Global Head – Secure Rights

Location: Either in one of our global offices (Bristol or London – UK, Madagascar, Belize, Indonesia, Timor-Leste) or home-based within countries where Blue Ventures has administrative capacity (Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania)

Closing date for applications: 3 November 2023

Contract status: Global Post, Full-time

Start date: As soon as possible

Contract duration: 2 years fixed term (with the possibility of extension)

Remuneration: Competitive salary based on experience as per national salary range at Head of/Regional Manager level

Salary Band: Head of

We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities

Blue Ventures is a marine conservation organization that puts people first. We support coastal fishers in remote and rural communities to rebuild fisheries, restore ocean life and build lasting pathways to prosperity. Our work began two decades ago in Madagascar’s remote coastal communities and is growing globally. Across a dozen countries, we’re partnering with traditional fishers and community organizations to design, scale, strengthen and sustain fisheries management and conservation at the community level. We bring partners together in networks to advocate for reform, and share tools and best practices to support fishing communities across the globe.

Summary job description

Our Technical Knowledge team oversees Blue Ventures’ technical pillars (Secure Rights, Community-Based Fisheries Management, Better Returns, Financial Inclusion, and the crosscutting theme of Gender) and supports the use of data for decision-making, providing tools, training, and guidance to partners and Blue Ventures’ staff around the world. This team integrates expertise and deep practical experience with pragmatism and a desire to enable others to deliver lasting change, by distilling global best practices and knowledge into usable tools, appropriate training, and responsive guidance and support. The team is also responsible for delivering peer learning exchanges and knowledge-sharing events both online and face-to-face across the organisation, in addition to overseeing technical publications.

We are currently recruiting for an exceptional individual to be part of this global team, leading a critical pillar of the strategy on Secure Rights. This individual will oversee the development, refinement, and rollout of tools and training to support partners around the world to help communities set up and improve dedicated governance systems and structures that can secure clear legal rights to access, use, and manage local ecosystems and fisheries defined by approved boundaries. These types of tools and materials include:

• Accessible tools and appropriate technologies:

Intuitive to use and readily available, including software and mobile apps for data collection and interpretation, simple decision support tools for assessment, planning, and problem resolution, and community-level materials for common activities, such as meeting facilitation guides or choice architecture to help communities decide which fish and fisheries to focus management attention on.

• Educational Resources:

Manuals, guides, videos, and online materials that provide concise information and serve as self-learning tools, allowing partners to access and acquire knowledge at their own pace.

• Knowledge Development:

Structured learning experiences to transfer theory to practise and enhance the background knowledge and competencies, such as workshops or webinars, as well as the development of good practice technical case studies and publications.

• Skill Development:

Specific hands-on training, mentoring, or learning exchange programmes to enhance technical expertise and the skills that are relevant to the context of each pillar.

As a Global Head, the position oversees regional and national colleagues to produce and iteratively improve technical support, ensuring globally consistent guidance, while enabling context-specific differentiation among regions. As a Global Head and part of the Technical Knowledge team, the position strives for Blue Ventures’ work to be at the forefront of best practice in the sector, by learning from partners and practitioners worldwide to distil evidence and experience into usable, practical approaches to address the common barriers to achieving coastal fisheries reform with a strong belief in placing communities at the centre of decision making.

The Blue Ventures Technical Knowledge team has a unique vantage point, gained through supporting dozens of partners working with hundreds of communities across South East Asia, the Western Indian Ocean, West Africa, and the Caribbean, as well as being part of international fora and members of expert panels. As such, our technical team plays a key role in identifying, collating, sharing, and transferring key insights and successful approaches, updating information, training, tools, and guidance around the world, and building a community of practice around each of the pillar themes.

At the heart of Blue Ventures’ 2030 strategy is an unwavering commitment to empowering communities through participatory collection, feedback, and use of fisheries and ecological data for adaptive management, and playing a leadership role in our sector to make this the norm. The Global Head – Secure Rights will have a strong understanding and technical experience of the legal pathways coastal communities can follow to secure rights to access, use, and manage local ecosystems (e.g. reefs, mangroves, and seagrass) and their coastal fisheries. They will also have experience establishing and supporting community institutions and strengthening their capacity for governance and management, with proven skills in coaching and team building, managing and leading multi-disciplinary teams, and working cross-functionally.

Blue Ventures recognises the key roles that women play in fisheries management and conservation as fishers, gleaners, processors, sellers, and negotiators and seeks to highlight the important value of their roles in fisheries governance, that are often invisible, so that they also benefit. An understanding of the challenges faced, particularly by women in fisheries, and experience working in communities to find some practical solutions are desirable for this role. The role will work in close collaboration with the Global Head for Gender to support these goals, which includes working with fisher associations and committees to increase the participation of women in leadership and decision-making.

The successful candidate will have a deep understanding of the complex challenges facing rural communities in contexts where these communities may have unclear, insecure, or inaccessible rights over property and resources, are marginalised and underrepresented in government decision making and are poorly protected under the rule of law, often leaving them exposed to chronic levels of corruption, exploitation, and expropriation.

The successful candidate will have proven, practical experience in Africa, Asia, or Central America working to strengthen governance systems and identifying successful legislative pathways to securing community rights.

The successful candidate will thrive in environments that are dynamic, fast-paced, collegiate, and ambitious; they will have a proven track record in distilling complexity into easily interpretable material, be able to deliver high-impact written work, and communicate effectively with diverse audiences, ranging from fishing communities to practitioners, academic institutions, governments, and other technical experts.

The role entails leading an interdisciplinary and international team with strong cross-functional collaboration, reporting to the Director of Technical Knowledge, and will be based in one of our regional hubs, with regular overseas travel to work with partners and teams around the world.

The core technical scope of the role’s portfolio will include:

• Identifying and documenting legal pathways for communities to secure their access, use, and management over local ecosystems and fisheries, and mechanisms to legitimise and strengthen rights that may already exist but are poorly recognised;
• Supporting the establishment and recognition of community institutions that can effectively represent the interests of their constituents and building their capacity for governance and management
• Following and informing best practice and policy for securing community rights for small-scale fisheries management and habitat protection, working in close collaboration with the Advocacy team when policy change is needed
• Alignment between community-based approaches, and national, regional, and international standards, as well as between customary, national, and international law

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