• Job Description

  Req#: oEPUrfwy

  About the Program:
  
  

  WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land. The team focuses much of its support on locally led enterprises and community non-profits, currently financing, training, and monitoring 600+ growing organizations across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The program operates three funding windows: In Africa, TerraFund for AFR100 finances 200+ organizations through grants, low-interest loans, and equity investments with a focus on the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda; the Greater Rift Valley of Kenya; and the Ghana Cocoa Belt. In India, Harit Bharat Fund, a new landscape restoration fund, is financing its first cohort of restoration champions in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. And globally, the Priceless Planet Coalition is financing large-scale restoration projects that benefit the climate, biodiversity, and communities. To build this pipeline of champions ready for investment, WRI has trained more than 400 organizations in Africa, Brazil, and India through the Land Accelerator, which teaches the fundamentals of financial management, pitching, and monitoring and evaluation. In 2024, that program will expand to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs annually. These portfolios for funding and capacity building are built through the TerraMatch platform, an end-to-end system that hosts calls for proposals, connects champions with technical assistance, and tracks the progress of funded projects through a standard monitoring, reporting, and verification protocol.

  This position is hybrid and will require a few days per week in our Washington DC office.

  What you will do:

  In this role, you will learn about local businesses and nonprofits that operate in the rapidly maturing land restoration sector. You will connect with innovative locally led restoration businesses and nonprofits, learn about the financial mechanisms that support them, and contribute to the team’s learning agenda. You will also provide programmatic support to the Land Accelerator and TerraMatch programs by attending team calls, preparing materials for training sessions, and drafting communications and articles. You will contribute to surveys that gather data from restoration champions, cleaning and organizing it into our unified database, and analyzing results. You will be supported by the Land Accelerator and TerraMatch teams. You will report to the Land Accelerator Program Specialist and the TerraMatch Product Specialist.

  Internship Learning Outcomes:

  • Research restoration finance and capacity building, working with your manager to choose a topic of interest to you and the team.
  • Support Land Accelerator training sessions by creating program materials and providing technical help during live sessions.
  • Work with the TerraMatch Product team to understand how digital platforms can resource entrepreneurs that restore degraded land, and to improve the user experience and quality of data on TerraMatch Review project developer applications for funding and capacity-building support and assist with moving applicants through the application cycle.
  • Work on communication products to help showcase restoration champions.
  • Manipulate and clean data provided by restoration champions through the TerraMatch system.
  • Analyze trends and contribute queries from teams using the database to answer questions about programmatic outcomes and impact.

  You will gain experience in the following areas:

  • Land Restoration – Through familiarization with business models that restore land Startup Acceleration – Through attending key Land Accelerator training sessions.
  • Monitoring and evaluation – Through outreach to Land Accelerator alumni to gather information to inform investments and provide project updates.
  • Communications – Through creating a draft communications workplan for the team.
  • Building partnerships – Through brainstorming partnership ideas, and attending and taking notes for and making recommendations following partnership calls.
  • Data analysis- Through cleaning data for the restoration champions unified database and answering programmatic and research questions.

  What you will need:

  • This opportunity is open to undergraduate students and recent graduates with a focus and interest in business, economic development, data science, environmental sciences, social sciences, or other related fields.
  • Able to work with Microsoft Office tools.
  • Research skills and experience with data tools and analysis.
  • Demonstrated ability to work both independently as well as part of a team.
  • Ability to present complex information in a clear and concise manner.
  • We seek interns with diverse backgrounds and who are passionate about land restoration for people, nature, and climate.
  • Verbal and written proficiency in English. Working proficiency in French is desired, but not required.

  Compensation

  The pay for this internship opportunity is $20/hour for undergrads; $22/hour for graduates and $24/hour for PhD students.

  Length of Contract:

  This is a full-time, 3-month internship with a flexible start and end date.

  Location:

  • This is a hybrid internship that will be based out of our Washington D.C. office. You will be required to work in the Washington DC office at least 8 days per month.
  • WRI will provide a laptop for the duration of your internship.

  
  How to Apply:
  
  Please submit a resume with a cover letter by March 11, 2024. Applicants must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

  About Us: Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean. WRI has a global staff of over 1,800 people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.
  
  

  The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

  Internships at WRI are learning experiences designed for current students, recent graduates, and other candidates who wish to gain knowledge about a specific area of our work. We strive to attract diverse, intellectually driven candidates who have a passion for sustainability and development. WRI provides many internship opportunities throughout the year in all our programs.

  
  WRI is committed to advancing gender, racial, and social equity for human well-being in our mission and applies this principle to our organizational and programmatic practices.

  
  Our mission and values:

  WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

  Our values are shared ideals that bind us together: Integrity, Innovation, Urgency, Independence, Respect.

• About the company

  The World Resources Institute is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth.

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