Law and Policy Advocacy, Team Leader

Vacancy Announcement

Position: Law and Policy Advocacy, Team Leader Reports to: Program Manager Location: Hanoi, Viet Nam Country Program: WCS Viet Nam Team/Division: Policy Influencing Position Type: Full-Time Internal liaison: WCS Viet Nam’s Managers, Team Leaders Expected travel: Approximately less than 30%. As required within the region if/when needed

Organization Background

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities.

WCS Viet Nam Program Overview

WCS has been working in Viet Nam since 2006, focusing on strengthening the commitment, capacity and actions of the government of Vietnam to combat wildlife trafficking. Through support and cooperation to executive and judiciary sectors, including Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuracy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the National Assembly, it has provided and shared intelligence on criminal wildlife networks which help generate well-informed decisions in enforcement operations. WCS Viet Nam have generated a wide range of reliable data on a number of related issues on illegal wildlife trade, trained and briefed about 3,600 law enforcement officers, policy makers, journalists, researchers and managers nation-wide and distributed a number of technical handbooks and guides. It has assisted central agencies to review and propose necessary changes to national legislation, criminal intelligence analysis systems, inter-agency cooperation. WCS has also facilitated Government to Government dialogue through multilateral and bi-lateral collaboration efforts, between Viet Nam and Asian, African and Latin American countries, to detect and response to illegal wildlife trade networks.

Its wildlife health expertise has been leveraged to address unregulated wildlife trade and mitigation of pandemic threats, through collaborative research, training, and policy development. Recently, WCS Viet Nam has also expanded to species conservation, with focus on finding and protecting Rafetus Swinhoei in the wild.

Job Summary

• The Law and Policy Advocacy, Team Leader will lead the legal reform and policy advocacy work and provide technical inputs to the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of all WCS activities related to influencing partners.
• This position will build networks and maintain strong relationships with governmental and nongovernmental partners in order to build the required political commitment for effective control of wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam

Responsibilities

A. Policy influencing and legal reform

• Designs and implements strategies on influencing key governmental and nongovernmental partners at the national and provincial levels to be more engaged in ending illegal trade and consumption of wildlife;
• Coordinates the compilation of evidence to support the implementation of WCS Viet Nam Program’s influencing strategy. This will involve overseeing the development of analyses of the cross-sectoral economic, social and institutional impacts of the wildlife trade in Viet Nam, and crafting persuasive arguments;
• Pilots gap analyses, cost-benefit analyses, and scenario testing to gather data on barriers to the implementation of identified intervention strategies;
• Conducts institutional, policy and legislative reviews and analysis to identify challenges and provide recommendations to improve enforcement effectiveness;
• Provides legal inputs on certain wildlife cases to maximize the effectiveness of law enforcement activities;
• Provides technical inputs on legal matters arise during WCS operation.

B. Networking & Partnership

• Facilitates inter-agency and inter-governmental enforcement cooperation (e.g. support to VN-WEN meetings, joint-agency field missions, bilateral and trilateral meetings, Viet Nam - African range states dialogue etc.);
• Builds strong networks and maintains relationships with relevant government agencies, private sector companies, research institutions and influential individuals;
• Collaborates with other environment groups in joint efforts, including acting as WCS’s focal point for the Viet Nam Wildlife Support Network, Pandemics Prevention Task Force (PPTF) and others as relevant.

C. Grant development and implementation

• Leads the policy influencing team to execute all grant activities related to legal reform and policy advocacy as assigned;
• Manages the team budget and M&E indicators for all policy and legal reform activities;
• Provides policy insights to the fund-raising activities and proposals;
• Leads the team to draft and provide inputs to grant reports and programmatic updates as relevant.

D. Human Resource Management

• Supervises other members of policy influencing team, liaise with and supervise consultants as appropriate.

E. Others

• Acts as WCS’s representative at meetings and workshops as required;
• Performs other tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.

Minimum requirement

• Advanced degree in a relevant field such as Law, Political Science, Public Policy;
• Minimum 5 years of policy advocacy/influencing campaign experience in an NGO/INGO/international organization;
• Verified track record working with relevant government agencies, donors, and other partners on policy advocacy/influencing campaigns;
• Ability to work to deadline in a fast paced environment;
• An analytical mind with an openness to new ideas and innovations;
• Knowledge of, and/or previous work experience in the conservation/environmental sector
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills in English and Vietnamese;
• Excellent computer skills (MS office package, email, database skills, internet);
• An understanding of key issues of illegal wildlife trade that WCS works on, as desirable.

Application Process: Interested candidates, who meet the above qualifications should apply online via this link latest by 23:59 of 31 December 2020.

WCS is an equal opportunity employer and the organization complies with all employment and labor laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in hiring and ensures that candidates from all backgrounds are fairly and consistently considered during the recruitment process. We are dedicated to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment and look for future team members who share that same value. The organization provides equal employment opportunities for all qualified candidates. The organization does not discriminate for employment based on age, color, disability, gender identify, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by laws and regulations.

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