IDH Program Officer Coffee (Vietnam)

IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative

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 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 and electronics.

IDH is a dynamic organization of 57 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 sector programs in 50 countries, together with a wide range of private and public partners.

The Sustainable Coffee Program

The objective of the Sustainable Coffee Program is to further increase sustainable coffee production in a pre-competitive manner and make coffee farmers more resilient in an ever-changing market.

An important focus of the program is to increase production, yields and export availability of sustainably grown coffee. It will also work on improving access to finance for farmers, and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Why the Sustainable Coffee Program in Vietnam

Vietnam is the largest producer of Robusta coffee, accounting for almost 15% of global coffee production. Coffee is the second largest agricultural export product in value after rice. The sector brings a turnover of more than USD 2.4 billion yearly and a living for about 2 million people. The combination of high yields, a competitive supply chain, and relatively low input costs have positioned Vietnam to be the world’s most cost-efficient coffee producer. This advantage appears to be strengthening as yields falter and production costs rise in other coffee producing countries.

However, after several decades of coffee booming, the sector is now facing a number of issues which need to be considered for quick and efficient actions. Smallholders supply more than 95% of Vietnam’s coffee. They cultivate coffee as a monoculture and manage the majority of farming activities through family labor. Most farmers are not organized in groups or cooperatives, which results in low quality, low value added, vulnerability and unsustainability of the whole sector.

Acknowledging these challenges, SCP powered by IDH was implemented in Vietnam since 2012. The Vietnam program has two main components:

(i) institutional reform of the sector including policy and organizational reform.
(ii) implementation of sustainable field level projects (FLPs) at local level in order to improve the public and private partnership in conducting projects and enhance capacity for farmers.

In order to support the IDH Vietnam team, we seek a dynamic individual with the vision, the experience and the reach to work with the Vietnam coffee sector. The program officer will be accountable and report to IDH Vietnam and IDH Netherlands coffee team.

Key responsibilities

• Monitor the field level projects of IDH in Vietnam
  
  • Work with partners and seek for opportunities to establish FLPs cofounded by IDH and private partners.
  • Instruct and support partners to develop proposals for FLPs
  • In charge of administrative procedures and contracting of FLPs
  • Develop sets of criteria for regular monitoring of FLPs
  • Regularly monitor the progress and performance of FLPs
  • Coordinate the annual evaluation of the FLPs
  • Coordinate the FLP learning activities
  • Manage relationships with partners of the SCP
  • Ensure integration of the Sustainable Coffee Program national level activities into the IDH co-funded FLPs and alignment between the two.
  • Liaise with related organisations working in the same areas – i.e. key government, private sector and international institutions.

• Coordinate the promotion of the National Sustainability Curriculum (NSC), which describes the practices to produce coffee sustainably, in the FLPs and through other mechanisms with special focus towards water use reduction, more appropriate use of chemical fertilizer and rejuvenation

• Follow up with other institutional partners such as IPSARD, Department of Crop Production (DCP), National Agricultural Extension Center (NAEC), Western Agricultural Science Institute (WASI) and others in implementing the SCP.

• Together with the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), support the Vietnam Coffee Coordination Board (VCCB) Office to ensure the VCCB smooth operations

• Other relevant tasks assigned by the IDH Vietnam team

• Management work:
  
  • Provide administrative support for all related IDH/SCP activities
  • Coordinate the preparation of IDH/SCP reports and work plans
  • Regular report to the IDH Vietnam team and IDH Netherlands coffee team on activities and measurable results

Requirements:

• Credibility and network in the Vietnam coffee sector
• Connection to key international and Vietnam stakeholders and experience in building innovative alliances between them.
• Passion for, knowledge of and experience in the field of sustainability
• Experience with coffee sector improvement programs in Vietnam
• At least master degree in trade, economics or relevant
• Knowledge of agronomy (preferably on coffee)

The ideal candidate will also be perceived as neutral in that they are not perceived to represent certain interests other then up-scaling sustainable production be it ideological or from a market perspective. Specific arrangements will be drawn in the contract to safeguard this.

Terms and conditions of employment

Compensation will depend on an agreed work plan. The duration of the contract is for 1 year, with the opportunity to extend the contract afterwards.

Contact

Interested candidates should send their CV and application letter (in English) to [email protected] and to [email protected] (Ms. Mai)

We encourage applicants to respond as soon as possible, latest by Wednesday 20th May 2015

Organization Name: IDH the Sustainable Trade Initiative, Vietnam Program

Application Deadline: Wed, 2015-05-20