Principal Programme Manager – Landscapes and Collaboration, Proforest Europe

At Proforest we’re passionate about helping people to produce and source agricultural and forest commodities responsibly.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced and innovative professional in responsible production and sourcing of agricultural commodities, to help develop Proforest’s work on sustainable landscape initiatives.

You’ll help shape our approach to delivering sustainability commitments in landscapes and jurisdictions, building industry collaborations and multistakeholder initiatives. In addition to the primary focus on sustainable landscape and jurisdictional approaches, we welcome expertise in private sector engagement and industry collaboration, multi-stakeholder processes, or other specialist areas related to responsible sourcing and production of agricultural commodities.

About Proforest

Proforest is a mission driven organisation with a 20-year track record of supporting the transition to sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities. We are a not-for-profit group with a global presence across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. We work with governments, the private sector and civil society to deliver positive social and environmental outcomes in the places agricultural commodities are produced, ranging from protecting forests to recognising the land rights of indigenous peoples and improving conditions for workers. We work directly with many well-known consumer brands, such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo and Mars, retailers such as Target and Ikea and the world’s largest traders and integrated producers including Cargill, Olam, Wilmar and Cofco.

Through our programme work, we aim to create the enabling environment, build the capacity required, and support multistakeholder collaboration to address systemic environmental and social issues in commodity production and sourcing. Our long-term programmes, such as the Production Landscape Programme are supported by institutional funders such as UKAid, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the Global Environmental Facility, as well as corporations and foundations.

Facilitating collaboration is a critical component of our programme and consultancy work. This includes sector and company collaborations, and collaboration in specific landscapes and jurisdictions. For example, we support groups including the Forest Positive Coalition of the Consumer Goods Forum, the Soft Commodities Forum and the Palm Oil Collaboration Group. For landscapes, we facilitate several on the ground collaborative processes at landscape level in Indonesia, Ghana and Mexico (for example, the Siak-Pelalawan Landscape Programme and Mexico Holistic Programme).

What you’ll do

As part of this job you will:

• Help develop and implement our collaborative and long-term programme work on landscapes and jurisdictions as part of the Proforest Europe team.
• Work collaboratively with other Proforest teams around the world to support implementation, alignment and share lessons learned from Proforest’s work in landscape programmes across South-East Asia, Latin America and West-Africa.
• Manage programmatic workstreams including the delivery of the Production Landscape Programme, which involves strong collaboration with the Proforest regional teams where the programme is implemented, ensuring on time and within budget delivery.
• Support proposal writing to ensure continued funding of the Production Landscape Programme.
• Support individual companies in the implementation of company collaboration landscape strategies, including the CGF Forest Positive Coalition’s strategy as well as the landscape reporting framework.
• Provide technical support on environmental and social topics (e.g. forest protection, land rights, labour rights) to Proforest’s range of landscape and jurisdictional programmes working through both consultancy projects with companies and donor-funded programmes.
• Support our work with the Palm Oil Collaboration Group to address sector wide issues and deliver solutions including, for example, verified deforestation.

What you’ll bring

Skills

We’re looking for a deeply motivated person who thinks in terms of opportunities and results. You will have:

• Demonstrated strong leadership and project management skills, including organisational abilities, and an ability to plan and implement complex projects
• Clear analytical capacity to understand how practical experience in our projects and programmes can be used to support wider initiatives and approaches to responsible sourcing and production
• Self-motivation and ability to work independently, taking ownership of responsibilities and tasks
• Highly developed interpersonal and team-working skills, as well as proven ability to operate in a multi-cultural environment
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, including high-quality report writing and presentations to explain complex technical challenges and activities to a range of different audiences
  • Internally, to translate and integrate practical lessons from on-the-ground implementation of activities into guidance for use in other places and contexts, and to support global initiatives
  • Externally, to help scale up/replicate successes, reduce redundancies and optimise resources
• Proven ability to deliver to tight deadlines
• Enthusiasm for and a keen interest in current trends in sustainable development and the responsible production and sourcing of agricultural commodities

Essential qualifications and experience:

• Tertiary level qualification in a relevant discipline (e.g. natural resources management, social sciences, economics, agriculture, forestry) to Masters’ level.
• At least 15 years’ experience working in commodity supply chains, project management and coordinating or managing multi-stakeholder initiatives
• Fluency in another language including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa or Mandarin

Highly desirable experience:

• Familiarity with relevant tools and methodologies related to responsible sourcing and production of agricultural and forestry commodities, such as landscape and jurisdictional approaches, the High Conservation Value (HCV) approach, the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and Human Rights Due Diligence.

Location and salary

• The salary will be in the range of £45,000 - £55,000 (GBP) depending on experience
• Location: The position will be based in one of Proforest’s European offices, either in Oxford, UK or Leiden, The Netherlands. You’ll need to be eligible to work in either the UK or the Netherlands.
• The job is offered on a permanent, full-time basis, but a part time role might be considered for the right candidate.

To apply: Please send your CV, a cover letter and confirmation that you are eligible to work in the UK or the Netherlands to recruitment@proforest.net

Application Deadline: 31 December 2021

Proforest is an equal opportunity employer.