Position summary

An exciting opportunity for an experienced and innovative professional in responsible production and sourcing of agricultural commodities, to help further develop Proforest’s work building collaborative processes and supporting landscape and jurisdictional approaches.

About Proforest

Proforest is a not-for-profit, mission-driven organisation that works with producers and other private sector partners, as well as governments, civil society organisations and NGOs, throughout agricultural and forest product supply chains. Proforest is now an established world leader in the development and implementation of sustainable production and responsible sourcing with a global presence. We have offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ghana, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. We work across agricultural and forest product supply chains, with particular focus on palm oil, soy, sugar cane, cattle and cocoa, helping companies, governments, non-governmental and civil society organisations to achieve sustainable use of the world’s natural resources.

Proforest provides practical advice to producers, processors and purchasers to help them work in environmentally and socially responsible ways. Our clients include Nestlé, Unilever, Wilmar, Cargill, PepsiCo, McDonalds, Bunge, AAK, and Mondelez. We also implement donor-funded programmes, which aim to create the enabling environment, and build the capacity required, to deliver agricultural and forest commodities sustainably at scale.

A critical component of our work is the facilitation of collaboration. This includes multistakeholder initiatives (MSI), sector and company collaborations, and collaboration in specific landscapes and jurisdictions. For example, 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). We provide support to convening groups including the Consumer Goods Forum and Soft Commodities Forum, voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) such as Bonsucro and LandScale, and other industry collaborations.

About the job

This position is an exciting opportunity to help shape our approach to delivering private sector sustainability commitments in landscapes and jurisdictions, building industry collaborations and multistakeholder initiatives.

In addition to the primary focus on landscape and jurisdictional approaches, we welcome expertise in private sector engagement and industry collaboration, multi-stakeholder processes, human rights, land use planning tools or other specialist areas related to responsible sourcing and production.

As part of this job you will:

• 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.
• Work collaboratively with other Proforest entities around the world to support implementation of, and learn lessons from, landscape and jurisdictional approaches around the world and how these link to Proforest clients’ responsible sourcing commitments.
• Lead and facilitate multi-stakeholder processes and engagement – bringing together companies, and other stakeholder organisations to identify and agree on common vision, goals and objectives, including systems to measure and report progress.
• Manage consultancy projects and programme workstreams, with responsibility for budgeting, managing teams from across Proforest and ensuring delivery on time and within budget.
• Contribute to other areas of Proforest’s work, including supporting multistakeholder initiatives, voluntary sustainability standards and other project and programme work.
• Strong leadership and project management skills, including excellent problem-solving and organisational abilities, and an ability to plan and implement complex projects
• Strong 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
• Excellent communications skills to share lessons learned from on-the-ground implementation activities:
  • Internally, to translate and integrate practical lessons learned 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
  • To explain complex technical challenges and activities to a range of different audiences
• Enthusiasm for and a keen interest in current trends in sustainable development and the responsible production and sourcing of agricultural commodities
• Highly developed interpersonal and team-working skills, as well as proven ability to operate in a multi-cultural environment

What you’ll bring

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

Essential:

• Tertiary level qualification in a relevant discipline (e.g. natural resources management, social sciences, economics, agriculture, forestry) to Masters’ level.
• At least 7 years’ experience in facilitating, coordinating or managing multi-stakeholder initiatives related to commodity supply chains
• Self-motivated and able to work independently, taking ownership of the assigned responsibilities and tasks
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, including high-quality report writing and presentations
• Proven ability to deliver to tight deadlines

Highly desirable:

• 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.
• Fluency in other languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa or Mandarin

Other terms and conditions:

How to apply:

Please send your CV, and a cover letter explaining your suitability for the position and confirmation that you are eligible to work in the UK (or The Netherlands) to personnel@proforest.net