Program Associate, Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Project – Water Initiative

Forest Trends is a Washington-DC based, international non-profit conservation organization that protects forests, wildlife, and water through the creation of innovative finance and market mechanisms. Forest Trends has an international team who work closely with a number of partner organizations in other parts of the world.

Forest Trends seeks an energetic, sharp, and highly organized communications professional to join the Natural Infrastructure for Water Security (NIWS) Project team within our Water Initiative. The Program Associate will support the Water Initiative and the NIWS project team in effectively communicating project content to a variety of English-speaking audiences through reports, publications, articles, infographics, and social media. This position will work closely with the Water Initiative Director, the USAID Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Chief of Party (COP) and Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) in Lima, and the Forest Trends Communications Manager in DC to support institutional and outreach communications activities.

The Natural Infrastructure for Water Security project is executed by the Invierte Verde Consortium, led by Forest Trends, through a cooperative agreement with USAID’s Peru mission. The project aims  to enhance water security and resilience of Peruvian cities and communities through scaling-up effective and sustainable natural infrastructure investments, such as the conservation and sustainable use of forests and wetlands, as well as the implementation of ancestral technologies.  The project works to achieve this goal through advancing public awareness, institutional changes, and policies and plans for natural infrastructure in Peru; improving information generation and management to support evidence-based decision-making on natural infrastructure; and helping to accelerate and scale-up the implementation of natural infrastructure projects and “green-gray” infrastructure portfolios in priority watersheds in Peru. The Project began in December 2017 and has a duration of 5 years.

This position will be a full-time, salaried position, based in Forest Trends’ office in Washington, DC, reporting to the Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Project’s Deputy Chief of Party.


Responsibilities

  • Support the Water Initiative Director, COP/DCOP, and the Forest Trends Communications Manager in developing communications strategies and managing schedules and work plans for NIWS communications products.
  • Support preparation of English-language syntheses of project outputs, key messages, and information for international audiences (primary in the United States and Canada).
  • Prepare English-language syntheses of technical products prepared in Spanish by the project team and partners in Lima and, based on these, prepare written products, including project reports, descriptive brochures, infographics, blogs, social media posts, press releases, and/or short articles or white papers.
  • Support the Lima-based team in the preparation of quarterly and annual project reports for USAID and/or external evaluators, as well as annual work plans and other project-related documentation in English as needed.
  • With graphic designers and the Forest Trends communications team, support and coordinate the development of effective and creative visual communications products (graphics, infographics, video). Assist with the preparation of project videos, web-based platforms, and webinars as needed.
  • Provide editorial support and review of documents translated from Spanish to English and ensure broad dissemination of project documents.
  • Assist project team as needed in preparing supporting materials (e.g., announcements/invitations, press releases, social media posts, presentation materials, briefing packets, and presentations) at international conferences or in English-speaking fora in Peru.
  • Provide support to the project teams in DC and Lima in maintaining close coordination and communication for managing project work plans and schedules (e.g., assuring regular coordination meetings, preparing meeting agendas and minutes, tracking work plan progress and schedules, etc.)
  • Performs other duties as assigned or required.


Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field: communications, journalism, environmental studies, among others;
  • 3-5 years demonstrated professional experience as a writer or communications specialist;
  • Exceptional communications skills, including the ability to summarize complex information in accessible language;
  • Excellent writing skills in English; demonstrated proficiency in a range of written formats (formal reports, journal articles, blogs, brochures, web-pages, press releases, general audience information pieces);
  • Exceptional interpersonal skills, including the ability to work across cultures and with geographically dispersed teams;
  • Proficiency in reading Spanish (including technical documents on water resource issues), ability to synthesize, summarize, and abstract relevant information from documents written in Spanish for English speaking audiences;
  • Advanced Spanish language skills (comprehension, writing, and speaking; ability to gather information from project team in Lima, understand discussions in team calls);
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively use social media to promote content and events;
  • Demonstrated experience developing/coordinating audio-visual products (webinars, videos, storyboard, expositions, mindmaps, others);
  • Familiarity with natural resource conservation issues and terminology;
  • Full proficiency in Office 365 and Google Docs/Drive applications, GoToMeeting or Adobe Connect;
  • Demonstrated ability to lead work independently as well as collaborate with team members across cultures.

 

Desired Qualifications

  • Graduate degree in applicable field (communications, journalism, environmental policy, water resources management);
  • Applicable knowledge in green infrastructure, water resource management issues, conservation finance, watershed conservation;
  • Full professional fluency in Spanish.

To apply please send us your CV by April 30, other materials and cover letter to cv@nullforest-trends.org, noting “Program Associate (NWIS)” to the subject line.