The Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) contributes substantially to the conservation of biodiversity in Indonesia through landscape-level conservation, support to protected areas (PAs), species conservation actions, and engaging local communities.
The WCS-IP cross-cutting programs are defined by the priority biodiversity conservation challenges facing Indonesia’s landscapes and seascapes. These programs are responsible for contributing to a better understanding of complex issues and interactions. The strategies and tools developed within these programs are designed to remove many of the main barriers that affect WCS’s priority landscapes and seascapes, which also include addressing barriers at the national level.
For this Terms of Reference (ToR), WCS is launching a new project that aims to use a combination of conservation science and strong partnerships to mitigate environmental impacts caused by infrastructure development.
Infrastructure development across Indonesia is occurring at a rapid pace. It includes roads, dams, geothermal plants, train lines etc. If done correctly, this development will deliver significant socio-economic benefits. However, if done incorrectly, such as through poor planning or without a clear justification, it may cause environmental degradation that has a negative socio-economic impact. With this in mind, WCS is establishing a multi-partner and Indonesia-wide infrastructure assessment project that will meaningfully engage government, as well as civil society, at the national and subnational (provincial) levels to deliver win-win solutions for the economic, social and environmental sectors. The project has prioritized the biodiversity-rich islands of Sumatra, Papua, Sulawesi and Kalimantan, where WCS has excellent government contacts. Here, WCS will support government partners to design and implement sustainable economic development plans that incorporate conservation priorities, with a focus on reforms in governance, policy and spatial planning.
To achieve the project aim, WCS has designed a project with two core and interlinked themes:
Strengthen national government support for the project, creating the enabling environment for interventions in infrastructure project at the national and provincial levels (led by the National Program Manager).
Work directly with key provincial governments on local sustainable development planning and implementation. The specific actions, whilst all being applicable to the target provinces, are likely to be implemented in different combinations depending on the respective government priorities and needs (under the direction of the National Program Manager, activities here will led by two Senior Subnational Coordinators – one for eastern Indonesia and one for western Indonesia).
In this ToR, the Infrastructure Assessment Specialist will be responsible for assisting on the national implementation component of the project. He/she will provide technical support to the Project Manager and the Senior Government Advisor in implementing national-level activities, mainly through linking these with the subnational work plans, implemented by the Senior Subnational Coordinators, to ensure a well-aligned and well-coordinated approach.
POSITION OBJECTIVES
Provide leadership for assisting the implementation of the national component of the project, ensuring close communication and coordination with the eastern and western Indonesia teams.
Identification of key opportunities for project intervention.
Develop and maintain a multi-stakeholder network and work through this to elicit on-the-ground action.
Ensure the production of high-quality deliverables under the project work plan.
SPECIFIC TASKS AND OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES
The project will be implemented through four main phases that firstly identifies the priority partners to work with and infrastructure issues to focus on, leading to the development of multi-agency partnerships, from which areas for project intervention are identified and supported to, ultimately, enable on-the-ground change, such as through rerouting roads around watershed forests or improved spatial planning.
Develop the project priorities
Working with the project manager and senior WCS Indonesia team, lead on the strategic thinking around national level project priorities and engagement with national government agencies.
Provide expert support and critical thinking to the Indonesian infrastructure initiatives related topics, NGO discussion forums, or other relevant events.
Engage key stakeholder groups
Conduct and assist partnerships with key national level government partners, such as Public Works, Bappenas, MoEF, and also academic and civil society organisations.
Conduct frequent formal and informal consultation meetings with these key stakeholders to build and then maintain stakeholder networks that lead to discussions of the project, identification of planned infrastructure projects and opportunities for project intervention.
Provide critical thinking into high profile national initiatives.
Develop project products
From stakeholder discussions, identify project products, such as policy briefs, spatial analyses on relocation of geothermal plans and sustainable economic development plans, and oversee the production of these high-quality products, with support from WCS’s technical experts.
Source available spatial, economic development and other relevant datasets for project use.
Elicit on-the-ground action
Provide key technical support to positively influence nationwide and province-level infrastructure projects.
Support dissemination of project results in national forums/conferences, and province level as needed, and identify areas for subsequent project intervention.
Support advocacy groups/NGOs in positively communicating the pertinent project study findings to WCS's national media contacts.
Facilitate in seeking support and communicating subnational regulations, so that they better connect and are in line with national regulations.
Project management
Assists in the production of bi-annual donor reports.
Actively participate in project team meetings, as well as holding more frequent smaller thematic meetings.
Support the project manager in liaising with donor agencies, embassies, international NGOs (whenever possible) to identify areas for collaboration to leverage project support and maximise the impact of the project products, such as spatial analyses and policy briefs.
Position: Infrastructure Assessment Specialist
Based in: Bogor
Reports to: Infrastructure Project Manager
For more detailed information about Wildlife Conservation Society – Indonesia Program, the position and how to apply, please visit our website at:
Infrastructure Assessment Specialist > WCS Indonesia
Infrastructure Assessment Specialist > WCS Indonesia
When you are interested on the above position and consider that you possess the necessary qualification, please submit your job application consisting of updated curriculum vitae, expected salary, three professional references and a cover letter explaining your interest towards this work and/or this organization to wcsindonesia@wcs.org
Please fill the “subject” column of the e-mails in this format "Infrastructure Assessment Specialist_(name of candidate)"
Deadline: September 4, 2020
No correspondence, only short-listed candidates will be notified