Intern - Climate and Forests (Africa team) - voluntary position

Based in London office

Internship Purpose: ClientEarth is seeking an enthusiastic intern to work in our Climate andForest programme. The internship will be at our mainLondon office and you will have the opportunity to be involved in research and analysis of legal and policy matters related to natural resources and community rights in three African countries.

You will be fluent in both English and French, have a degree in law or legal studies, knowledge or experience of natural resources law or environmental law and/or community rights, and desirably an understanding of the African context.

This internship is focussed primarily on legal analysis to support ourAfricaproject. The successful candidate will help to organise workshops inAfrica, including drafting materials for the workshops. S/he will also be involved in our work to develop a legal gap analysis for each of our focus countries.

Project Description

ClientEarth is engaged in two projects to support civil society and community organisations engaged in FLEGT and REDD+ processes inGhana, theRepublicofCongo(RoC) andGabon. 

The first project, entitled “Strong Seat at the Table” is funded by the EU and will run through December 2014. This project is undertaken in partnership with other NGOs (FERN, Forest Peoples Programme, and Centre Pour l’Environnement et le Développement (a Cameroon-based organisation)). Its focus is on providing specific legal advice and capacity building to civil society organizations and local communities in relation to on-going FLEGT and REDD+ processes, including law reform efforts related to the implementation of FLEGT VPAs.

The second project is a three-year project funded by theUK’s Department for International Development (DfID). This project will complement the “Strong Seat at the Table” project. In addition, the DfID-funded project will work with different stakeholders to develop a coherent, integrated ecosystem and community rights based approach to reforming governance of forest land tenure and related natural resources. The project aims to realise this approach over the long term through on-going REDD+ and FLEGT processes and other law relevant law reform opportunities.  The focus countries for this three-year project areGhana, RoC, andGabon. The project will deliver analytical tools that can be adapted and applied in other settings inAfricaand beyond. 

We aim to take law and policy forward, beyond narrow sectoral approaches which fail to link together the drivers of natural resource degradation, destruction and livelihood loss for forest peoples and other local communities. A primary objective of the projects is to foster and develop an in-country knowledge network of legal practitioners, academics, and civil society and community leaders in each of the three focus countries — to develop their capacity to design, implement and enforce laws and policies which realise sustainable and equitable use and management of land-based natural resources in African countries engaged in FLEGT VPA and REDD+ processes, and to equip them with the analytical framework and tools to do so.

The project involves three inter-related components:

a)         Development of an Analytical Framework to Inform Meaningful Law Reform: Developing innovative diagnostic legal tools with forest communities and civil society and undertaking legal gap analyses, using these tools to highlight obstacles to realising the necessary law reforms, and developing achievable pathways and contents for meaningful reforms.

b)         Building Civil Society Capacity to Engage in Law Reform Opportunities: Expanding the legal awareness and capacity of forest communities and civil society in African countries engaged in FLEGT VPA and REDD+ processes regarding opportunities to achieve sustainable and equitable use and management of forest lands and natural resources through well-crafted legal reforms.

c)         Development of In-Country Legal Knowledge Networks: Strengthening forest communities’ and civil society’s legal knowledge and skills to engage in the design and implementation of laws and policies which realise sustainable and equitable use and management of forest lands and natural resources.

Key responsibilities

-          Assist with drafting legal analyses on relevant and current forest issues inGhana,Gabonand theRepublicofCongo, as well as more general publications

-          Assist in research on procedural rights and communities rights issues inAfrica, in particular as to how they are embodied and reflected in customary law as well as legislation

-          Assist with legal analysis of domestic laws, policies and institutions of focus countries

-          Support the development of legal materials for training in-country actors, including through translating complex legal concepts into user-friendly and easily understandable documents

-          Liaising with and assisting Climate andForeststaff, especially the Project Assistant in the organisation of workshop inAfrica

Required skills and competencies

-          Strong legal research skills

-          Excellent written and oral communication skills

-          Excellent organisational skills

-          Ability to produce high quality outputs

-          Reliable and committed team member with strong interpersonal skills

-          Able to adapt language, both oral and written, to different audiences

-          Highly creative Detail-oriented

-          Able to take initiative where needed as well as adhere to instructions provided

-          Able to work in a team, as well as independently

Person Specifications

-          Hold a law or legal studies degree (essential)

-          Work experience or demonstrable knowledge of legal analysis (essential)

-          Fluency in English (essential) and French (essential)

-          Positive attitude and a strong commitment to working for the environment (essential)

-          An understanding of community rights and/or natural resources issues, in particular in the African context (highly desirable)

-          Work experience of event organisation (desirable)

About the role: We ask that interns commit to a minimum of 4 days per week for at least six months. In instances where interns are not working full time, they should ideally commit to set days each week.

ClientEarth cover interns’ work-related expenses (travel and lunch) via a contribution of £10 for each day spent in the office.

Recruitment is open now and you should send your application as soon as possible and no later than 31^st December 2012. We will review applications as they are received and will interview candidates on the 9^th and 10^th January 2013.

If you have any questions about the role, please contact Lora Verheecke (lverheecke@clientearth.org).

To apply: Please send us a CV along with the internship form which you can download from the website.

Please send your application by email to internship.uk@clientearth.org. Please include “ClientEarth Climate & Forest intern -London” in the email subject line, and identify the documents you are sending by including “[your name] internship form” and “[your name] CV” in the file name.