IUCN is a Membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organizations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. IUCN Sri Lanka’s programs support sustainable natural resource management initiatives of Members and Partners.

Under the financial assistance of Global Fund for Coral Reef (GFCR), IUCN, receive funding for the Phase I of the 8-year project to establish Sri Lanka Coral Reef initiative. The proposed project will enhance aims to identify the stable coral reefs and empower multiple stakeholders towards protecting those coral reefs from extinction by unlocking finances, innovative partnerships, use of technology, best practices to reduce pressure on healthy coral reef ecosystems that demonstrate resilience to climate change and through the transferring of knowledge.

To support effective delivery of intended outputs of the Phase I of the project, development of the subsequent Phases of the project, assist project cycle management and assist professional networking with Government, Private Sector and other stakeholder entities, IUCN seeks a suitable candidate for the position of the Field Operations Associate (FOA). He/She will be locally recruited and be responsible for the assist project manager of SLCRI, including following key responsibilities and specific duties.

Under the direct guidance of Programme Coordinator and Project Manager, the FOA is required to oversee the Bar reef seascape of SLCRI to support on achieving four outcomes of the project. Significantly, the Field Operations Associate will be responsible in supporting the stakeholder consultations for establishing co-management platforms and to work closely work closely with communities to develop the conservation trust fund, identifying feasible business models and research-based business as coral friendly livelihoods for the coral-dependent communities.

SPECIFIC DUTIES

Provide day-to-day technical and administration support to project manager to implement project activities in selected seascape.
Ensure smooth and coherent seascape level project implementation, including organizing field level workshop, surveys, and stakeholder consultation under the guidance of PM.
Facilitate to establish and maintain seascape level co-management committees, community conservation group and conservation trust fund.
Laise and building strong partnerships with local and regional-level stakeholders specially with the relevant government agencies.
Organize and implement public information and involvement programme in the selected seascapes so that the general-public, private sector, investors, and community-based organizations understand and embrace the aims of the Project.
Slowly get to know to the local community and its environs and carry out a public consultation to inform people about the seascape design and the potential business opportunities and answer questions that people have.
Coordinate and oversee the collection of data required for local land-use plans and the development of coral-positive livelihood-focused interventions.
Support the project manager, partner organizations and FEMA team during the seascape design process with reference to providing socio-economic and biophysical data for the selected seascapes.
Carry out a slow and steady plan to introduce businesses and training programmes to make a transformational shift of communities to protect coral refugia with implementing partners.

Please Note: The above TOR contains the main responsibilities and duties of this position. However, in an ever-evolving organisation such as IUCN staff members are expected to show flexibility in their approach to work and be willing to undertake other tasks that are reasonably allocated to them but which are not part of their regular TOR. Where any task becomes a regular part of staff member’s responsibilities, the TOR should be changed in consultation between the manager, the staff member and the HR Unit. Any one of the three may initiate the consultation.