Director, Latin America

About RRI

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is a global coalition of more than 150 organizations dedicated to advancing the forest, land, and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, Afro-descendant Peoples, and in particular the women within these groups. RRI’s members capitalize on each other’s strengths, expertise, and geographic reach to achieve solutions more effectively and efficiently. RRI leverages the power of its global coalition to amplify the voices of local peoples and proactively engage governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector actors to adopt institutional and market reforms that support the realization of rights.

RRI is coordinated by the Rights and Resources Group (RRG), a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC.

If you are passionate about working with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples to secure their rights; supporting women’s rights and governance; and combatting climate change, this could be the place for you. RRI does meaningful work to make a positive difference at the global, national, and local scale. For more information about our inclusive and purpose-driven work, check out our current openings.

People of color, people from Indigenous and local communities, women, and LGBTQ+ persons are strongly encouraged to apply.

Director, Latin America

The Director for Latin America is the key instigator in setting and guiding implementation of the RRI Coalition’s strategy for the Latin America Region within the diverse countries of Mesoamerica and South America. The Director should possess political savvy, diplomacy, flexibility, problem solving abilities, and a proven ability to communicate effectively across multiple cultures with diverse actors ranging from civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples and Local Community organizations, women’s and youth organizations to government agencies.

The Latin America Director will have the opportunity to work with a coalition of key grassroots organizations, civil society organizations, donors and international agencies focused on RRI’s mission – to support local communities’ Afro-descendants Peoples and Indigenous Peoples’ struggles against poverty and marginalization by promoting policy, market and legal reforms that secure their rights to own, control and benefit from their land, forests and other natural resources. The Latin America Director proactively leads the strategy development and implementation of RRI’s Latin America program and ensures accelerated achievement of RRI’s goals in the region. The Latin America Director also leads country and regional planning processes with RRI’s Partners and Collaborators to prioritize their collective goals, agree on the best strategies to reach those goals, and develop concrete plans for action and engagement. Moreover, the Director supports the implementation of this strategy in collaboration with RRI Partners and Collaborators in Latin America and the secretariat staff/the Rights and Resources Group (RRG). The Latin America Director’s work will be supported by Regional Facilitators based in Latin America to assist Partners and Collaborators to build new working relationships, and by a Regional Associate. The Latin America Director is also a member of RRG’s Senior Management (SMT) team and will contribute to donor engagement in-country, and at regional and global levels.

The Director also contributes to RRI’s global strategies, activities, and outreach and ensures that its global knowledge informs strategic action in Latin America and vice versa. These responsibilities require effective and proactive decision-making to link strategic engagement and activities in the Latin America region to the coalition’s broader goals and vision and thematic areas agreed to by its members. The Latin America Director reports to RRG President and Sr. Director of programs who is the direct supervisor.

The Director will engage closely with the former Director for Latin America who will be transitioning to lead RRI’s Gender Justice Program full-time. The former Director will play an advisory role, especially during the initial transition period.

This is a full-time position based in Washington, DC.

Applications will be accepted immediately and interviews conducted on a rolling basis.

Primary Responsibilities:

1. Program Direction and Technical Assistance (55%)

• Lead and provide strategic orientation for the Latin America country and regional Program, working closely with the President and Sr. Director of Programs, RRI Partners and Collaborators, and RRG Senior Management, making effective use of available resources.