Under the general supervision of the Head of the Nairobi Convention Secretariat, the consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Work with the Nairobi Convention Secretariat to prepare draft Terms of Reference for recruitment of the SWIOP Project Coordination Unit PCU including for the Project Manager, Assistant Project Manager, Communications Consultant and National Ocean Governance Consultant.
•  Work with the Secretariat to prepare a comprehensive workplan for Year 1 of the SWIOP including description of activities, timelines and responsible parties.
• Work with the Secretariat to draft Small Scale Funding Agreements for Implementing Partners IPs in Ocean Governance and Science to Policy support, Implementation support for ROGS Structures, MSP technical support and training, and Ocean Accounting.
• Draft Terms of Reference for consultancies on regional Policy and Legal assessment, Blue Finance, BBNJ Agreement implementation support, MSP related activity support, Ecosystem Indicator Monitoring Framework implementation and training, and Information Systems design and management.
• Attend and represent the Nairobi Convention in SWIOP coordination meetings.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree a Master's degree or equivalent is required in Marine Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources Management or similar disciplines.
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience is required, working on regional marine and coastal-related projects at a technical level.
• Excellent knowledge of the Western Indian Ocean WIO region and experience of working with the Governments of the WIO region is required.
• Experience in stakeholder engagement for ocean governance and other multidisciplinary environmental and developmental matters in the WIO region is required.
• Working with different stakeholders at both strategic and technical levels is desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality assignments in a timely manner is desirable.
• Demonstrated competency in excellent scientific/technical writing and consistency in critical writing and review of documents is desirable.
• Ability to work within very short timelines and with minimum supervision is an added advantage.