Field Assistant (research)

Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) is an Arusha based network organization that focuses on the improvement of natural resource governance in Tanzania. TNRF brings members and partners together and helps them to bridge the gap between their local natural resource management needs and practices and national natural resource management priorities, policies, laws and programs. One of the programs managed by TNRF is the Poverty and ecosystem Impacts of payment for wildlife conservation initiatives in Africa: Tanzania's wildlifeManagement Areas(PIMA). TNRF is currently looking for a

Field Assistant (research)

Arusha-Longido-Simanjiro

As a field assistant helping with research, you will be responsible to work under the TNRF programmes department to execute plans and activities as agreed with other implementing partners, with most of your responsibilities relating to field stakeholder engagement and field data collection. Among other responsibilities you will be expected to facilitate and coordinate participation, information sharing and analysis, and networking between partners and other stakeholders; to liaise between this and other projects with similar objectives and focusing primarily on agro-pastoral livelihoods and wellbeing; to strengthen learning, information flow, training and capacity development among partners; to facilitate engagement between local communities in the target area and district level decision-makers in collaboration with partners under the programme.

PIMA project:

TNRF, together with TAWIRI, University College London, Imperial College London, Copenhagen and UNEP-WCMC, are beginning a new ESPA-funded collaboration on the ecological, social, economic and political/governance effects of  Tanzania's Wildlife Management Areas. Focusing on 8 different WMAs in detail, including Enduimet in Longido, Burunge and Makame in Simanjiro, PIMA will explore the outcomes of the wildlife management areas now being implemented across Tanzania. PIMA will compare households and villages before and after WMA implementation, as well as inside and outside WMAs,  to study the ways that WMAs have changed ecosystem health and people's wellbeing. TNRF focuses on the social side, especially impacts on governance of and access to local natural resources, on people's livelihoods, and on their social and religious lives. This project is partnered by the Authorised Association Consortium (AAC) umbrella organisation for all WMAs in Tanzania, and works through in-depth engagement with users, government and practitioners as well as entrepreneurs. PIMA hopes to form the basis for fine tuning national policies and improving social and environmental sustainability of Tanzania's flagship community based natural resource management programme. 

The role of field assistant (research)

To be successful in this job, you need to understand and uphold the role of TNRF as a Civil Society Organization and a multi-stakeholder forum for discussing issues around natural resources management. You must be able to develop and maintain relations within and outside the organization and you must possess excellent communication vision and skills. In addition, you should have relevant experience in managing stakeholder engagement, qualitative and quantitative surveys.

Essential:

You must have relevant experience of field research in pastoral areas; firsthand knowledge of issues concerning pastoral systems and related development of policies in Tanzania and the region, experience in carrying out surveys, questionnaires and interviews, preferably with pastoral communities, and willingness to learn methodologies. You must be passionate about the need for improved/better pastoral systems governance and strengthened land and livelihood rights for pastoralists. You must be fluent in English, Kiswahili (including grammar, structure, punctuation and spelling) and in spoken Maa

Desirable: ideally you will have proven experience of working in civil society networks at community and national levels. You will be computer literate in MS-word, and other relevant software packages. A good understanding of the governance, development and the natural resource management sector with respect to pastoralist and agro-pastoral areas in Tanzania would be an asset

Candidates for this job are kindly requested to send their CV accompanied by a cover letter to P. Tarimo p.tarimo@tnrf.org For enquiries about the job, TNRF or the programme, please contact j.olila@tnrf.org. Cover letters and CVs should be sent latest Friday 11th October 2013