Ecuador Environment Program Cycle (EPC) Fellow

Position description

At Environmental Incentives, our purpose is to create the conditions for human and natural communities to thrive. We do this by helping our partners improve the performance of conservation and development programs. Our clients trust us to design and support implementation of programs that (1) use evidence to develop effective strategies within complex systems, (2) center local stakeholder experiences and facilitate collective action, and (3) produce results that support learning about what works. Environmental Incentives is a certified B Corporation with offices located in Washington, DC, South Lake Tahoe, San Diego, Nairobi, and Lima (pending registration). Our remote staff and consultants are based in multiple states within the United States, and across five continents.

About IDEAL

In programming more than $750 million each year in biodiversity and climate change funds, USAID’s decisions shape outcomes for irreplaceable ecosystems and the communities that depend on them worldwide. The IDEAL contract provides support for all stages of the Program Cycle for USAID biodiversity and climate change programming at USAID and improves the Agency’s ability to design, monitor, evaluate, and learn from programs with sustainable and impactful results. 

During this five-year activity, IDEAL will support USAID’s programs to apply adaptive management decisions, generate and apply evidence, and apply learning to support better programming decisions. With expertise combining technical environment skills and organizational development and learning, IDEAL facilitates high-quality decision-making, increases evidence generation and use, and nurtures a culture of applied learning across the Agency. The IDEAL consortium of implementers also includes NORC at the University of Chicago, Foundations of Success, and the World Resources Institute.

Responsibilities 

Duties

Opportunity

Are you passionate about making a difference in biodiversity conservation and climate change initiatives, while driving innovation in learning to tackle environmental challenges?  Do you possess technical expertise and a deep understanding of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Program Cycle? Environmental Incentives (EI) is seeking a mission-driven individual experienced in international development, environment, and climate to join the USAID Improving Design, Evidence, and Learning (IDEAL) team. 

As the prime implementer on the five-year IDEAL contract, EI supports USAID throughout all phases of the Program Cycle and improves the Agency’s capacity for adaptive management, evidence generation and application, and learning to inform better programming decisions. 

The Environment Program Cycle (EPC) Fellow will play a crucial role in supporting USAID/Ecuador’s environment and energy programming to improve the Agency’s ability to apply adaptive management decisions, generate and apply evidence, and apply learning to support better programming decisions. This position offers an exceptional opportunity for someone who has demonstrated experience leading USAID’s Program Cycle processes and facilitating adult learning in Latin America. Technical expertise in one or more key sectors, including biodiversity conservation, natural climate solutions or sustainable landscapes, tropical forestry, ocean plastics, fisheries, renewable energy, water, sanitation and hygiene, or related fields is preferred.  The Fellow will work from their home and travel to Ecuador for approximately one month every quarter to support Mission activities in-person.  

Purpose and Need

The Ecuador EPC Fellow will serve in an advisory and capacity-building role for Program Cycle-related functions and support the design and procurement of new Environment and Energy programming within the USAID/Ecuador Mission. The Ecuador EPC Fellow will support the establishment and strengthening of learning networks and other approaches to enable practitioner learning around biodiversity and climate change inside and beyond USAID. The Fellow will help USAID teams to promote a culture of learning with positive feedback loops across networks and sectors to accelerate transformative change to enable more sustainable and impactful programs. The Fellow will fill a critical gap by working collaboratively with USAID teams to develop high-quality products and processes that will serve as solid examples, models, and guidance for future staff. The Ecuador EPC Fellow may specialize in a functional area of the Program Cycle (e.g., Design Specialist, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) specialist, Monitoring & Evaluation adviser, or Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) advisor), but will be expected to bridge work across these disciplines. 

Responsibilities

• Supporting the implementation of USAID’s Biodiversity Policy and Climate Change Strategy by providing facilitation services for strategy and activity design, implementation, pause and reflect sessions, and evaluation and learning using a variety of fit-for-purpose methods and approaches. 
• Co-developing and implementing a capacity building plan for the Mission team to strengthen their implementation of USAID’s Program Cycle and related processes and build team cohesion.
• Organizing knowledge management and communication content for events (meetings and workshops) and creating outreach materials, including infographics, fact sheets, brochures, newsletters, and/or videos, in close collaboration with the Mission’s POC. 
• Enhancing process improvement engagement by facilitating activity co-designs, organizational development facilitation services, and broad-based stakeholder engagement activities to inform programming. 
• Providing technical assistance to USAID/Ecuador and implementing partners in developing monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans, as well as reporting on program indicators. 
• Researching, synthesizing, and disseminating findings on selected climate change and biodiversity topics as directed, such as adaptation and mitigation topics, nature-based solutions or ecosystems services, and direct and indirect threats to biodiversity. 
• Advancing USAID biodiversity and climate change goals by providing training and guidance on evidence use, generation and adaptive management to Agency staff and other stakeholders. 

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 9 years of experience; Master’s degree and 7+ years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience in developing programming and practice, preferably including biodiversity conservation, climate change, sustainable economic development, community resilience, forestry, and/or conservation financing programming.
• Demonstrated experience in coaching, mentoring, training, and building the capacity of development professionals, including advanced adult learning skills.
• Demonstrated experience using USAID’s Program Cycle, including integrating CLA practices, to strengthen development outcomes.
• Experience coaching other team members in environmental programming and leading the creation of client deliverables that synthesize the input from multiple contributors in that area. 
• Experience identifying learning needs and filling them through resources external to the immediate team or through cross-project learning initiatives.  
• Experience designing and facilitating participatory workshops, meetings, and gatherings of various sizes in-person, online, and in hybrid settings.
• Experience supporting the development and delivery of learning agendas, learning events, and learning products such as toolkits, job aids, and case studies. 
• Experience creating communications and knowledge management products that share technical findings with non-technical audiences. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 11+ years of experience; Master’s degree and 9+ years relevant experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience in developing programming and practice, preferably including biodiversity conservation, climate change, sustainable economic development, community resilience, forestry, and/or conservation financing programming. 
• Experience applying the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation or other adaptive management frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience in biodiversity, climate change, land-based greenhouse gas mitigation, natural resource management, alternative energy for international development programming and experience working with USAID or other development agency on this subject matter.
• Experience working in professional settings in-person in Latin America or the Global South.
• Experience promoting the use of evidence through effective dissemination strategies and learning initiatives.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

• Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills, with a demonstrated ability to manage workplace challenges and concerns with professionalism and tact. 
• Demonstrated flexibility and capacity to adapt to and operate in environments of uncertainty and in fast-paced, diverse organizations. 
• Strong understanding of the contractor role, with an orientation to customer service and delivering quality results on time and on budget.
• Strong understanding of current issues in international development and organizational effectiveness. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.  Spanish is desirable.
• Ability to be proactive in problem-solving with excellent listening skills. 
• Demonstrated ability to advance equity and inclusion in leading the work of teams.
• Problem-solving orientation and growth mindset. 
• Experience with the Google suite of tools, especially Google Meet, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets; familiarity with Microsoft tools (Outlook and Teams).

Additional Requirements

• Legally authorized to work in the United States with no restrictions.     
• Ability and willingness to travel for one month every quarter to Quito, Ecuador.
• Eligibility for USAID facility access.
• Completion of a criminal background check is required.

Application instructions

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