EDOTA background

Education Outreach Tanzania (EDOTA) is the local not for profit NGO that works collaboratively with local and international partners, local communities, local government authority, and other organizations to promote inclusive community development and economic justice. The organization was registered on 26th May 2010 with registration number 00003478 to operate in Tanzania mainland.

Since its establishment, EDOTA have successful implemented several funded projects aimed at enhancing livelihood, economic strengthening, promoting good governance, conserving the environment, addressing GBV and health promotions. TNC and EDOTA have established Partnership since 2020 with EDOTA successful implementing prior programs aimed at strengthening Community-Led fisheries conservation, enforcement readiness and local conservation, in Katavi, Kigoma, Tabora, Geita and Rukwa regions.

Project overview

The LATABIOCON project addresses the critical environmental and socio-economic challenges facing the Lake Tanganyika Basin (LTB), a massive ecosystem covering 223,000 km² that holds one-fifth of Earth’s accessible freshwater and supports over 12 million people across Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, and Zambia. This unique basin encompasses several major government-managed protected areas and internationally recognized Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs).

However, the ecosystem is under immense pressure from the overexploitation of nearshore fish communities, habitat loss, and widespread catchment degradation. These human-driven pressures are heavily amplified by climate change, which has caused persistent lake warming, stronger stratification, expanding low-oxygen zones, and erratic rainfall trends that accelerate soil erosion, threatening fisheries, rain-fed agriculture, and lake-dependent livelihoods.

To counter these systemic risks, EDOTA plays a pivotal role within the LaTaBioCoN consortium by leading critical conservation, socioeconomic development, and promoting regenerative economy. Specifically, EDOTA is responsible toward sustainable human development, the organization is tasked with implementing community livelihood interventions that help vulnerable populations adapt to climate and environmental pressures.

Furthermore, EDOTA drives the promotion of Nature-based Enterprises (NbEs) to generate eco-friendly income streams, alongside catchment management strategies designed to mitigate erosion and heavy sediment delivery into critical habitats, while facilitating community led governance among the riparian communities.

Position title

Nature Based Enterprise & Community Catalyst Enterprise specialist

Project: Crosscutting; LaTabioCoN and Lake Tanganyika Basin

Reports to: Program Director

Location: EDOTA HQ: Mpanda town-Katavi region with frequent travel to project sites: Kigoma, Tabora, Rukwa, and Geita region.

Position Type: Strategic engagement

DURATION: Over a period of 60 months.

Position purpose

We are looking for an entrepreneurial, innovative, and market-driven Nature-Based & Community Enterprise Catalyst Specialist. This is not a traditional administrative role—you will act as a catalyst, actively launching, expanding, and incubating sustainable, biodiversity-positive community businesses. You will work directly with Entrepreneurs, youth, women, and emerging Community-Managed Institutions (CMIs) to design climate-resilient livelihoods, establish strong private sector market linkages, and eliminate barriers to financial services and Market. The successful candidate will spearhead field-level efforts to transform local livelihood landscapes by turning natural resource potential into highly competitive, community-owned businesses that directly support critical conservation goals.

In this strategic, hands-on role, you will be deeply embedded within the project area, serving as the primary facilitator and champion for supporting Nature-Based Enterprises (NBEs) to unlock their full operational, managerial, and economic potential. A foundational element of your daily responsibility will involve designing, coordinating, and delivering comprehensive, localized technical training and institutional capacity-building frameworks.

You will empower emerging community entrepreneurs, agricultural self-help groups, and community-led cooperatives with critical, practical skills in enterprise governance, financial management, sustainable harvesting techniques, post-harvest processing, quality control, and climate-smart value addition. By cultivating these vital technical and operational competencies at the grassroots level, you will ensure that local community businesses transition smoothly from informal, fragmented activities into structured, highly efficient, resilient, and environmentally compliant organizations.

Beyond building foundational capacity, you will lead proactive, field-driven interventions to secure sustainable financing for these enterprises to ensure their long-term viability and autonomy. Recognizing that lack of access to appropriate capital is a major bottleneck for rural innovators, you will map the regional and national financial landscape to identify and engage impact investors, green microfinance institutions, eco-funds, and public-private blended finance facilities.

You will work directly alongside NBEs and CMIs to build internal financial literacy, construct robust, scalable business models, and draft highly professional, bankable commercial proposals. By actively facilitating strategic matchmaking opportunities between local enterprises and forward-thinking green capital providers, you will successfully dismantle persistent barriers to conventional banking, credit, and investment capital. This guarantees that communities possess the necessary funds to scale up local production, invest in vital green technology infrastructure, and weather unexpected macroeconomic shocks.

Key responsibilities

• Enterprise Incubation and Acceleration: Identify, design, and launch viable biodiversity-positive micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in sectors like sustainable fisheries, climate-resilient agriculture, and eco-value chains.
• Youth and Inclusive Livelihoods: Create tailored enterprise development pathways specifically for youth to counter unsustainable practices and natural resource degradation.
• Financial Inclusion and Services Access: Design and execute strategies that directly connect women, youth, and persons with disabilities to formal financial services, micro-loans, and community savings systems.
• Private Sector and Market Linkages: Build strategic partnerships with private sector enterprises, wholesalers, and technical agencies to secure sustainable market access and fair pricing for community products.
• Capacity Building and Business Training: Develop and deliver practical, user-friendly training modules on business management, value addition, financial literacy, and climate-smart operational practices for grassroots CMIs.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: Coordinate closely with collaborators, civil society, and scientific research institutions to ensure community businesses are built on sound conservation science and economic sustainability.

Required qualifications and experience

• Education: A Master Degree in Business Administration, Agribusiness, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Economics, Development Economics, or any related field.
• Experience: Minimum of 10 years of hands-on experience in enterprise incubation, rural business development, value chain development, or microfinance ideally within the conservation or natural resource sectors.
• Social Inclusion Focus: Proven experience designing profitable economic initiatives for youth, closing the gender wage gap for women, and mainstreaming persons with disabilities into commercial activities.
• Market Savvy: Strong understanding of local and regional market dynamics in agriculture or fisheries, with a track record of successfully linking grassroots producers to commercial buyers.
• Soft Skills: High energy, exceptional negotiation skills, creativity, and the ability to inspire and build trust within vulnerable or marginalized community groups.