Team Leader: Green Growth Plan Development and Landscapes Coordination

Team leader
Green Growth Plan Development and Landscape field management
IDH Vietnam

IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative

IDH helps to accelerate the sustainable production and trade of agricultural commodities produced in Asia, Africa and South America and traded globally. 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, Danish and Norwegian Governments, and from business partners, IDH organizes scoping, development and implementation of public private partnerships in 11 sectors such as coffee, tea, aquaculture, apparel. IDH is a dynamic organization of 60 staff members based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, with hubs in Asia and Africa. In the last year IDH has expanded its activities and now runs around 600 projects in 50 countries, together with a wide range of private and public partners.

Starting to operate in Vietnam in 2010, IDH has since established strong partnerships with businesses, government and NGOs working on coffee, tea, cocoa, spices/pepper, aquaculture and apparel/footwear. IDH supported the establishment of the Vietnam Coffee Coordination Board (VCCB), the creation of the first public-private partnership (PPP) taskforce on agrochemicals – addressing among others the food safety of export products, and helped 20% of the country’s pangasius industry to comply with global sustainable aquaculture standards. In 2014, IDH also launched a program aimed at using the public-private approach to address the key sustainability issues in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which plays a key role in the production of several agricultural commodities.

IDH Vietnam would like to strengthen its team with a

Team leader: Green Growth Plan development and Landscapes coordination

Position overview

The Team leader will be in charge of guiding and coordinating with technical expert group for the development of the Green Growth Plan and management of partners and activities at the landscape level of the Central Highlands region, under the overall and strategic management of Vietnam Program Manager. Responsibilities will include leading, guiding and monitoring the development process of Green Growth plan in Lam Dong province, managing relations with local government and agribusiness, providing hands-on support to the implementation of different projects, supporting monitoring & evaluation. The TL will work in mostly in Lam Dong province, with travel to other Central Highland provinces and IDH Vietnam office in Hanoi and will also liaise with the relevant program team(s) in IDH Headquarters in the Netherlands.

Who are we looking for?

You are an energetic, enthusiastic team player, interested in addressing environmental challenges together with agribusinesses, using a business-minded approach. You feel comfortable talking with government and business stakeholders national and local levels and help them cooperate to address their shared challenges. You are willing to stay in the Central Highlands region with travels to Ho Chi Minh city and Hanoi or you are based in Ho Chi Minh City/Hanoi with regular travel to the Central Highlands region.

More specifically, you:

• At least 5-8 years of working experience in the private sector, an international NGO, an Embassy or multilateral organization, or in a government department related to agriculture and/or environment (water);
• have acquired international experience by working in an international organization or studying abroad
• are familiar with agribusiness and/or environmental (water) issues in Vietnam, or strongly motivated to acquire/develop this knowledge fast.
• have proven hands-on experience with Green Growth Plan development process, program management, explicitly including budget and contract management
• enjoy and feel confident in engaging and working with (external) government and business stakeholders, networking and building relationships. We prefer candidates with proven experience in building stakeholder or client relations.
• are fluent in Vietnamese and English (verbal and written)
• are working and thinking at Master’s degree level
• are independent and a pro-active self-starter
• are able to think in a structured, analytical way
• are able to organize and prioritize work, multitask and meet strict timelines
• are proficient in Microsoft Office, especially Excel and PowerPoint

Key responsibilities

1. Green Growth Plan development in Lam Dong province (50% of time)

• Manage the technical expert group to ensure the development process of Green Growth Plan in Lam Dong province according to the deliverables and targets sets by the program team, with support from technical consultants.
• Provide guidance and coaching, monitoring the technical expert group during the development process of GGP
• Bring in the private sector companies (especially in the coffee and tea sectors) and the international donors and investors in the multi-stakeholder development of the plan and ensure their commitment in the implementation phase.
• Convene with public sector in the province to own and buy in the new way of developing GGAP
• Work with potential donors, existing development programs to explore potential investment for Lam Dong to implement the GGP developed.

2. Program management at the landscape level (25%)

• Ensure program implementation at field level according to the annual plans and targets sets by the program team, under strategic guidance of the Program Manager.
• Ensure that individual projects and consultancy assignments are delivering results according to the key performance indicators and budgets agreed upon, identify problems and discuss solutions with the project and assignment implementers.
• Support the development of new projects, including supporting business and government partners to strengthen the project concepts and proposals.
• Collect and analyze required information to support program development.
• Contract negotiations and management with implementing partners and consultants, in close collaboration with legal and finance experts in the IDH Headquarters.
• Contribute to writing annual plans and annual reports.

3. Stakeholder management and networking (15%)

• Support the Program Manager in convening and facilitating different multi-stakeholder platforms related to our projects in the Central Highlands. These include Vietnam Coffee Coordination Board, Steering Committees in Lam Dong and Dak Lak provinces, etc.
• Support the Program Manager in convening with and calling for co-investment with international partners such as the WB, ADB, Redd, etc.

4. Events and workshops (10%)

• Lead or co-chair technical meetings organized by ISLA/IDH in the field.
• Support the organization, at times including content and logistics, for meetings and workshops organized by IDH and its partners as part of the program;
• Write reports about and support facilitation of the above-mentioned events.
• Support the development of program communication materials, such as writing newsletters, website articles, fact sheets, etc. in collaboration with external partners and IDH’s global communications team.

Terms and Conditions

This position is based in either Lam Dong province or in Ho Chi Minh city. If you are in Hanoi, we require that you travel regularly to the Central Highlands, at least 50% of your time. In either place you based, 3-4-week introduction period in Hanoi is foreseen before working in the Central Highlands.

IDH offers a challenging position with opportunities for growth within an enthusiastic and passionate team. The successful applicant will be offered a consultancy contract for one year with competitive remuneration, but with the possibility to extend.

For more information about IDH, please visit www.idhtrade.org. For questions about this position, please contact Tran Quynh Chi at [email protected] .

Application process

Interested candidates should send their CV and application letter (in English), explaining your interest and capabilities for the position and your CV/resume, to Iris van Oort, HR Officer, at [email protected] and Tran Quynh Chi, at [email protected]

Application timeline

Applications must be received by 24 March, 2018.