Senior Program Manager

Senior Program Manager
for the Central Highlands in Vietnam

IDH – The sustainable trade initiative

We are excited to be searching for a proactive and pragmatic Senior Program Manager for the Central Highlands in Vietnam with an interest in supply chain sustainability to join our team, and we hope it’s you!

IDH Landscape Program

IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative (“IDH”) (www.idhtrade.org) accelerates and up-scales sustainable trade by building impact oriented coalitions of front running companies, civil society, governments, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders in several commodity sectors. We convene the interests, strengths and knowledge of public and private partners in sustainability commodity programs that aim to mainstream international and domestic commodity markets. We jointly formulate strategic intervention plans with public and private partners and we co-invest with partners in activities that generate public goods.

The agricultural development in the Central Highlands of Vietnam contributed greatly to exports and economic growth in Vietnam. Thanks to economic liberalization, government leadership, and rises in the world prices, Vietnam became the world’s second largest coffee and the biggest pepper exporter globally. However, the intensive agricultural development and climate change have brought also considerable environmental challenges. Issues such as deforestation, groundwater depletion, soil degradation, food safety and etc will need to be addressed at a landscape scale to sustain high production and trade into the future and to allow for future economic prosperity in the region. There seems to be a compelling business case for supply chains, Vietnamese government and local farmers to tackle these challenges collectively.

Aiming to address these and similar challenges elsewhere in the world, IDH established the Sustainable Landscape Program (ISLA) and Coffee program, operated since 2015 in the Central Highlands.

The ISLA operates under the following fundamentals: An integrated and cross-­?sectoral perspective tailored to the local landscape and local needs; Engagement of all relevant stakeholders; explicitly including the private sector perspective sourcing from the area and Long?term commitment towards sustainable development of the landscape.

In the Central Highlands, coffee program is also running to improve efficiency of coffee value chain and improve quality of service delivery of inputs for sustainable coffee production. In this area, coffee program in totally integrated in the ISLA to create larger impact at scale while still effectively involve in private sector to settle landscape issues.

Your role

The SPM will lead the development and implementation of the landscape and coffee programs in the Central Highlands. This includes convening local private and public sector partners as well as other stakeholders.

The candidate will report to IDH Vietnam country director and under technical guidance of Asia Landscape Regional Director and will carry the overall responsibility for the work of the ISLA (Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes)/Coffee programs in the Central Highlands landscape. Of primary importance are leading the successful scaling of PPI (Production; Protection & Inclusion) compacts in 4 districts and 2 provinces of the Central Highlands; developing a sound design of the ISLA/coffee program beyond 2025 to get buy in and co-investment, leverage from public, private partners and investors; and leading the successful implementation of the ISLA/coffee program 2021-2025. Furthermore, the candidate will overlook design and setup of the program including contracting implementers, M&E and communication related to the ISLA and coffee programs in Vietnam. Finally, the ISLA/Coffee SPM will ensure that effective and practical learning on best practices in added value generation through a PPP approach of local government and business engagement is generated and disseminated in Vietnam and globally.

Key responsibilities:

• Program management: Lead development and implementation of the ISLA/coffee programs in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, supported by the global and local team. Manage a yearly workplan and budget, identify and contract implementing partners.
• Stakeholder management: Create awareness and drive the adoption of more sustainable practices in the particular industry and institutionalization of sector wide cooperation by convening key stakeholders (international and local); get strong buy in and trust from partners especially private partners in different value chain, national and local governments and etc.
• Fundraising: Keep abreast of current regional and/or local fundraising trends, so as to identify opportunities at an early stage, with the aim of securing funding for the programs, including the exploration of carbon financing scheme.
• Personnel Management: Giving direction and manage the ISLA/Coffee Central Highlands team for their daily works, both in the Central Highlands and at the national level

Other responsibilities:

• Monitoring & evaluation: Lead the monitoring and evaluation of project activities and finance in conjunction with the implementing partners and private sector players, as well as monitoring of implementers, organizations or any third party needed to deliver project objectives, best via the deployment of online reporting tool and MRV system of SourceUp and its targets.
• Communication: Giving guidance to Vietnam and global team to develop communication and other materials (e.g. proposals). Keeping relevant stakeholders informed on plans and progress.
• Learning: Bring best practices to the project from previous experience; facilitate the dissemination of knowledge in Vietnam and globally; identify and document the lessons learned based on local reality on the ground.
• Other tasks as required

Reporting:

• Report to IDH Vietnam country director and under technical guidance of Asia Landscape Regional Director.

Who you are

You are an experienced program manager preferably in the donor funded projects/programs. You have worked with the private sector, government agencies, NGOs and farmer groups, and have developed capacity managing multi-stakeholder processes. You have an understanding of the (environmental) sustainability issues in business, agriculture, environment, natural resource management, or a comparable field of knowledge.

What you bring

• Holding a master degree, preferably in business, agriculture, environment, natural resource management, or a comparable field of knowledge
• At least 10 years of working experience in program development and implementation in the area of sustainable agriculture management and/or in natural resources management. Preference given to cross-sectoral and landscape technical expertise, including deforestation, water management, agroforestry, agrochemical management, business case development and etc.
• Experience in developing joint agendas with different stakeholders (e.g. Vietnamese Government, Private Companies, NGO) and in implementing multi-stakeholder programs
• Excellent convening, facilitation, and negotiation skills
• Team management and inspiration.
• Experience in supply chain sustainability issues
• Experience in fundraising
• Proactive, entrepreneurial.
• Willingness to travel extensively, mainly within Vietnam
• Fluency in spoken and written English, fluency in Vietnamese

We offer you

• A challenging, pivotal role within an impacting, international organization
• 40 hours work week;
• all the work supplies you need to excellence in your role;
• an open environment where you can grow and develop yourself;
• 26 annual leave and Vietnam national holidays as regulation

Who we are

IDH puts people, planet, and progress at the heart of trade by leveraging the power of markets to create better jobs, better incomes, a better environment, and gender equity for all.

To catalyse change at scale, IDH innovates, convenes, and invests in inclusive and sustainable solutions that enable businesses to create value for people and planet, while improving their own performance. To create the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time, IDH focuses on empowering people within corporations, the global financial sector and governments that have the most influence over value chains.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, IDH has around 300 employees globally, operating in 20 landscapes and 12 commodities and sourcing regions with over 1000 public and private partners. In 13 years of operation, IDH has generated over 390 M in private sector investment and support for new business models that create better jobs, better incomes, a better environment, and gender equity for all.

IDH’s work is made possible thanks to the funding and trust of a variety of public and private donors, among which the Governments of Netherlands, Denmark, and other government donors and private foundations.

For more information, go to http://www.idhsustainabletrade.com or follow @IDHTrade on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Interested?

Would you like to apply? Just send us your motivation and resume in English.
We encourage applicants to respond as soon as possible, latest by 30th October 2022.

At IDH sustainable trade initiative, we're committed to equal employment opportunity, and we prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We strive to be a more equal opportunity workplace every day.

How to apply

Interested candidates can also send their CV and application letter (in English) to Ms. Debby Bastiaansen at [email protected]  and copied to [email protected]

For questions about this position, please contact Tran Quynh Chi at [email protected]

IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative

Arthur van Schendelstraat 500,
3511 MH Utrecht
P.O. Box 1241, 3500 BE UTRECHT, The Netherlands
www.idhtrade.org

IDH Vietnam Office

Room 401, B1 Building, Van Phuc Diplomatic Compound
No. 298 Kim Ma, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
+84 (0) 243 200 0741
[email protected]