Call for applications: Members of the Board of Directors – Just Transition Fund

Community Just Transition Fund

Call for applications: Members of the Board of Directors

Background

 South Africa is seen as a pioneer in the global transition away from an extractive fossil fuel intensive and climate damaging economy – an economy that has impacted upon society’s poor the hardest.

Civil society formations including communities, workers and organisations in South Africa have been calling for a Just Transition since the 2000s. In 2020, three organisations comprising the Life After Coal campaign, Earthlife Africa, the Centre for Environmental Rights and groundWork, met to develop a shared Open Agenda on the Just Transition, building on the history of a call for the just transition by society.

While there are various initiatives to support projects aimed at transitioning South Africa to a low carbon economy, there aren’t many that are community centred and aimed at supporting projects from communities. In response, the Community Just Transition Fund (the Fund) has recently been established as a non-profit company to support community organisations, networks and initiatives working towards a just transition at the local level.

The Fund encompasses an accompaniment unit structure, the Just Transition Hub which will serve to resource and strengthen community groups and movements towards the establishment of Just Transition Centres (the Centres) and local community just transition initiatives. To ensure a just transition, the Fund offers an invitation to re-envision the economy and society towards an ecologically sustainable economy, based on the Just Transition Open Agenda.

The Fund will engage with other initiatives to better understand where complementarity can be fostered, and to learn from, and influence initiatives to strengthen their focus on the Just Transition, beyond a narrow focus on energy and jobs.

The Fund will support local organising to initiate real and visible projects that demonstrate the power and potential of new energy systems and climate resilient approaches (social and ecological), that deliver justice both in service delivery and a people’s economy at a local level. The idea is to support a strategic and diverse selection of initiatives and projects, monitor their progress and present to government and financing institutions what potential projects can roll out at appropriate scale that have justice at the core.

Responsibilities of the Board

The primary purpose of the Directors on the Board of the Community Just Transition Fund is to provide political guidance, governance and oversight to the Fund.

Key responsibilities of Board members are to:

• develop the strategic direction of the Fund;
• monitor the Fund’s activities to ensure that it continues to work to meet its strategic objectives;
• approve the Fund’s annual budget and review quarterly reports on spending against budget;
• sign off on the annual audit of the Fund’s financial statements;
• support the Executive Director and staff in ensuring that the Fund is adequately resourced to meet its strategic objectives;
• assess risks to the Fund and ensure that adequate risk management measures are in place; and
• ensure that the Fund complies with all applicable regulatory requirements.

Term of Office

Directors shall serve terms of three years each and shall be eligible for re-appointment for a maximum of two further consecutive terms of office – a total of three terms.

Who can apply

• Applicants must be committed to promoting and defending the role of civil society, community organisations and activists, in realising environmental justice.
• Prior experience in the environmental justice sector is not a pre-requisite, however experience in the social justice sector will be welcomed.
• The Fund is committed to the highest standards of governance, and to a Board of Directors which has the appropriate balance of knowledge, skills, experience, diversity and independence to enable it to discharge its governance roles and responsibilities, objectively and effectively.
• The appointed Directors should possess the qualifications, skills, expertise, integrity and commitment necessary for supporting the Fund to achieve its objectives.
• The Fund seeks to strengthen the founding Board by appointing suitably qualified candidates with experience in one or more of the following areas of expertise, and is inviting applications from people with:
  • Previous Board membership in the non-profit sector;
  • Previous experience with:
    • Governance within the NGO/Non-profit sector;
    • Organisational development;
    • Financial management;
    • Strategic communications and/or public relations; and
    • Environmental law and governance, public interest law and/or social justice.

The Fund is committed to diversity, inclusion and transformation and strives to reflect South Africa’s racial, cultural, gender and geographic diversity. Women and young people, especially, are encouraged to apply.

Remuneration and expenses

Directors are not remunerated but all reasonable and agreed travel expenses will be covered by the Fund.

Deadline

The deadline for applications is Friday, 26 September 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

How to apply

Please send the following to :

• a covering letter explaining your interest in the Fund and why you think you could contribute to the work of the Fund.
• your cover letter should also give the contact details of two referees (people who know you well and can confirm your skills and character); and
• your CV