed bachelor’s degree in forestry, agriculture, business administration, or other related field
• Experience:
  • You have 3+ years of experience, including in project management
• You have a demonstrated capacity to use online project management tools and platforms, such as Airtable and Monday.com, and to help new users learn new platforms
• You have experience working directly with agriculture, forestry, or restoration projects or businesses in Ghana
• Languages:
  • You are proficient in written and spoken English and Akan
• Requirements:
  • You must have an existing right to work within the Ghana Cocoa Belt.

Potential Salary:

• Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors. WRI offers a competitive remuneration and benefits package.

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.
• Long-term commitment to hybrid working model with flexible working hours.
• Generous leave days that increase with tenure.