Environmental and Social Governance Lead (Fixed-Term)

The Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) lead will build systems to track, audit, and analyze our commitments.

They will collaborate with partner teams to execute our commitments, and they will share our approaches with donors and lenders. Location Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia Career Level Professionals

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies 1 million smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms vastly more productive. Our 8,000+ team is drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions.

With operations across six core countries in Africa, we make farmers more prosperous by providing quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural training to improve harvests.

On average, the farmers we serve harvest 50 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund. 

To learn more about our work, take a look at our Why Work Here blog for more information.

About the Role

• As a large, multinational organization, we have an Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) system that ensures we are protecting our staff, clients, community, and environment.
• We are looking to deepen our investment in this area by adding staff, building more integrated compliance systems, and trying out new approaches. 
• Our ESG work is separated into four categories: staff, client, community, and environmental protection.
• The ESG lead will be responsible for coordinating projects across all of these categories, and working with our subject matter experts on each team to generate results. 
• The ESG lead will be responsible for ensuring that our commitments are well-organized into a clear system that we can track, audit, and analyze.
• They will also make recommendations on how we can improve our approaches to reach better ESG outcomes. Finally, they will work with our donor and investor relations teams to ensure we are communicating ESG targets and results to outside partners. 
• This person would report to the Head of the People Division, with regular touchpoints with the Office of the CEO and Impact Team.
• They would not manage any staff members, but would invest in building trusting working relationships with multiple team leads who are involved in ESG work

Responsibilities

• Global Systems and Responsibilities: 
  • Manage our organization-wide tracking system for ESG risks, and ensure risk managers are regularly updating their commitments. Collaborate with risk managers who need additional support to mitigate their risks. 
  • Regularly analyze industry trends in the ESG space and ensure that our systems are progressing with our peers. Make recommendations to improve our ESG policy in collaboration with our donors and lenders. 
  • Create and lead a regular audit exercise to ensure that our organization is meeting the requirements of our ESG policies. Take action when improvement areas are identified. 
  • Co-create and disseminate our organization-wide staff training on risk and compliance (which includes ESG + other risks), in collaboration with Legal and People teams. 
  • Liaise with our donor and investor relations teams to ensure that they have regular access to the ESG information and reporting. 
  • Serve as the OAF representative on ESG to internal audiences (Leadership Council and our board) and external audiences (donors and lenders).  
  • Develop fluency on our donor and investor-specific ESG commitments, and manage our global system to inform donors and investors about ESG events and changes, in close coordination with the Business Development and Investor Relations team. 
  • Compile and/or review reports for the Business Development and Investor Relations teams about the status of our ESG commitments. 
• Staff protection: 
  • Occupational Safety and Health (OSH): Ensure we are compliant with Occupational Safety and Health requirements set by donors, investors, and governments.
    • Collaborate with our in-country Health, Safety, and Security leads to give feedback on performance gaps and regularly audit progress. 
    • Collaborate with the Government Relations team in their work to ensure we are compliant with all domestic OSH regulations. 
    • Maintain the relationship with our insurance broker and our international HSS provider. Ensure that the international HSS provider is meeting the needs of all countries experiencing insecurity at that time.
    • Work with Legal and Global HR team to develop duty of care policies for countries experiencing insecurity (at the moment, this is particularly important for DRC, Ethiopia, and Nigeria). 
• Protection against harassment: 
  • Build and execute a project roadmap that 1) reduces the likelihood that sexual violence happens in the workplace, 2) provides safe and supportive spaces for staff members to report, and 3) supports victims with the services they need if violence does occur. 
  • Utilize data trends from our unified staff grievances system to learn from past situations and change our approaches to promote a safer work environment. 
  • Ensure that the Code of Conduct (including protection against bullying, harassment, etc.) is being adhered to, and reports of misconduct are addressed. 
• Staff grievances and reporting:
  • Build a unified staff grievances system that combines data from different channels, topics, and teams. The grievances system should include: staff injuries and accidents, occupational safety and health risks, sexual harassment and violence, discrimination or abuse, pay disparity and equity issues, etc. 
  • The ESG lead should 1) conduct audits of the overall grievance system and suggest improvements where necessary, 2) support the efficient running of the system, and 3) enable seamless coordination between all grievance management channels.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The organization already has a DEI lead that executes on our DEI goals. The ESG lead will coordinate with the DEI lead to ensure all ESG-specific DEI goals are met. 
• Community protection: 
  • Community care and outreach: Ensure that we are demonstrating respect and care to all the local communities that we serve in line with our ESG commitments (this includes persons who are not direct clients, but live in communities where we have clients). 
  • Child protection and safeguarding: Ensure that we have systems in place to protect minors across our programs, and that there is a grievance reporting system in place so that any community member, client, or staff member can raise concerns. 
  • External grievances and reporting: Ensure that our global hotline is readily and easily accessible to all clients and community members, and ensure they understand how to use it to report issues. 
• Client protection:
  • The organization has a robust Client protection team that ensures clients are protected across all countries and maintains a unified set of policies and practices. The ESG lead will collaborate with the client protection lead to ensure ESG-specific requirements are met. 
• Environmental protection: 
  • We have an Environmental Sustainability lead who is responsible for executing all of our environmental protection goals and metrics. The ESG lead will collaborate with them on any ESG-specific requirements.  
  • Regularly review the Environmental Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) to ensure we are compliant with our ESG commitments (the Impact team will be responsible for executing and the ESG lead can provide support as needed). 
• Coordination with other teams: This role requires extensive coordination with other teams to ensure 1) they understand what their commitments are, 2) they are performing against those commitments, and 3) they accept feedback from the ESG lead and adjust accordingly. The ESG lead will have extensive collaboration with:
  • Impact Team (environmental protection) 
  • People Division (staff protection) 
  • Client Protection team (client protection) 
  • Business Operations Team (client protection)
  • Field teams (client protection) 
  • Business development team (donor commitments)
  • Investor relations team (lender commitments)
  • Legal team (relevant for most topics) 
  • Ombuds office and DEI team (staff protection) 
  • Government Relations and Policy team (all areas that overlap with domestic law)

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance.

We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant Field
• Good track record of driving results through multiple team, been doing this at least for 3+ years
• Exemplary project management and stakeholder relationships.
• Excellent communication both written and verbal.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Burundi

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Contract Duration

5 years

Eligibility

This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of  Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Burundi.

Application Deadline

16t^h February 2025. Please note that we hire on a rolling basis which means that applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made.

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here ([email protected]), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Apply

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.