Entrepreneurship in the territories: is it the right time?
WCS Viet Nam Program Overview
WCS has been working in Viet Nam since 2006, focusing on enhancing the commitment, capacity and actions of the government of Viet Nam to tackle the trafficking of wildlife, supporting national partners through developing and implementing highly focused, evidence-based strategies informed by an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of trafficking and the people involved to reduce the profits of crime and strengthen the risk of capture and sanctions. WCS Viet Nam have generated a wide range of reliable data on a number of related issues on illegal wildlife trade, trained and briefed about 5,400 law enforcement and judicial officers, policy makers, journalists, researchers and managers nation-wide and distributed a number of technical handbooks and guides. It has assisted central agencies to review and propose necessary changes to national legislation, criminal intelligence analysis systems, inter-agency cooperation. WCS Viet Nam has also facilitated Government to Government dialogue through multilateral and bi-lateral collaboration efforts, between Viet Nam and Asian, African and Latin American countries, to detect and response to transnational illegal wildlife trade networks. Its wildlife health expertise has been leveraged to address unregulated wildlife trade and mitigation of pandemic threats, through collaborative research, training, and policy development. In the past decade, WCS Viet Nam has also expanded to work with other conservation organizations and public laboratory towards finding and protecting Rafetus Swinhoei in the wild.
Job Summary
- Under the supervision of the PLES Team Leader, the Program Officer will:
- Conduct related legal analysis and review for policy and legal reform, and law enforcement assistance regarding wildlife protection;
- Conduct case review to identify legal loopholes, gaps of knowledge or challenges in the application of wildlife protection regulations and handling relevant wildlife-related violations by wildlife management authorities, law enforcement agencies and judiciary in order to provide law enforcement and judicial agencies with adequate support;
- Build networks and maintain strong relationships with governmental and non-governmental partners, and other national think-tanks to build collective actions in tackling effectively wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam.
This Job Description is progressive in nature and shall be reviewed and amended from time to time to meet WCS Viet Nam program needs.
Responsibilities
A. Policy and legal review
1. Conducts and provides inputs to the institutional, policy, and legislative reviews and analysis to identify challenges and provide recommendations to improve legal framework on wildlife protection and management, and law enforcement effectiveness;
2. Monitors the national legal development to identify opportunities for WCS Viet Nam to influence relevant legislative and policy development, and supports the implementation of policy influencing process;
3. Provides technical inputs to training materials, briefs, publications, and other communication product to ensure legal accuracy and consistency with the current legal framework on wildlife protection and management;
4. Manages WCS Viet Nam’s Law Database by updating new legislations, synthesizing and providing legal guidance and recommendations from different sources;
5. Provides technical inputs on legal matters arise during WCS operation in Viet Nam; and contributes to the development of WCS Viet Nam policies and strategies.
B. Case management and review
6. Conducts the entry and updates of a wildlife crime case database including court verdicts;
7. Selects and reviews the application of wildlife protection regulations, and criminal proceedings conducted by law enforcement and judicial agencies in handling wildlife cases to identify legal gaps and loopholes or challenges that they encounter during the investigation, prosecution and conviction of wildlife crime;
8. Provides legal inputs on certain wildlife-related violation cases to maximize the effectiveness of law enforcement activities.
C. International Cooperation
- Coordinates, implements or supports the implementation of activities aimed at promoting international cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries in countering transnational organized wildlife crime including conducting institutional and legal researches and/or analysis; organizing events/meetings such as joint-agency field missions, bilateral and trilateral meetings, Viet Nam - African range states dialogue etc...
D. Networking and Partnership
- Builds and maintains partnerships with key government agencies at the national and local levels in Viet Nam, research/academic institutions, development partners, international organizations, CSOs, NGOs, and influential individuals;
- Contributes to the management of partner databases.
E. Grant development and implementation
- Contributes to the execution of grant activities related to policy and law enforcement support and international cooperation;
- Contributes to the management of the team budget and M&E indicators of relevant activities;
- Provides policy and legal insights to the proposal development; and supports on other fundraising activities, as requested;
F. Others
- Supervises and liaises with consultants as appropriate;
- Acts as WCS Viet Nam’s representative at meetings and workshops as required;
- Performs other tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.
