Rural Livelihoods Advisor

This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to make an impact by helping companies to achieve positive impacts for people via actions to address human rights risk and initiatives to support sustainable, resilient livelihoods in production landscapes.

Who are we?

Proforest is a global mission-driven organisation that supports the production and sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities that deliver positive environmental and social outcomes for People, Nature and Climate. We do this via facilitation and capacity building of multi-stakeholder and collaborative platforms between companies, NGOs, governments and civil society; working at landscape level to bring stakeholders tougher to collectively address systemic issues at scale, and working directly with companies in a consultancy capacity on responsible sourcing and production. Through our work we support positive change on cover issues such as protecting and restoring forests and natural ecosystems, respecting worker’s rights, advancing gender equality, sustainable livelihoods for producers, and respecting the rights of communities and indigenous people.

What you will be doing

You’ll be part of our growing Beyond Supply Chain (Landscapes & Collaboration) delivery team within our Europe team but will work closely with colleagues from all around the world. You will also be a member of the cross-cutting ‘People’ thematic group and also work with our Responsible Sourcing team.

You’ll have the opportunity make an impact on how to design, implement and monitor collaborative initiatives to address complex environmental and social issues in ways that support sustainable livelihoods and development in line with international best practice and local realities.  Your work will help companies to achieve positive impacts for people via actions to support sustainable resilient livelihoods and to address human rights risks in production landscapes.

Key responsibilities include:

• Provide technical advice on livelihoods and human rights as a strategic lead  and/or as a technical expert within projects
• Provide technical advice on appropriate and practical approaches to baseline data gathering, risk assessment and monitoring of multi-stakeholder landscape level projects in relation to social safeguards, sustainable livelihoods and addressing human rights issues (e.g. child labour, living income, IP&LC rights, gender equality)
• Present information to and help facilitate processes within company-collaboration platforms and multi-stakeholder initiatives on the technical topics mentioned
• Maintain a clear understanding of the current and evolving best practice of working on human rights and sustainable livelihoods in agricultural and forest commodity production, in the context of landscape-level initiatives, certification schemes, and collaboration groups (e.g., Consumer Good Forum, ISEAL) and share this with colleagues and embed in our work
• Manage the day-to-day implementation and delivery of projects and/or workstreams
• Support and deliver training and capacity building (internal and external)
• Represent Proforest in relevant international meetings and forums
• You’ll be expected to take on line management of one or two junior colleagues within a year.

What is your profile?

You’ll be a strategic thinker, passionate about working as part of a global team , with strong field experience of the reality of agricultural production landscapes. and be an excellent project manager. To be considered for the role you will also have:

Essential:

• Professional in-country experience in one or more rural regions relevant to the sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities (e.g. within Africa, Latin America, SE Asia)
• Experience working with at least some of these key actors: farmers, smallholders, workers, labour unions, community associations, extension workers, indigenous peoples and local community leaders
• Experience of using monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) techniques
• Training or knowledge of relevant tools and approaches for improvements in rural livelihoods e.g. living income and living wages benchmarks and tools, sustainable livelihoods approaches etc.
• Experience of using quantitative and qualitative data collection for monitoring of livelihoods or development indicators.
• Knowledge of participatory engagement techniques for consultation, research, monitoring & evaluation
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to build and maintain deep stakeholder relationships
• Ability to write concisely and design simple visuals to communicate concepts and approaches
• Willingness to travel for training, field work or meetings (this will be on an irregular basis)

Desirable:

• Experience of working in large-scale projects implementing multiple sustainability/development goals (e.g. integrated rural development, sustainable agriculture, landscape projects)
• Training and experience of building gender sensitivity into project design, field work or programmes, and M&E
• Experience of working with grant funding (proposal writing, management, report-writing)
• Knowledge of one or more of our other working languages - Spanish, French, Portuguese, Bahasa or Mandarin
• Relevant Masters level qualification or equivalent
• Good networker skills with the ability to build positive relationships with peer organizations, clients and donors
• Process facilitation skills
• Experience of training and capacity building
• Experience working with teams in the regions in which Proforest operates
• On-the-ground fieldwork experience with the commodities we work with
• Experience of embedding gender equality approaches to project design, monitoring
• Line management experience
• Experience working with the private sector (e.g. producer/processor companies, or downstream companies/buyers).

Why should you work for us?

You’ll be part of a global organisation with a shared vision, working in offices across 8 countries with staff from more than 17 countries, speaking more than 40 languages.

What else does Proforest offer?

• 25 days plus public holidays (with an extra 2 days the following year should you take your well-earned holiday within the year)
• We contribute to your pension (up to 8%)
• We support learning and development with a dedicated team to help you achieve your goals; we provide access to training for knowledge and competency development
• Life insurance and income protection insurance
• We organize regular in-person team gatherings, regional and international knowledge exchanges and social events.

Key information

• Location: Oxford, UK or Leiden, The Netherlands
• Salary: £45,000 - £52,000 per annum (if UK based)  €51,000 - €59,000 (if NL based) per annum; depending on skills and experience.
• Closing date: 2nd October (please note 1st interviews will be week commencing 14th of October and 2nd interviews week commencing 21st of October)
• Working hours: Full time (or 4 days per week will be considered)
• Hybrid working: Proforest operates on a hybrid basis. We encourage staff to attend the office regularly to maximise interactions with colleagues and encourage collaboration, but we also appreciate individual circumstances and preferences.  

To apply for the Oxford office click here

To apply for the Leiden office click here

We are committed to supporting diversity throughout Proforest globally, ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive and therefore welcome applications from all. Please note the official job title for this role is ‘Principle Project Manager’.