Foodscape Innovation Specialist

WHO WE ARE

The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We’re rooted in our Mission and guided by our Values, which includes a Commitment to Diversity and Respect for People, Communities, and Cultures. Whether it’s career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there’s lots of reasons to love life #insideTNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube or on Glassdoor.

Our goal is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that all our colleagues around the globe feel a sense of belonging, and that their unique contributions to our mission are valued. We know we’ll only achieve our Mission by hiring and engaging a diverse workforce that reflects the communities in which we work. In addition to the requirements in our postings, we recognize that people come with talent and experiences outside of a job. Diversity of experience and skills combined with passion is a key to innovation and a culture of inclusion! Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote myriad TNC staff members, “you’ll join for our mission, and you’ll stay for our people.”

Since establishing the Africa Program in 2007, The Nature Conservancy’s vision in Africa is to work towards fostering a sustainable future for people and nature, partnering with indigenous communities across 55 million acres on the continent. Our efforts are firmly rooted in people, leveraging scientific and technical expertise as we collaborate with governments and organizations to conserve and enhance Africa’s shared resources in the nine countries where we operate.

Food production systems are responsible for approximately 80% of deforestation, 70% of terrestrial and 50% of freshwater biodiversity loss. They contribute to about 23% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In Africa, agricultural landscapes are where people and natural systems co-exist. Agriculture must go far beyond nature protection, to develop equitable household and community-level incentives for sustainable conservation. Traditional conservation efforts focused around protected areas will achieve little without going where nature is intertwined with agriculture. Lessons show that the future of agriculture in Africa will be derived directly from healthy ecosystems. Agriculture will be at the heart of climate mitigation, significantly and positively influencing C, water and nutrient cycles, pollination, and genetic diversity that are key for long-term viability of land enterprises. In view of these, TNC’s Africa Agriculture program, Global Regenerative Food Systems team, Africa regional unit, and other teams are working to better understand this and other complexities that underpin our global food system as a first step toward changing it. By driving systems change at the level of a foodscape we hope to build bridges between global ambition and local implementation.

Progress toward key conservation goals will either stall or even regress if food systems are slow to adopt and integrate disruptive change. It is increasingly clear that engineering for landscape scale change differs in fundamental ways from typical short term project planning. The journey to deliver and sustain a large landscape scale initiative is founded in data. It is the foundation of a realistic assessment of the prospects and parameters for engaging governments and corporate and private sector, policy, and confronting the challenges that stand in the way, operationally, politically, and financially. It requires factoring in what is being scaled, for whom, where, and by whom. The summary is that data is key to driving this innovation, designing it with scale in mind, rather than a prototype-test-rollout model.

TNC is working with partners to catalyse a transition to regenerative food systems; productive socio-cultural/economic arrangements that enable food security, food sovereignty, secure livelihoods, while supporting and valuing nature. Regenerative food systems go beyond sustainability. They ensure benefits and eliminate trade-offs. By developing smart strategies in partnership with producers and communities, we work to make farms, rangelands, ranches more productive, protect freshwater, increase biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions whilst securing the food supply for a rapidly growing population. This work constitutes TNC’s systemic effort in regenerative foodscapes across the globe. For more information on TNC’s work in Foodscapes, visit: https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/foodscapes-regenerative-food-systems-nature-people/

WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER

TNC has for the last one year led several partners to codesign what is called the Central Highlands Ecoregion Foodscape (CHEF). CHEF aims to develop incentives and initiatives that promote land health, water resources management, and biodiversity in food systems, against the backdrop of climate change, environment degradation and rural poverty. CHEF is tailored to connect different geographies, climates, ecosystems, social and economic contexts, and the motivations of relevant stakeholders, including local communities. CHEF will cover an area spanning from source water locations in counties around the Mt Aberdare and Mt Kenya, through production areas leading to the rangelands of Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu Counties. Solutions from the CHEF will be cross-border, national and local in nature. It is a partnership program for integrated action around solutions that fall in five action areas. (1) Foodscape innovation hub. (2) scaling regenerative practices in crop, livestock, fish, and forest (margin) systems. (3) Market systems and business models and innovations that enable sustainable livelihoods. (4) Policy engagement. (5) Building capacities and multi-actor processes for social-ecological resilience.

The Foodscape Innovation Specialist will lead the Agriculture Strategy scaling programme by developing and implementing innovative solutions that enable the Agriculture Strategy, with special focus on the CHEF, to significantly contribute to TNC 2030 Goals. You will manage (collect, collate, analyse, share) various data types related to climate, water, biodiversity, and livelihoods outcomes. You will use these data to catalyse collective and/or coordinated action among diverse actors involved in the CHEF, to drive an ambitious scaling program. The data will not lead to a static how-to plan to scale, but rather a living strategy that serves as a “north star” to guide the scaling mechanism through the Foodscape Innovation Hub. This strategy will consist of CHEF-wide key actionable products tailored to meet TNC’s unique Ag-conservation work across four ecologies, a variety of production systems, and to serve corporate partners. You will support the CHEF Director to regularly convene CHEF actors: governments, corporate and private sector, CGIAR, NGOs, funding partners, producer entities to review foodscape implementation progress, share lessons learned, and adapt as necessary based on the contextual, internal and external factors.

