Manager for the Sustainable Landscape and Water Program
The IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative helps to accelerate and upscale sustainability within mainstream international commodity markets, driving sustainability from niche to norm. We build ambitious public private coalitions of companies, civil society organizations and governments and high-impact programs in order to benefit people, planet and profit. With co-funding from the Dutch, Swiss and Danish Governments, and from business partners, IDH organizes scoping, development and implementation of public private partnerships in 18 sectors such as coffee, tea, cotton, electronics. IDH is a dynamic organization of about 45 staff members based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with hubs in Vietnam and Indonesia. In the last year IDH has expanded its activities and now runs around 100 projects through 18 commodity programs in 50 countries, together with a wide range of private and public partners.
The agricultural development in the Central Highlands Vietnam contributed greatly to exports and economic growth in Vietnam. Thanks to economic liberalization, government leadership, and rises in the world coffee prices, Vietnam became the world’s second largest exporter of coffee and top producer of pepper globally. However, the intensive agricultural development brought also considerable environmental challenges.Issues such as deforestation and groundwater depletion will need to be addressed at a landscape scale to sustain high production and trade into the future and to allow for future economic prosperity in the region. There seems to be a compelling business case for supply chains, Vietnamese government and local farmers to tackle these challenges collectively.
Aiming to address these and similar challenges elsewhere in the world,IDH established the Sustainable Land and Water Program (SLWP), which has 2014 as its inception year and 2015-2018 as the main implementation period.
The SLWP operates under the following fundamentals: An integrated and cross-sectoral perspective tailored to the local landscape and local needs; Engagement of all relevant stakeholders; explicitly including the private sector perspective sourcing from the area and Long-term commitment towards sustainable development of the landscape.
IDH would like to strengthen its team withone:
Manager for the Sustainable Landscape and Water Program for the Central Highlands in Vietnam
Job Purpose
The Manager for the SLWP will lead the development and implementation of the SLWP in the Central Highlands. This includes convening local private and public sector partners as well as other stakeholders.
The candidate will report directly to IDH and will carry the overall responsibility for the work of the SLWP program in the Central Highlands landscape. Of primary importance are setting up and managing stakeholder relations in the broad sense of the word. With the Vietnamese national and local government and the Dutch Embassy; with the relevant companies active in the region (including but not limited to the tea sector); with representatives of local farmers, communities; with civil society and knowledge institutions. Furthermore, the candidate will overlook design and setup of the program including contracting implementers, M&E and communication related to the SLWP in Vietnam. Finally, the SLWP Manager will ensure that effective and practical learning on best practices in added value generation through a PPP approach of local government and business engagement is generated and disseminated.
Key deliverables
• Identify key sectors and stakeholders relevant to the Central Highlands landscape, build relationships and draft a list of individuals to invite to the multistakeholder dialogue
• Support the multi-stakeholder process in developing alternative scenarios for the Central Highlands.
• Help apply the SLWP landscape business case model (currently under development by KPMG), which aims to clarify and visualize the costs and benefits of different scenarios.
• Establishco-funding (both private and public) for interventions that addressCentral Highlands sustainability issues (as prioritized by the multi-stakeholder group) to co-fund an investment by IDH of 1,5-2 million Euro over the period 2015-2018.
• Based on input from all stakeholders and building on lessons as developing in the SLWP, advise on and establish a public private governance entity for the SLWP in Vietnam.
• Ensure that the implementation of the SLWP in Vietnam effectively contributes to the overarching SLWP and IDH as a whole.
• Apply lessons from the global SLWP program as well as from relevant programs in and outsideVietnam
• Ensure lessons from the Central Highlands landscape scalable to other landscapes are captured and shared at program level and within Vietnam.
Key responsibilities
• Program managementLead development and implementation of the SLWP in Vietnam,supported by the SLWP global team. Manage a yearly workplan and budget,identify and contract implementing partners.
• Stakeholder management: Create awareness and drivethe adoption of more sustainable practices in the particular industry and institutionalization of sector wide cooperation by convening key stakeholders (international and local).
• Technical knowledge: Apply technical expertise to the development of the program, including when drafting the landscape specific M&E framework and in testing the feasibility of proposed interventions.
• Fundraising: Keep abreast of current regional and/or local fundraising trends, so as to identify opportunities at an early stage, with the aim of securing funding for the programs.
• Monitoring & evaluation: Lead the monitoring and evaluation of project activities and finance in conjunction with the implementing partners and private sector players, as well as monitoring of implementers, organizations or any third party needed to deliver project objectives.
• Communication: Structuring and drafting of communication and other materials (e.g. proposals) adjusted to local context. Keeping relevant stakeholders informed on plans and progress.
• Learning: Bring best practices to the project from previous experience;facilitate the dissemination of knowledge; identify and document the lessons learned based on local reality on the ground.
Requirements
• Based in Hanoi, but good knowledge of the Central Highlands area
• Holding a university degree, preferably in business, agriculture, environment, natural resource management, or a comparable field of knowledge
• At least 10 years of working experience in program development and implementation in the area of sustainable agriculture management and/or in natural resources management.
• Experience in developing joint agendas with different stakeholders (e.g. Vietnamese Government, Private Companies, NGO) and in implementing multi-stakeholder programs
• Excellent convening, facilitation and negotiation skills
• Comfortable with working in a team as well as independentlydeveloping new programs.
• Experience in supply chain sustainability issues
• Experience in fundraising
• Experience with Project Cycle Management.
• Proactive, entrepreneurial.
• Willingness to travel extensively, mainly within Vietnam
• Fluency in spoken and written English, fluency in Vietnamese
Terms and Conditions
IDH offers a market conformed fee.For more information about IDH, please visit www.idhsustainabletrade.com.
For questions about this position, please contact Flavio Corsin at [email protected]
Interested candidates should send their CV and application letter (in English) to Femke Boersma at [email protected].
We encourage applicants to respond as soon as possible, latest by 24th October 2014.
IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative
Nieuwekade 9
PO Box 19219, NL-3501 DE Utrecht
www.idhsustainabletrade.com