Senior Director, Climate Change

~ Conservation is about people. For more than 25 years, Rare has empowered local communities in over 50 countries to shift from being resource users to environmental stewards. ~

Rare's unique approach appeals to hearts and minds through proven marketing techniques. Rare trains local leaders to lead change, leaving a legacy of increased capacity and a sense of ownership, responsibility and pride in conservation.
The change lasts. That's Rare. 

Program Overview

Over the next ten years, hundreds of billions of dollars will be invested climate change programs, ranging from efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to projects helping poor communities boost their own resilience to changing weather patterns.

These climate change investments have largely been divided between adaptation and mitigation programs and are only now starting to be better integrated with international development priorities, and to a lesser extent needs at the community-level.

The concept of "climate compatible development" provides a promising framework for bringing together adaptation and mitigation and for engaging multiple sectors in addressing both the conservation and development issues related to climate change. While the funding commitments are growing, the climate change and international development community needs proof points, measures of success, and investment guidelines for this approach.

Rare specializes in surfacing and evaluating the most effective community-based approaches to global development and conservation challenges. Our Theory of Change and the Pride methodology builds the capacity of on-the-ground organizations, including local governments, community-based organizations, and large institutions to deploy cutting edge social marketing, project management, and monitoring techniques.

By leverage these strong foundations to learn and further strengthen the conservation community's involvement with climate compatible development Rare will: 

• Assess how its programs deliver on climate compatible development goals
• Develop a measurement framework for tracking impact
• Create case studies that illustrate how and why Rare's work is climate-relevant
• Test a simplified way to roll out promising new approaches to local communities
• Design a climate compatible development initiative
• Engage key stakeholders on all of the above, and ultimately
• Generate increased funding for climate compatible development solutions 

Note: The overall goal of this project is to create a compelling portfolio of "climate compatible development" projects and use it to significantly expand funding for climate adaptation and mitigation work that also advances conservation.

Position Overview 

In this newly created role the Senior Director, Climate Change will be responsible for the overall design and implementation of Rare's climate change strategy, policies, levering key stakeholder relationships, and expanding financial resources to support the development and roll-out of global climate-related strategies.

Working closely with country teams, programs and key stakeholders, s/he will build internal capacity and external awareness around climate change adaptation and ensure the effective execution of program deliverables. S/he will also be an integral part of Rare's Global Development Department at the enterprise level. 

Responsibilities  

Project goals and objectives include: 

• Build Rare's organizational capacity (and that of its partners) to assess, measure, and demonstrate the climate adaptation and mitigation benefits of these programs;
• Leverage Rare's existing project portfolio to build and communicate case studies and proof points for climate compatible development;
• Ensure the adaption and testing of a cost-effective, scalable delivery model for propagating proven elements of this work; and
• Influence key stakeholders to expand funding for climate compatible development. 

• The Senior Director, Climate Change will exercise independent judgment in building Rare's capacity to roll-out climate smart global programs.
• Provide thought leadership for and working with forums that deal separately with adaptation and mitigation, and at which it will be important to promote a more integrated approach to community-led solutions for climate compatible development.
• Engage directly with senior government officials from bilateral and multilateral development partners in order to develop public funding opportunities that will "front load" the implementation of the Strategy.
• In close collaboration with the Sr. Director, Research and Monitoring work to develop measurement frameworks for tracking impact of climate compatible development that can be integrated within Rare's current approach and conform to national/global standards for measurement, reporting and verification as appropriate.
• Oversee the design of test measurements for the use of Campaigning for Conservation (C4C) as a platform to roll out promising new approaches that help local communities respond effectively to climate change.
• Develop mechanisms to increase access for practitioners and proponents of climate compatible development to rigorous research and data on how Rare's climate compatible development approach can work in local communities making that case for use among a wider audience.
• Build and lead Rare's strategy to ascertain which elements of our programs (Fish Forever and Reciprocal Water Agreements) are most likely to deliver on climate compatible development goals.
• Oversee an effort to strengthen the capacity of in-country teams, in partnership with local development partners, to measure and communicate climate change benefits of Fish Forever and RWAs that will influence national development and adaptation plans and related decisions on climate financing.
• Develop and implement a strategy to identify and engage a variety of key constituencies to clearly and compellingly convey to them the strategy behind its programs, the ROI of the models, and what they could mean for advancing climate resilience around the world.
• Develop relationships with national climate change agencies in at least three countries and engage them in the development of implementation of the programs to support national development and adaptation plans for the community-led solutions to small scale fisheries and water resources.
• Build effective global partnerships with organizations engaged in the development and resourcing of climate compatible development that are key to the development and implementation of an effective global strategy. 

Qualifications  

Required Experience and Education: 

• A minimum of 10-12 years' experience building and implementing climate change programs and/or strategies and demonstrated success with programs that have a specific focus on community-led development;
• Bachelor's degree is required; Master's degree or PhD highly preferred.
• Proven ability to network and develop partnerships across a range of stakeholders and mobilize public and/or multilateral funding;
• Results-oriented, with the ability to oversee the management of a complex enterprise level initiative and build a portfolio of donors/prospects;
• Strong understanding of global environment and development issues;
• Working knowledge of processes and negotiations under UNFCCC in particular those relating to climate finance and the Green Climate Fund;
• Outstanding interpersonal, oral and written communication skills, with the maturity, integrity, and cross-cultural experience to gain the trust and confidence of Rare's donors, leadership, staff, colleagues, and partners;
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team;
• Willingness to participate in travel as needed to support government demand and fundraising goals - international travel is required;
• Spanish, French, German, or Indonesian language skills is a plus; and
• Bachelor's degree is required; Master's degree or PhD highly preferred. 

~ Rare is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability. ~