Officer – Data for Decision Making – Senegal

Location: Ziguinchor Region, Senegal, with frequent travel

Closing date for applications: 16th January 2024

Contract status: National post, full-time

Start date: As soon as possible

Contract duration: One year fixed term, with the possibility of renewal

Remuneration: Competitive salary based on experience as per national salary range at Officer level

Salary Band: Officer

We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities

Blue Ventures is a marine conservation organisation that puts people first. We support coastal fishers in remote and rural communities to rebuild fisheries and restore ocean life. 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 organisations 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.

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. Over the next few years we are continuing to build and improve our data to strengthen our ability to interpret changes to the fisheries and ecosystems where we work.

Summary job description

We are recruiting an Officer – Data for Decision Making to implement Blue Ventures fisheries data systems and support mangrove monitoring data processes across partners and communities. This is an exciting and crucial role for our evolving work supporting partners to manage their fisheries and mangroves across West Africa. The role will involve training our partners to use mobile monitoring tools to collect and analyse fisheries data, and support mangrove data collection, analysis and sharing so that communities can manage these resources adaptively. Importantly, the candidate will have experience in fisheries science and ecology, an understanding of mangrove ecology and conservation, and will be able to support our partners to interpret the data to inform management decisions.

The Officer will be the main contact on leading and training a team of field data collectors to use mobile monitoring methods to capture fisheries and socio-economic data on the communities and fisheries that we support, as well as supporting the Technical Advisor – Mangroves and Fisheries in mangrove data collection, analysis and sharing . Under the supervision of the Technical Advisor – Mangroves and Fisheries, this position would sit within the Data for Decision Making team and would be supported by and work closely with the Manager – Data for Decision Making. The Officer will be based in Ziguinchor, with frequent travel to meet our various partners in the field, as well as occasional missions to Dakar and/or other BV sites as required. This position may involve some international travel for training purposes and may require to relocate to other locations in West Africa should the need arise.

We are looking for a candidate with technical knowledge and experience working in fisheries and mangroves, including a good understanding of fisheries and mangrove ecology and management principles. This person will have experience in a research setting managing data collection, ideally with experience from the fishery and/or socio-economic sectors. They will have strong data collection, data management and data analysis skills with demonstrable, practical experience of working with environmental data to produce reports and analyses. This position will involve communicating complex scientific knowledge to non-technical audiences, and so excellent communication and the ability to distil technical language for a lay audience is essential.

Additionally, we are looking for a pragmatic, methodical and creative person with excellent coordination and coaching skills. Assessment of applications will include ability to work with data, and alignment of candidates with BV’s core values and mission to support rights-based approaches to marine conservation and fisheries management. You’ll thrive in collegial and inspiring environments as part of a dynamic team, and be able to demonstrate your experience of working independently and solving complex problems in challenging situations.

Blue Ventures recognises women’s key roles 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.

To download the full job description please click here (English) and here (French).