Call for Proposals to Design and conduct a training course on innovation and systems thinking in Conservation Leadership Under the Charles R. Wall Conservation Leadership & Management Fellowship
About AWF
Created in 1961, in the spirit of Africa’s independence movement, AWF has always focused solely on conservation in Africa. From initial investments in Africa’s wildlife colleges that trained today’s cadre of protected-area managers and wildlife authority directors, AWF has backed African capacity and leadership for conservation for almost six decades. AWF’s approach to supporting priority landscapes is to build the capacity of local institutions to take on roles and responsibilities to deliver conservation.
The ownership of conservation must be with the people who ultimately bear the costs and reap the benefits of the action, meaning the communities, protected-area authorities, and national governments who hold rights over the resource base. AWF works in service of these decision-makers and our credibility as a citizen of Africa is key.
Program Overview
Africa’s extraordinarily rich biodiversity and ecosystems are constantly under threat from elements such as extensive land and sea use change, climate change, invasive alien species just to name a few. There is both recognition and agreement that Africa has opportunities to fully realise the benefits of her rich biodiversity and therefore needs to explore ways of using such biodiversity in a sustainable way that contributes to her economic and technological development. Since threats to wildlife have continued to increase, the wildlife conservation profession requires new and diverse skills beyond those offered by traditional academic training. While many young professionals in Africa are getting skilled technically, this is often not complemented by leadership and management skills that are required to work with diverse people and to address complex organizational challenges.
It is against this backdrop that 10 years ago, AWF launched the Conservation Leadership and Management Program, a 24-month, on-the-job training program for 3-6 master’s degree graduates passionate about conservation per intake. The program was designed to develop high-potential conservation leaders through the two-year placement at AWF.
In 2020, AWF adopted its 10-year Strategic Plan that sets a bold vision for accelerating African led conservation. This saw the restructuring of the program to the Charles R. Wall Conservation Leadership and Management Fellowship, a 9 months program that was launched in January 2023 to train 15 young professionals annually. This restructuring was crucial to help AWF accelerate its reach and widen the impact of influencing African led conservation ideology across the continent. The program, run through AWF’s Youth Program attracts candidates from different disciplines, who are already championing conservation, and focus on increasing their impact by enhancing their leadership and management skills to lead and influence systemic change in the environmental sector.
The program is anchored on four content pillars:
Foundational knowledge of conservation fundamentals and approaches;
Self-leadership;
Leading purpose-driven teams; and
Organizational leadership
The program delivers its content pillars through the following methodologies:
Workshops/Weekly sessions - Workshop on the history, state of biodiversity and diversity of biodiversity approaches in Africa as well as weekly group and individual leadership development sessions covering self-leadership and leading purpose-driven pillars of the program.
Innovation Project - Fellows are encouraged to identify a challenge or tap into an opportunity within their functional area and develop and initiate a plan to address the challenge within their year in the program.
Placements -To complement the learning through curated sessions, fellows are given an opportunity to learn by observing leaders other than their current managers. For one month, fellows are supported to either join a different department in their current organisations or join another organization in the country of domicile in order to experience different leadership styles and understand the nuances of what change looks like in different contexts.
Networking - Throughout the program, fellows are given opportunities to network with each other through peer learning activities and with experts and leaders in conservation via leadership dialogues.
Learning Calendar for 2024
April
The why, what and how of conversation. This is the foundational component of the program that introduces fellows to the state of biodiversity in Africa and the world and the contemporary issues affecting biodiversity conservation.
May
In person workshop in Nairobi. A two weeks long workshop to meet other fellows and kick off introduction to leadership and management courses including self-awareness, communications training and introduction to innovation projects.
June - Nov
Leadership and management development virtual courses. These sessions are dedicated to impart cutting-edge knowledge, skills and expertise in leadership and management that will equip fellows to lead systemic change in different spaces. The courses include self-leadership, creating purpose driven teams and organisational leadership.
Innovation Project. Work on a challenging goal on an environmental issue they are passionate about. Fellows will learn various problem-solving skills that will be put into practice through developing innovative solutions for issues they want to transform. Support in the form of coaching and mentoring will be provided.
Sep-Dec
Placement in environmental organisations in home country. The learning journey has been designed to support application of the various skills and knowledge gained in the sessions through a month placement in an environmental organisation in the fellows’ home country.
The program was launched in 2023 and is currently recruiting for the second cohort. AWF Youth Program is therefore inviting qualified training consultants to submit proposals for the development and delivery of a comprehensive training on innovation and systems thinking for our Conservation Leadership and Management Fellowship. The selected consultant will be responsible for developing training materials, delivering training sessions, and guiding fellows in the development of an innovation project anchored within their organization's functional area.
Scope of Work
The selected training consultant will be expected to:
Develop Training Materials:
Work with our Senior Youth Officer to create a curriculum that covers essential innovation and systems thinking skills tailored to the conservation sector.
Design interactive and engaging training materials, presentations, and case studies.
Deliver Training Sessions:
Conduct both in-person and virtual training sessions for fellows.
Facilitate discussions, group activities, and exercises to enhance learning.
Disseminate training evaluations
Guide Innovation Project Development:
Provide coaching and guidance to fellows as they develop their innovation projects.
Ensure that each project is anchored within the fellow's organization's functional area.
Monitoring and reporting on impact
Prepare a report on the impact of the training on the fellows
Qualifications:
The ideal training consultant should have:
Proven experience in developing and delivering leadership and management training programs
Proven experience in developing and delivering training programs on social innovation, problem solving, systems thinking
Knowledge and expertise in the conservation sector or related fields is an added advantage
Demonstrated ability to guide individuals in developing practical and impactful innovation projects using proven methodologies
Proven experience and expertise in delivering fun, engaging learning interventions, including supporting learning transfer and documenting lessons through proven monitoring and evaluation methodologies.
Proposal Submission:
Please provide a proposal consisting of but not limited to:
Cover letter detailing understanding of the scope of work
Proposed curriculum
Methodology
Budget
References
Evidence of prior work
All proposals must be submitted by 15th February via email to youth@awf.org and procurement@awf.org
Selection Process
15th February- Deadline for receiving proposals
15th Feb to 22nd Feb- Review of proposals
23rd February- Shortlisted proposals are contacted for further enquiries including providing additional information where necessary.
26th February- 1st March- Reviewing further information and making a final decision.
4th March- Contacting selected proposal
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Relevance and Experience: Experience in developing and delivering training on leadership and management for conservation/environmental leaders; problem solving and innovation methodologies, and systems thinking .
Methodology: The effectiveness of the proposed curriculum and methodology for guiding innovation projects.
Cost: The reasonableness and transparency of the budget.
Contact Information
For inquiries or additional information, please contact Mbaire Kamau, Senior Youth Officer, AWF Youth Program at youth@awf.org copying procurement@awf.org