Program Manager- Affirming Rights of Communities

About Natural Justice:

Natural Justice is an African non-profit organization specializing in environmental justice. As a team of pioneering lawyers and legal experts, we specialize in human rights, climate law and environmental law to pursue social, climate and environmental justice.

Natural Justice has been working with communities, NGOs, and government agencies in Kenya since 2009. Natural Justice strives to enhance people’s collective rights and protect the sacred relationships Indigenous Peoples, and local communities have with nature. Our work is informed by the values, knowledge, and self-determination of the communities with whom we stand in solidarity. Through legal empowerment, research, policy influencing and litigation, and as part of coalitions and campaigns, we support communities to know the law, use the law and shape the law. Natural Justice has three main programs: the Affirming Rights Program, Defending Rights Program and Standing with Communities Program. To learn more about the work of Natural Justice, please refer to www.naturaljustice.org

What we’re looking for:
Natural Justice seeks a full-time Program Manager to implement and further develop the work of the Affirming Rights of Communities program in the East Africa Hub. Working under the guidance of the Hub Director and working closely with the Head of the stream/program, the Program Manager will assist in the development of strategy and initiate, plan, implement and manage projects and activities (including timelines, deliverables and budgeting). The successful candidate will engage in strategic advocacy, including environmental and climate litigation, secure partnership development for movement building and advocacy, support community legal empowerment approaches, provide technical and legal advice to local communities affected by extractive, infrastructure, and other large-scale projects, and support the development and implementation of key participatory action research documents on community, public and trust land and other environmental decision-making processes, laws and policies. The successful candidate will be based in Nairobi, with frequent local travel and occasional regional and international travel and will be expected to begin work as soon as possible.

Key Roles and Responsibilities
Under the guidance and supervision of the Hub Director, and working closely with the Head of the Program, the Program Manager shall perform the following duties:

Leadership

• Provide effective leadership to the staff within the program including mentorship, coaching, team building and on-the-job training to enhance employee performance and other leadership interventions.
• Provide oversight and support to the program on matters concerning program activities and deliverables.

Strategic planning, project development and work planning

• Develop the overall program strategy.
• Oversee the implementation of the program strategy, its projects, deliverables, and annual plans, ensuring their alignment with Natural Justice’s overall program strategy

Technical Advice

• Provide technical and legal advice to partners, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders.
• Lead and assist with drafting legal documents (letters, drafting of pleadings etc.) to advance strategic litigation on behalf of Natural Justice and/or with key partners within the environmental, climate, indigenous and local peoples, and land justice focus areas.
• Support litigation of relevant cases
• Support community training on laws, policies and processes that impact communities’ rights and access to land and the environment.
• Respond to inquiries from partners and relevant stakeholders.
• Deliver presentations, organize and conduct workshops/meetings.

Policy and Legal Reform

• Identify and engage with key policy issues and key collaborators.
• Provide comments and make submissions on relevant law and policy.
• Develop and implement a strategic advocacy policy for the program.

Legal Empowerment and policy reforms

• With the other Hub Program Managers, oversee the paralegal projects and provide direct advice and assistance.
• Develop, improve and deliver community training on laws and legal empowerment methodologies.
• Link litigation to advocacy campaigns.
• Provide leadership in identifying and engaging with key policy issues and key collaborators.
• Maximize leverage of key partners in influencing policy and legal reforms in the Hub (Provide comments and make submissions on relevant laws and policies).
• Develop and implement a strategic advocacy policy for Affirming Rights.

Research and MERL

• In liaison with the research team, develop the program’s research, monitoring, evaluation and learning tools.
• Write collaborative research reports, concept documents, academic papers, and organizational reports.
• Work with Natural Justice’s Affirming Rights team to lead strategy planning and progress meetings and facilitate updates and learnings from across the region.

Partnerships, Networks and Communication

• Identify, build and maintain networks and/or partnerships with relevant stakeholders from government, civil society groups, community-based organizations, the private sector and academia.
• Support the development of partnership documents (MOUs, etc.) where relevant.
• In coordination with the communications team, write articles, comments, statements, articles, blogs and reports relevant to the program for public distribution, including on the Natural Justice website, social media, legal media, etc.
• Contribute to the communications and campaign strategies and outputs of the Hub.
• Represent Natural Justice in country and regional meetings.

Finance and Administration, Fundraising and Reporting

• Manage the financial, administrative and procurement processes of the projects within the program.
• Manage individual budgets from funders and provide financial guidance to junior staff.
• Assist the Hub Director to identify funding sources, prepare grant applications, and develop and manage relationships with funders and to regularly update donors on work progress and involve them in ongoing work.
• Be accountable for the safe keeping of organizational information for the relevant program.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Law, from a recognized university.
• A post-graduate degree in law, political science or other relevant social science discipline will be an added advantage.
• Knowledge of Kenya’s constitutional and administrative law, including human rights, land & environmental law.
• Minimum of 5 years relevant work experience in environmental and/or climate change law, including natural resource and/or land law, and administrative law or human rights litigation.
• Understanding of and proficiency in Kenyan and regional legal systems and institutional arrangements.
• Keen interest in and commitment to advancing the rights of marginalized communities, particularly in relation to their environments.
• Conviction in and commitment to constitutionalism and principles of environmental justice.
• Good legal research skills coupled with the ability to undertake research on policy and social issues, conduct primary and secondary research and prepare clear and analytical reports (with proof of published work).
• Experience in conducting fieldwork and working with marginalized communities.
• Experience in communicating complex legal issues in an accessible way to communities.
• Experience in policy advocacy.
• Experience in writing proposals and reporting to donors.
• Experience in program management, including budgeting, project planning, contract drafting, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting.
• Experience in managing and supervising teams.
• An understanding of and experience in the socio-political environment and civil society work in the region.
• Citizen of Kenya or authorized to work in Kenya