You will lead TNC staff and partners to deliver the CHEF scaling strategy, including working closely with TNC regional and global Corporate Engagement Teams to organise customised training and engagement programs in regenerative systems to enable the private sector transition into nature-positive actors. You will work closely with the Africa Agriculture Program members, the Freshwater Strategy team, Global Provide Food and Water teams, CHEF partners, Kenya Country program teams, and the Africa Business Unit staff to advance progress across the five action areas of the Agriculture Strategy. You will work with the full range of CHEF actors, including government agencies, other conservation organizations, foundations, communities, and other stakeholders.

The Foodscape Innovation Specialist reports to the CHEF Director and will be based in Nanyuki Town, Kenya. No employment visas or relocation assistance is being offered with this position except for the local labor employment requirements.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR YOU

Are you looking for a career to influence the transition to regenerative food systems for people and nature? We are looking for you. We are looking for a professional to lead our scaling strategy. You will operationalise the CHEF Foodscape Innovation Hub as a sustainability mechanism. You will lead a structured process founded in policy, to identify and implement immediate next steps, arrive at cost projections for different scaling scenarios, and develop an approach to engage county and national budget offices. You will be the main contact point for the entire Agriculture Strategy for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and the TNC Integrated Data Management Database (HUB).

Specific Roles and Key Responsibilities:

1. Coordinate data management among TNC partners, TNC strategies/ programs, and develop products and plans for the CHEF scaling strategy.
   1. Ensure CHEF transdisciplinary status, by maintaining data integrity between parallel systems, including auditing and reconciling information interface discrepancy.
   2. Delineate CHEF-wide lessons for policy engagement on biodiversity, water and climate change.
   3. Articulate a clear, measurable, and timebound scaling vision based on the Agriculture Strategy contribution to TNC 2030 Goals.
   4. Using a transdisciplinary approach, implement the CHEF monitoring and evaluation plan, ensuring that planned MEL activities are implemented, data is managed, and progress, including learnings, is established and disseminated to internal and external stakeholders. Work with the CHEF Field Coordinator and TNC MEL specialists to gather data on the scaling process and put in place an adaptation/continuous improvement plan for CHEF.
2. Assess partner organisational capacity required to fully implement the CHEF, including identifying capacity gaps and making recommendations on how to bridge them.
3. Set up the Foodscape Innovation Hub (FIH), working closely with CHEF director, government officials, private sector, and the CHEF Field Coordinator to;
   1. Identify enabling conditions and necessary partnership innovation required for sustainable scale, as well as obstacles or potential threats to consider.
   2. Determine and lead necessary adaptations required to meet the evolving needs of expanded CHEF partners/populations, including the corporate and private sector.
   3. Work with the Foodscape Innovation Hub partners to articulate financial sustainability plans that delineate how partnership resources will be mobilised, budgets considered, and existing systems and structures leveraged at various stages of scale.
   4. Develop terms of reference for the most appropriate locations.
   5. Determine the most appropriate locations for Foodscape Innovation Hubs to address current and future challenges for implementing regenerative food systems and lead the development of Terms of Reference for FIH governance teams.
   6. Collaborate with Corporate Engagement to set up and influence a pre-competitive multi-stakeholder initiative to support regenerative food systems as part of the FIH. This includes supporting regenerative business models.

4. May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, on difficult and hazardous terrain and under physically demanding circumstances.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• BSc degree in statistics, business statistics, behavioral/development economics, business administration or equivalent degree.
• 5 years’ experience in scaling, program development, partnerships, or management consulting.
• Experienced in data management skills, analytical, leadership, intellectual curiosity, and partnering skills.
• Experience in developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation plans, including working with partners to undertake collaboration, learning and program adaptation activities.
• Experienced in data analytics and visualization tools e.g. Power BI and/or Tableu.
• Experienced in making and executing project decisions.
• Experience in indirectly influencing or managing senior leaders across multiple organizations.
• Agriculture or conservation experience is preferred.
• Mastery of systems such as Agile, Oracle ERP, and cloud software.
• Experience working in technology with some experience e.g., in SaaS enterprise software or equivalent.
• Experienced in using technology in creating records, sourcing, executing, and nurturing strategic partnerships.
• Experienced with problem solving and decision-making processes.
• Collaborative with other team members to achieve sound outcomes.
• Experience managing complex or multiple projects, including staffing, workloads and finances under deadlines.
• Supervisory experience, including motivating, leading, setting objectives, and managing performance.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• MSc degree or a combination of training in statistics or business statistics and behavioural/ development economics or business administration.
• Multi-lingual and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• Over 7 years’ experience in agriculture-environment field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated experience in the utilisation of complex data sets to plan and adapt agriculture-conservation projects, and to influence, develop, and implement related policy.
• Knowledge of current trends and practices in agriculture-conservation discipline and regions.
• Ability to work effectively and pragmatically under pressure within a variety of simultaneous competing initiatives and issues. Track record of success negotiating complex partnerships with varying interests.
• Knowledge of methods and standards of biodiversity information systems and initiatives or related field.
• Communicating clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and other relevant languages.
• Demonstrated experience or knowledge in fundraising.
• Politically savvy.

WHAT WE BRING

Since 1951, TNC has been doing work you can believe in. Through grassroots action, we have grown from a small non-profit into one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than 1 million members, over 400 scientists, and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and partners, we impact conservation around the world!

TNC offers competitive and comprehensive benefits packages tailored to the individual countries where we work. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, parental leave, paid time off, life insurance, and disability coverage as well as an employee assistance program and other life and well-being benefits. Learn more about our benefits on our Culture Tab on nature.org/careers.

We’re proud to offer a flexible work environment that supports the health and well-being of the people we employ.