Carbon Project Officer

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

CRS began working in Malawi in 1997 at the invitation of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi. Today, CRS Malawi implements food security, emergency response, nutrition, WASH and capacity building activities funded by both public and private donors throughout the eight Dioceses of Malawi. 

Job Summary:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the Lead Implementing Organization (LIO) for Restore Africa project – Restoring Landscapes and Livelihoods in Malawi, designed and implemented in collaboration with Global Evergreening Alliance with investment from Climate Asset Management. The project is being implemented in the 7 districts of Chitipa, Mzimba, Ntcheu, Mangochi, Machinga, Neno, and Zomba through a consortium of 6 implementing partners – World Vison, CARE, Self Help Africa, Total Land Care, Organization for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development Initiative (OSSEDI), Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) – and one technical partner – CIFOR-ICRAF (World Agroforestry).

The project seeks to improve livelihoods, food security and resilience to climate change in Malawi by restoring ecosystem services and improving management of agricultural and forest areas, contributing to emissions reductions. This project will enable and build substantial carbon sinks and sequestration opportunities, allowing viable returns to both farmers and investors. Landscapes will be restored on approximately 350,000 ha, improving livelihoods and climate resilience for an estimated 380,000 households. This will sequester approximately 15,500,000 tonnes CO2e, over a 30-year crediting period. The project goal is to improve resilience to climate shocks for smallholder farmers and communities resulting in improved livelihoods, food security, and landscapes.

The Carbon Project Officer will work closely with the Technical Lead Carbon, Markets and Value Chains as the focal point for carbon-related work in Restore Africa, providing comprehensive coordination and support to partners on carbon project design and compliance with requirements of Gold Standard, maintaining quality assurance and sharing expertise on carbon standards and markets.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

As the Carbon Project Officer your responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

• Coordination with the Program Coordination Unit Carbon Expert, Project Management Unit and implementing partners to provide technical backstopping in alignment with requirements of GEA (project proponent), CAM (investor), Gold Standard (certifying body) and Government of Malawi (regulatory authority)
• Liaison with Environment Affairs Department to support the carbon registration process and ensure alignment with emerging regulations
• Lead documentation and reporting of technical aspects of the carbon project, in coordination with the MEAL Manager, including lessons learned
• Provide technical support and leadership to the project’s Carbon Technical Working Group and partner staff to implement and monitor carbon activities, including provision of training and capacity building to ensure their ability to meet carbon project responsibilities and obligations
• Lead, with input from the carbon technical working group, on the design and development of community mechanisms for carbon benefit sharing
• Liaise with ESG-I Manager to ensure full compliance with carbon project implementation and reporting obligations
• Liaise with GEA on implementation of carbon verification processes, providing quality assurance on all documentation
• Identify opportunities and provide technical input into development of new carbon projects for CRS Malawi including scale up of the Restore Africa project
• Develop and maintain an understanding of relevant regulatory policies national and international trends in voluntary and compliance carbon markets related to nature-based carbon removal

Required Languages – English, Chichewa

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 50%.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Observation, active listening, analysis and problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment
• Good relationship management skills and the ability to work closely with implementing partners
• Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented
• Attention to detail, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities
• Entrepreneurial mindset.
• Experience of communicating to a diverse range of audiences.
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary team, as well as independently, and coordinate with colleagues based in different locations and time zones around the globe.
• Eagerness to grow and learn in an evolving environment.
• Optimistic, mission-driven personality with a can-do spirit.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• None

Key Working Relationships:

Internal:  The PO will work under the guidance of the Technical Lead Carbon, Markets and Value Chains but also coordinate closely with other members of the Restore Africa team including Chief of Party, MEAL Manager, Senior Program Officer, and ESG-I and Compliance Manager. You will ensure that partners are applying best practices in carbon programming and complying with relevant policies and guidelines from the carbon developer, investor and carbon registry.

External: Global Evergreening Alliance (GEA) Program Coordination Unit; implementing partners, government and sector stakeholders

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources Management, or related field.
• Knowledge of voluntary carbon market standards. Understanding of methodologies for quantifying GHG emissions reductions, especially those associated with Agriculture, Forest and other Land uses (AFOLU)
• Minimum of 4 years relevant work experience in carbon project design, monitoring or auditing
• Excellent understanding and knowledge of afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry projects and community-based natural resource management
• Knowledge of quantitative data gathering and analysis
• Knowledge of project planning tools, theory of change and development of project idea notes and project description documents
• Experience using MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience using  GIS and Commcare
• Strong quantitative skills, with the ability to use data and metrics to draw conclusions and inform decisions.

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