Program Assistant

 IDH, The 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 a €130 million co-funding grant from the Dutch, Swiss and Danish Governments, IDH organizes scoping, development and implementation of public private partnerships in 18 sectors such as coffee, tea, aquaculture, apparel. IDH is a dynamic organization of  86 staff members based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with hubs in Vietnam, Indonesia, India and other countries. 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.

Starting operating in Vietnam in 2010, IDH has since established strong partnerships with businesses, government and NGOs working on coffee, tea, cocoa, spices/pepper, aquaculture and apparel/footwear. In 2014, IDH also launched a program aimed at using the public-private approach to addressing the key sustainability issues in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which plays a key role in the production of several agricultural commodities.

IDH would like to strengthen its team with one: Program Assistant

Job Purpose

The Program Assistant will provide services to IDH with regard to administrative and program support in Vietnam. The Program Assistant will report directly to the supervising program officer and IDH Country Director.

Key responsibilities

• Assist IDH operation in Vietnam and to identify, contract and maintain suitable office arrangements
• Source available information (from partners, internet) relevant to IDH operation as requested
• Assist IDH staff on general administrative tasks, i.e. taking minutes of meetings, preparing for transportation (flights and taxi) and accommodation for business trips.
• Provide general secretarial assistance to CD; PM and PO and partners
• Deal with and record telephone messages, email messages, visitors and arrange appointments for IDH staff and partners as required
• Translate documents and interpret during meetings from English to Vietnamese and vice versa
• Develop and maintain a computerized mailing list, address lists with contact names, addresses, numbers and email addresses and ensure that the list is constantly accurate
• Manage CD’s calendar to ensure all details of each event are indicated and easily extracted by CD; no conflicts between the events.
• Prepare news, update flyers, reports
• Follow up with emails as requested, and maintain IDH’s identity by ensuring that all letters, memos, faxes, proposals and reports adhere to IDH’s style.
• Organize meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops and other events
• Provide simultaneous interpretation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa during meetings, workshops and any other working related situation.
• Assist IDH staff in ensuring effective functioning of financial and accounting operations in support of IDH’s work.

In relation to the following programs in Vietnam, the Program Assistant will also:

• Be responsible for supporting the development and implementation of the program, including administration, reporting, development of program pipeline deliverables, logistics and research.
• Be responsible for following up on project leads as to assist applicants to submit solid project proposals
• Support the organization of input from the program partners to enable IDH Operations to run the required program administration and reporting.
• Maintain contacts with existing program stakeholders
• Contribute to maintain the program’s network and contribute to further development of the program. If there is no senior manager in a sector, this role provides the key contact for IDH.
• Work to achieve agreed objectives and is accountable for meeting or exceeding them.

Requirements

• Based in Hanoi.
• Holding a university degree, preferably in foreign trade, international relations, economics or other relevant discipline.
• At least 2 years of working experience in a relevant position such as program assistant, program officer or similar, preferably in agricultural and rural development programs and/or land and water resource management programs.
• Experience in working with different stakeholders (eg Vietnamese government, private companies, NGOs,…) and in implementing multi-stakeholder programs
• Excellent project support skills.
• Comfortable working in a team as well as independently developing new programs.
• Proactive, entrepreneurial, with a strong eye for detail
• Willingness to travel.
• Fluent spoken and written English and Vietnamese.

Terms and Conditions

IDH is looking for people that wish to work on one-year full-time basis, but with the possibility to extend. IDH offers a market conformed fee. For more information about IDH, please visit www.idhvietnam.com or  www.idhsustainabletrade.com

For questions about this position, please contact  Ms. Mai at [email protected]

Interested candidates should send their CV and application letter (in English) to Ms. Mai at [email protected]. The call for applications is open until 17.00 on 25 May 2016.

For more information of the position, click here.