Company Background

West Africa Blue (‘Blue’) is a leading conservation, restoration, and community-impact organisation committed to protecting West Africa’s blue carbon ecosystems while advancing sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). Supported by world-class partners and impact-driven investors, including the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), we are expanding our leadership team.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an ESG Lead to steer our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda across multi-country operations, ensuring alignment with international standards, donor expectations, and community-centered conservation outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Environmental and Social Risk Management

1. Lead implementation and continuous improvement of Blue’s Environmental & Social Management System (ESMS), ESG policies, and ESG-related frameworks, ensuring it is usable and effective at field level.
   1. Ensure ESG systems reflect lived community realities, local governance structures, and socio-economic conditions.
2. Convert international ESG and human rights standards into practical tools, procedures, and guidance for project teams and community institutions, especially IFC Performance Standards, World Bank guidelines, and relevant national legislation.
3. Support environmental and social assessments, due diligence, risk screenings, and mitigation planning across project sites.

Human Rights, IPLC & Community-Centred Practice

1. Provide technical leadership on human rights risk identification, mitigation, and monitoring, with particular attention to IPLC rights, land and resource access, livelihoods, and social inclusion.
2. Establish and advise on socio-economic risks and opportunities arising from project interventions, including impacts on livelihoods, gender dynamics, youth, and vulnerable groups.

External Reporting & Disclosures

1. Ensure alignment with international best practices, including IFC Performance Standards or equivalent donor frameworks, while adapting them to project-level realities.
2. Coordinate ESG, social, and human rights reporting for donors, investors, and regulators, including preparing reports.
3. Represent Blue in high-level engagements with donors, government regulators, community partners, and technical experts.

Field Engagement & Capacity Building

1. Provide oversight into EHS, community health and safety, and safeguarding matters as they arise during implementation.
2. Work closely with field teams, community facilitators, and local partners to strengthen ESG, human rights, and safeguarding capacity.
   1. Contribute to learning products, internal reviews, and evidence generation
3. Design and deliver training, mentoring, and accompaniment for staff and community institutions to support effective implementation.
4. Contribute to learning products, internal reviews, and evidence generation.
5. Actively coordinate with a multidisciplinary team across multiple geographies.
   1. Support local ownership of ESG processes, including community-level monitoring and reporting

Drive continuous monitoring, risk mitigation, and performance improvement across all ESG domains.

Minimum Qualifications & Experience

Candidates must meet ALL of the following:

1. A minimum of a university degree or technical college qualification in a relevant field such as environmental management, environmental science, social sciences, public health, occupational health & safety, development studies, sustainability, or related disciplines.
2. Five (5) to Eight (8) years of hands-on, ESG experience working within a reputable private sector organisation, NGO, UN organisation, project or program team implementing environmental, social, or development interventions to a high standard.
3. Demonstrated experience applying international environmental and social risk management best practices, with strong advantage for experience implementing the IFC Performance Standards or equivalent donor frameworks (e.g., World Bank ESSs, AfDB ISS, EBRD PRs) in real project contexts.
4. Proven experience managing and leading teams, ideally across multicultural or field-based environments.
5. Strong communication skills, with the ability to produce high-quality written reports and engage effectively with communities, regulators, donors, and senior leadership in fluent English.

Added Advantage (Not Required but Strongly Preferred)

1. Experience working in conservation, restoration, natural resource management, or nature-based carbon projects.
2. Prior work with IPLC engagement, benefit-sharing frameworks, FPIC, or gender-inclusive programming.
3. Experience in fragile, coastal, or rural African contexts.
4. Knowledge of French or local West African languages.
5. Familiarity with biodiversity monitoring, safeguarding standards, or carbon project development.

What We Offer

1. Opportunity to lead ESG implementation and improvement for one of Africa’s pioneering blue carbon and nature-based solutions programs.
2. A mission-driven, collaborative, and culturally diverse work environment.
   
3. Career growth and global exposure through partnerships with impact investors, DFIs, research institutions, and conservation organizations.

The ESG Lead will be based in West Africa with occasional trips to Blue’s project areas.

If you are an experienced professional who is passionate about communities and the environment, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.