The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and of wetland biodiversity and services. It is the first of the modern global multilateral environmental agreements and remains the only one devoted to a specific critical ecosystem.

The Convention Secretariat has its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) provides some administrative services for the Convention.

The Ramsar Convention Secretariat, hosted by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, provides the secretariat services to the Convention’s Contracting Parties (signatory countries) for the operations and implementation of the Convention. Among the small Secretariat staff of 23 persons, four regional teams provide specific support to the Ramsar Contracting Parties in Africa, the Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe. Each of the regional teams is made up of a Senior Regional Advisor and an Intern/Assistant.

To be able to cope with the increasing needs of an ever growing number of Contracting Parties (currently 168), a need for an additional position in the Secretariat has been identified to deal with regional affairs, in order to provide improved support to the Contracting Parties with a specific focus on Africa region.

The main focus of the Regional Officer (Africa) is to support and strengthen the capacity of the regional team for Africa to contribute to advise Contracting Parties and other stakeholders on the implementation of the Ramsar Convention.

The Regional Officer (Africa) reports to the Senior Regional Advisor for Africa (SRA), and is involved, beyond the tasks relating to African countries, in a number of national and regional-level tasks addressing all regions (for all the tasks described in this ToR, when there are time conflicts the line manager will define the priorities):


His/her tasks include:

• Ensure standardization of regular office procedures related to the assistant tasks. This includes providing guidance and training to the Intern/Assistants to Senior Regional Advisors of the 4 regions and harmonizing their work concerning Ramsar sites, project administration (e.g., African projects of the Ramsar Small Grants Fund, Swiss Grant for Africa), information management and data organization and other regional and national matters. This also includes the creation, development and application of management/coordination tools and processes for the Intern/Assistants to Senior Regional Advisors and the 4 regional teams in general.
• Support the partnerships as they are developed with different organizations and entities and support the SRA in such relationships.
• Actively collaborate with the Communications team providing content for both internal and external channels and contribute to various communications actions and events.
• Liaise with the IT Officer to ensure that the necessary support and required information are provided to the Africa team in areas related to help in use of the Ramsar Site Information Service and GIS tools within the Secretariat. Support Parties in their use and access to data on the RSIs for new and revised information to be entered in a timely fashion.
• Follow-up regularly on all Ramsar Sites on Article 3.2, Article 2.5 and Montreux Records; monitor the implementation of regional initiatives; monitor and evaluate Swiss Grants proposals and funded projects; prepare project contracts and MoUs.
• Ensure that a two ways and respectful collaboration and communication is maintained and reinforced with the other Senior Regional Advisors and that there is active contribution to all the regional teams’ work.
• Undertake other duties, including supporting Secretariat staff in their tasks to prepare for COP, according to the requirements expressed by the SRA.