The Global Forest and Climate Change Programme (GFCCP) is a global thematic programme of the IUCN Secretariat and supports the forest-related activities of the Union. The GFCCP consists of a global secretariat based at the IUCN Headquarters and out-posted staff in North America. The GFCCP also directly links to, and supports coordination between a worldwide network of over 50 regional and country level forest officers, enabling it to add value to the work of IUCN members through both field-based and policy-orientated interventions. The GFCCP is structured to create tangible links between field-based learning and ongoing national and international policy dialogues with a view to catalyzing delivery of tangible results. In this respect, the GFCCP is an active member of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, The Forests Dialogue and acts as secretariat for the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration.

The GFCCPs work is centered on 3 mutually supporting themes of Climate Change Mitigation, Forest Landscape Restoration and Locally Controlled Forests. While the GFCCP’s programme portfolio is designed and implemented around these 3 thematic areas it is also expected to build synergies with IUCN’s core work on gender, private sector engagement, economics, ecosystem based adaptation and protected areas. Most of GFCCP’s activities are delivered jointly with IUCN members, regional programmes and scientific expert commissions.

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY

The Forest Policy Officer will assume responsibility for supporting IUCN’s forest policy work, in support of and cutting across projects, and strategically oriented to the delivery of IUCN’s programme of work. The Forest Policy Officer will support policy interventions at the national, regional and international levels, including through promoting uptake of knowledge into policy frameworks and/ or as a contribution to closing policy implementation gaps.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall supervision of the Senior Forest Policy Officer the Forest Policy Officer will be responsible for:

Support to forest policy work

• Rapidly secure and package strategic information and help to build informal coalitions to inform policy-makers and practitioners in direct and rapid response to emerging opportunities.
• Stay abreast of, follow and/or as requested actively participate in key regional and international forest-related fora/processes/events where IUCN issues are or could be relevant and where opportunities exist for mainstreaming and uptake of IUCN’s work.
• Provide in-depth assessments of specified fora/processes/events including the key participants, their positions vis-à-vis IUCN issues, and strategic opportunities for advancing IUCN’s work.
• Contribute to the identification of policy options and the development and implementation of policy influencing strategies.
• Provide strategic advice on points where policy and other developments internationally can transfer into national opportunities and contribute to building the capacity of colleagues to capitalize on these opportunities.
• Develop a network of contacts within the international fora and processes.
• Draft position papers and other policy influencing materials and contribute to outreach materials such as blogs.
• Contribute to the development of project proposals and to monitoring and quality assurance of IUCN projects and initiatives.

Support to Motions and Resolutions Processes

• Provide support in coordinating implementation of IUCN World Conservation Congress Jeju 2012 Resolutions towards primary forest conservation, Bonn Challenge Implementation, climate change justice, Integrating protected areas into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and the role of Nature-based Solution to climate change
• Working closely with the Senior Forest Policy Officer to coordinate and support the IUCN Primary Forests Task Team (expert group) in implementing IUCN Resolution WCC-2012-Res-060
• Assist in screening of motions for IUCN World Conservation Congress Hawaii 2016

Support to generating commitment to the Bonn Challenge

• Maintain an overview of Bonn Challenge contributions and of the status of potential contributions.
• Follow up on contributions made and suggest strategies to secure new ones.
• Maintain contact with key partners and engage with complementary initiatives to assess alignment of commitments with the Bonn Challenge.
• Help organize and disseminate the outcomes of Bonn Challenge events.
• Contribute to the design of a system to track progress.
• Contribute to the writing of outreach materials, including for the bonnchallenge.org website.

Other responsibilities

As required the Forest Policy Officer shall:

• Support the GFCCP activities by researching and synthesizing information on particular themes and issues relevant to the work of the Programme.
• Assume responsibility for other activities that the Director of GFCCP and the Deputy Director, Knowledge, Policy and Environmental Governance may assign from time to time and that do not negatively impact on the delivery of the above responsibilities.


COMPENSATION PACKAGE
- Gross salary USD 60'000 per year
- Comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and long term disability insurance plan
- Retirement benefit of 5% of gross salary from the 4th month of employment
- 7.65% of gross salary FICA contribution (this benefit only applies to US nationals and green card holders)