Environment/Climate Officer

Organization: Pact Region: North America Location: Washington, DC, USA Theme:
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Job Description:

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Department

Sustainable Markets (SM) – The Sustainable Markets Pillar, one of three Pact Pillars which also includes Health and Governance Pillars, covers four of Pact’s impact areas (Energy, Environment, Extractives and Livelihoods). This Pillar has a range of world-leading initiatives for responsible mineral sourcing, improved energy access, green finance, livelihoods and natural resource management.

Position Overview

This position serves to ensure Pact’s intellectual and practical excellence in the field of environment and natural resources management (NRM), growing our portfolio of programs and partners and making a measurable, material impact on local communities environmental sustainability and resilience to climate change. This position will help to create synergies with the Livelihoods, Energy and Extractives programs that together make up the Sustainable Markets group, and ensure integration with other impact areas at Pact namely Governance, Health and Capacity Development, to ensure Pact embodies a truly holistic view of how we manage, consume, and conserve natural resources. The main programmatic focus will be around the three main pillars of the Environment portfolio: community-based natural resources management (CBNRM); green finance and ESG; and conservation enterprise development.

Reporting to the Director of Environment, the Environment/Climate Officer is responsible for supporting the integration of key environmental priorities into Pact’s programming. The Environment/Climate Officer will also be an integral member of the Environmental Sustainability Working Group at Pact and provide technical input into the development and delivery of Pact’s environmental policies and practices including the Environmental Footprint Key Performance Indicator (ECO KPI) which includes carbon accounting and GHG reduction as well as plastic waste reduction.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Assistance:

  • In-person and/or remote technical assistance around targeted programmatic deliverables
  • Technical editing and/or writing assistance for discrete programmatic and technical reports
  • Support to ensure projects and country offices are meeting industry standards and expectations of donors around environmental programming.
  • Support project technical and compliance staff to development and update project environmental mitigation plans across all sectors

New Business Development:

  • Research upcoming opportunities and support determination of priorities to pursue.
  • Support (and where necessary lead) technical design of projects, ensuring proposals are technically sound and reflect Pact’s worldwide expertise and experience.
  • Support cultivation of relationships with prospective partners, both local and international ones, and understand their strengths and weaknesses for future partnership.
  • Development of tailored capability statements as part of pre-solicitation/capture/positioning.

Thought Leadership:

  • Engage in annual project Pause & Reflect sessions where necessary
  • Document and disseminate best practices internally and externally
  • Support learning events with field offices and other programmatic staff
  • Support field offices to increase their representation in global and regional events.
  • Update the Environment portfolio intranet space (Mosaic), developing blogs and other inputs to share.

Basic Requirements

  • Master’s degree with five (5) years work experience or bachelor’s degree with at least seven (7+) years work experience
  • Experience in climate/green/conservation finance, environmental governance, land use planning, sustainable livelihoods, climate adaptation
  • Documented success in fundraising (design/writing of proposals, drafting illustrative budgets, etc.) including familiarity with USAID, FCDO, Foundations and private sector.
  • Ability to work as part of a hybrid in-person and remote team
  • Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, multi-tasking environment
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Ability and willingness to travel internationally
  • Fluent in English

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience working overseas in the international development sector
  • Experience coordinating with international field offices.
  • Experience working/engaging with the private sector
  • Proficiency in one other language
Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.