Portfolio Manager - Madagascar

Maliasili is a fast growing, exciting organization that is taking a different approach to driving conservation impact in Africa. We find the best African conservation organizations and make them better by building their capacity and improving their performance. Our partner portfolio includes some of the most well-respected organizations in East and Southern Africa, working at the forefront of conservation across wildlife, forestry, and marine resource management. Specifically, the work of our partners includes, anti-poaching, carbon sequestration, community and indigenous land rights, and developing new enterprises and sustainable business models within natural resource value chains 

Since its founding in 2011, Maliasili has built a growing portfolio that works across roughly 50 million hectares of critical landscapes and ecosystems in four countries. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $4 million in funding for their work; developed a growing set of tools to help improve their work; and supported many of our partners to significantly grow their impacts in the field. Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa’s best local conservation organizations, help them collaborate and learn from each other, and to scale up their work on the ground and their leadership capacity within the conservation field.  

Building on our track record and growing interest in our organizational support model, we are looking to expand our portfolio in Southern Africa in 2022 and look to build our regional team. 

We are now accepting applications for a Manager position to support community-based organizations in Madagascar. This position will be based in Madagascar. This position will require approximately 30% travel within the country. This position will work under Maliasili’s Senior Portfolio Manager who is overall responsible for our work in Madagascar. Applicants should be proficient in spoken and written English and French. Malagasy is an advantage. Maliasili is unable to sponsor work or residence permits for the successful applicant. 

Role and Responsibilities

Managers lead and facilitate our organizational development support to our partners to help them become stronger organizations and achieve their goals and missions. Understanding the functional elements of an effective organization is at the core of Maliasili’s work, and Managers should have command of these elements and the characteristics of a highly effective organization, be able to diagnose organizational challenges, and design plans to implement solutions and catalyze behavior change in our partner organizations.

The Manager will be responsible for the following:

• Managing relationships with the leadership of partner organizations, providing thought partnership and collaborative problem solving.

• Working with partners to diagnose and develop joint plans to address major organizational needs and priorities.

• Design and lead effective organizational development interventions in areas such as strategic planning, work planning, strategic fundraising, financial management, monitoring & evaluation systems, and human resource management and recruitment.

• Design and facilitate workshops with partners to make progress towards broader organizational development goals. 

• Improving organizational development expertise and staying at the cutting edge of organizational development and community-based conservation.

• Coordinating service provision from other Maliasili team members or external experts, as a component of overall partner support.

• Managing relationships with partners and third-party funders or key collaborators, including overseeing contractual obligations, reporting requirements, and deadlines.

• Cultivating relationships with other organizations and developing a pipeline of potential partner organizations in Madagascar.

• Working with Maliasili’s team to connect partners to appropriate networks, contacts and resources within Maliasili’s wider networks.

• Supporting Maliasili efforts, including but not limited to strategic planning and monitoring & evaluation.

• Collaborate with the Maliasili team to support the implementation of a  leadership programme, facilitating workshops and engaging with the emerging leadership cohort. 

Qualifications 

Key attributes of the successful candidate will include:

• Strong experience, skillset, and technical understanding of organizational development, oversight of complex programs and/or business development. We are looking for someone who understands the challenges and imperatives in building effective, high-performing organizations, and who has a proven track record in doing this as either a manager or consultant, or, ideally, both.

• Strong organizational diagnostic and analytical skills – the ability to quickly and accurately understand an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and priorities in a developmental sense.

• Experience and comfort in designing and facilitating effective meetings.

• Excellent problem-solving ability, capable of diagnosing problems and designing solutions. 

• Strong capability to absorb and synthesize data and information. 

• Outstanding interpersonal skills in communications, relationship management, team processes, and facilitation, including strong written and verbal communication.

• Outstanding ability to manage multiple processes in a dynamic environment, prioritize, multi-task, and deal with problems adaptively and with a sense of humor.

• Passion for Maliasili’s mission to contribute to the development of organizational excellence and impact in African natural resource management and conservation organizations.

• Strong intellectual curiosity – we are looking for people who are interested in learning new things and expanding their knowledge. 

• Team player who enjoys engaging with and supporting colleagues but can also work autonomously when necessary. 

• Broad and perceptive technical grasp of major issues in natural resource management, rural development, and land tenure in Southern African countries and particularly in Madagascar.

• Strong written and oral communications in English and French. Malagasy would be an advantage.

• Bachelor’s degree required, master’s degree preferred, approximately ten years of work experience, including management responsibilities.