Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) is recruiting a campaign coordinator to coordinate the collaborative civil society campaign known as Asina Loyiko: United Against Corporate Bullying. This position, which is a one-year fixed term contract, is for a dynamic and highly organised individual who has a passion for human rights and social justice, and a good understanding of project coordination and strategic campaigning.

Asina Loyiko (We Have No Fear) has a particular focus on SLAPP (Strategic Litigation against Public Participation) – a strategy employed by corporations in order to intimidate and bully activists and human rights defenders in order to silence criticism, therefore having a chilling effect on the rights and ability of people to participate in public debate and political protest.

The collaborative Asina Loyiko campaign is hosted by the CER’s Corporate Accountability & Transparency Programme. Together with CER’s other programmes as well as civil society partners, this programme works towards the realisation of environmental justice by relying on legal and other mechanisms, multi-faceted campaigns and strategies to ensure that corporations are held accountable for non-compliance with constitutional obligations and other laws and obligations.

The ideal candidate should have a keen interest in the use of legal advocacy, strategic communications and the facilitation of networking among varied stakeholders in order to advance social justice, particularly as it relates to corporate accountability and the intersection between business and human rights.

CER is committed to diversity, inclusion and transformation and strives to reflect South Africa’s racial, cultural, sex and gender diversity within its staff complement. Candidates from historically disadvantaged or marginalised groups are strongly encouraged to apply for this post, and will be preferred.

Location

Cape Town or Johannesburg

Qualifications, skills and experience

• At least 2-4 years relevant experience in organising, outreach, programme/project coordination, social justice advocacy, or related fields, including events management and planning experience;
• Diploma in project management, community development, social work or equivalent and relevant qualification. Postgraduate students in the field of law, social sciences, social work or other relevant fields of study are also encouraged to apply;
• Demonstrated experience and/or ability to engage with legal frameworks and concepts;
• Excellent interpersonal communication, relationship-building, networking, and social skills; ability to connect authentically and build trust with diverse groups of people, including within communities and with community organisations;
• Time management skills with the ability to meet deadlines;
• Good public speaking skills (note that CER supports staff development through specialised public speaking training);
• A sensitivity to social issues and the needs of communities impacted by environmental degradation, injustice including intimidation and bullying by corporate and state actors;
• A commitment to diversity, inclusion and transformation.

Key responsibilities

• Project coordination: Stakeholder co-ordination which includes coordination and communication with civil society and community organisations in South Africa and around the world; networking with and building support among a wide range of stakeholders, supporters and partners. This includes conducting in depth stakeholder mapping and research as well as building and supporting networks of partners and clients which includes affected communities and community organisations, and supporting and participating training of activists
• Logistics and event planning: Organising and planning meetings, workshops and events to support and develop campaign objectives and highlight key campaign milestones;
• Strategic communications and advocacy: Conducting research for the development of communications plans for the campaign, bearing in mind the strategic objectives of the campaign. This also includes engaging with legal researchers, website developers and other service providers and supporting and implementing a communications strategy. Importantly, this includes co-ordination of development of website for the campaign, regular updates to website and sharing of relevant campaign information on the website and social media;
• Social justice advocacy: which relates to the use of law and other tools for the advancement of social justice and legal reform. Assisted by the Corporate, Accountability and Transparency team, the ideal candidate should be able to use law as a tool for advocacy and the advancement of social justice;
• General: Generally contributing to the reputation, institutional strength and resilience, strategic development, and wellbeing of the organisation;
• Diversity, inclusion and transformation: CER aims to build a diverse, inclusive and transformative culture, and we therefore expect all staff to participate in and work towards this goal.

Salary

Gross annual salary of R350 000 (total cost to company)

Working for the CER

The Centre for Environmental Rights is a non-profit organisation and law clinic. We are environmental rights lawyers who take diversity, inclusion and transformation seriously.

As South Africa’s largest public interest environmental law organisation, we leverage our expertise and commitment to fight for environmental justice for all. We take on the big environmental fights – high-stakes cases where we can empower local communities to defend their rights to a healthy environment, clean air and mitigate the impacts of climate change and set powerful precedents for other cases, and help improve policy and practice across the country.

Winning the legal case is only part of the battle. CER’s litigation work is strengthened by local empowerment, dedicated policy and advocacy work as well as strategic communications. We work closely with partners in affected communities and with other civil society and public interest law organisations particularly in the environmental and social justice sectors.

We work across the following core themes: Mining, Water, Pollution and Climate Change, Corporate Accountability & Transparency, and Activist Support & Training. Our main office in Observatory, Cape Town, with a smaller office in Johannesburg. Staff who join our Johannesburg office are required to travel to our Cape Town office on a regular basis.