Community Livelihood Officer

About Blue Alliance

Blue Alliance is a nonprofit founded in 2015 that actively manages large Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to regenerate coral reefs and build a blue economy that lifts coastal fishing communities out of poverty. Blue Alliance currently holds official government mandates to co-manage 3.4 million hectares of MPAs across Indonesia, the Philippines, and Zanzibar, representing 1.5% of the world’s coral reefs, working in some of the world’s most biodiverse and resilient regions.

Blue Alliance operates under long-term delegated management agreements with governments to implement state-of-the-art conservation, compliance and resource management practices, ensuring regeneration of marine life and improving the food security and livelihoods of coastal communities. Blue Alliance has developed a self-sustaining model for managing large MPAs by establishing Blue Economy social enterprises that positively impact coral reefs. These enterprises, owned by Blue Alliance, help alleviate poverty and reinvest all profits into MPAs.

By integrating conservation with Reef-Positive Businesses, Blue Alliance is pioneering a financially sustainable model for marine conservation. The model is scalable: Blue Alliance aims to directly manage 9,000,000 hectares of large MPAs by 2030, thereby regenerating entire marine ecosystems.

Role and Responsibilities

The Community Livelihood Officer develops and supports reef positive, low impact livelihoods for coastal communities in Blue Alliance’s Pemba intervention area, working across community-based value chains such as seaweed farming and small-scale octopus fishing. Across these value chains, the Officer organises and strengthens producer groups and cooperatives that manage temporary closure areas, delivers technical assistance to improve production and quality, facilitates access to financial services, and develops the downstream chain from aggregation through logistics, marketing and sales.

The position is field-based and community-facing. Its purpose is to increase and stabilise household income from sustainable marine livelihoods, giving communities a direct economic stake in effective management of the marine protected area.

1. Producer Group Organisation and Governance

• Identify, organise and formalise producer groups or cooperatives, and support their registration and accreditation with relevant Zanzibar authorities.
• Facilitate by-laws, internal rules and profit sharing arrangements, and build governance and administrative capacity, with attention to women in decision-making roles.
• Run coaching and follow-up visits and mediate group-level conflicts.

2. Technical Assistance and Production Improvement

• Assess current practices, sites, yields and losses, and identify production constraints.
• Deliver practical training to improve production techniques, handling and quality, introducing improved methods and equipment where relevant.
• Support access to inputs and equipment, including group purchasing, and promote occupational health and safety.

3. Access to Financial Services

• Establish and support savings and internal lending groups (VSLA/VICOBA type), and deliver financial literacy and basic business management training.
• Facilitate access to bank or mobile money accounts, and link groups to microfinance, grants and revolving fund mechanisms.
• Where Blue Alliance operates a revolving fund or credit scheme, manage disbursement, repayment tracking and reporting.

4. Purchase, Aggregation, Logistics and Quality Control

• Organise transparent, documented purchase or aggregation systems including weighing, grading, pricing and record keeping.
• Enforce quality and food safety standards, and manage cold chain, transport and delivery to buyers (including Dar es Salaam), meeting freshness and compliance requirements.
• Manage working capital floats and account for them in line with Blue Alliance financial and cash handling rules.

5. Marketing and Sales

• Map buyers and market trends, and negotiate transparent, fair supply arrangements and prices.
• Support collective bargaining, value addition and branding, certification or traceability where these increase value.
• Track sales, prices, volumes and margins, and report on commercial performance.

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Develop simple business plans and financial models per value chain, manage the livelihood activity budget, and keep accurate, auditable records.
• Promote participation of women, youth and marginalised households, and apply Blue Alliance safeguarding and code of conduct principles at all times.
• Maintain data on beneficiaries, production, sales and income in line with the M&E framework, and produce timely activity and donor reporting.
• Maintain relationships with local authorities, cooperative and fisheries departments, NGOs and private sector actors, and coordinate with the MPA team so livelihood support reinforces compliance with management measures.

Qualifications & Experience

Essential

• Degree or diploma in agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, agribusiness, cooperative or community development, business administration, economics or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least three to five years of relevant field experience in community-based livelihood, value chain or cooperative development, ideally in coastal or fisheries contexts.
• Demonstrated experience organising and building the capacity of producer groups, cooperatives or savings groups.
• Practical experience in at least one of: agricultural/aquaculture extension, commodity purchase and aggregation, perishable product logistics, or sales and marketing.
• Fluency in Kiswahili and good working English, written and spoken.
• Willingness to live and work in Pemba and travel frequently to remote villages and landing sites.

Desirable

• Direct experience with seaweed farming or the octopus/seafood trade in Zanzibar, Tanzania or the wider Western Indian Ocean.
• Experience with cold chain management, VSLA/VICOBA methodologies, microfinance or revolving funds.
• Knowledge of Zanzibar cooperative, fisheries and food safety regulations.
• Experience working with marine protected area or conservation programmes, and an existing network among buyers, traders or exporters.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong facilitation, training and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust with rural coastal communities.
• Business and commercial acumen, with sound numeracy and simple costing/margin modelling.
• Rigour and integrity in handling cash, stock and records.
• Organised and reliable under operational pressure, with negotiation skills across fishers, farmers, transporters and buyers.
• Good command of Microsoft Excel and comfort with mobile data collection tools.
• Commitment to gender equity, community empowerment and marine conservation.

Key Performance Indicators

Targets are set annually with the MPA Manager. Indicative indicators include:

• Number of cooperatives or producer groups formalised and assessed as functional, and active membership by sex.
• Change in average yield/quality grade, and volume and value of product sold through supported channels.
• Change in average net income per member household, and savings/credit mobilised.
• Delivery performance against freshness/quality standards, cost per kilogram delivered, and gross margin.
• Accuracy and timeliness of purchase, sales and cash records, and audit findings.
• Level of community compliance with marine protected area management measures in supported villages.

Enquiry & Submission

Interested applicants should submit: an updated Curriculum Vitae (CV); and a short cover letter highlighting relevant experience.

Email: tzn.job@bluealliance.earth. Subject: “Community Livelihood Officer – [Your Name]”.

More information: https://www.bluealliance.earth/aquahub and https://www.linkedin.com/posts/blue-alliance-mpa_community-livelihood-officer-activity-7497967604037414912-T4TW/