Job Description: Solidaridad country representative – Nigeria
Solidaridad is a Dutch development organization specialized in Sustainable Chain Development. Together with producer organizations, NGOs and the business community we create initiatives for sustainable trade in which environmental and social costs for production become a normal part of mainstream business.
Through its programs Solidaridad enables smallholder producers, both organized in cooperatives or via traders, to access and benefit from the growing market of mainstream certified agricultural products such as Coffee, Cocoa, Fruit and Palm Oil. To this end, Solidaridad has a strategic alliance with the independent certification and traceability organisation UTZ CERTIFIED, whereby it provides technical and financial support within producing countries. One practical example of this alliance is the cocoa programme which is being delivered in West Africa. For more information, see
www.solidaridadnetwork.org/cocoa.
Solidaridad assists in the development of national multi-stakeholder platforms for the creation of sustainable production and trading practices, provides technical assistance and training to producer organisations and traders, links producers and exporters to new markets and develops projects which serve a market demand for sustainable production with brands and retailers.
Job description
Solidaridad is looking for a national representative who is able to coordinate these activities for the Cocoa programme, focussing initially on the development of the UTZ CERTIFIED cocoa program in Nigeria.
The Nigerian representative will become part of the international expertise network of Solidaridad with offices in Central & South America, China, South & South East Asia, Southern & East Africa, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon.
The representative will report to the cocoa programme managers at Solidaridad the Netherlands and at West Africa Fair Fruit (Ghana), and has close contact with the cocoa programme team at UTZ CERTIFIED (the Netherlands).
Main Responsibilities
The main responsibility of the representative will be to execute the Solidaridad programme in Nigeria. This includes:
1. Developing a network with all stakeholders in the national cocoa sector and develop relationships with the different standard setters;
2. Analysing the cocoa sector to identify opportunities and challenges for the implementation of UTZ CERTIFIED cocoa in Nigeria;
3. Advocacy of UTZ CERTIFIED, as a means of promoting sustainable cocoa production and trading, to producers, NGOs, companies, government bodies and international donor organisations;
4. Development of a national workshop on sustainable certified cocoa;
5. Identifying project partners and potential service providers, and developing new projects with them targeted on using certification as a tool to improving cocoa producers’ livelihoods;
6. Monitoring progress of these projects and developing solutions to issues that arise;
7. Organising training of technical assistants in the implementation of certification activities, and other capacity building initiatives (with support from West Africa Fair Fruit);
8. Creating links between producer organisations, exporters and market opportunities in Europe and the US.
Requirements
Our ideal candidate is an experienced professional (minimum 5 years), with both NGO and business experience, educated to Master degree level, and able to operate in different environments. You understand the social and environmental challenges in cocoa production and trade, and create pragmatic solutions for improvements.
You have management experience in cocoa production and/or trading, and are able to connect to people at different levels within organisations. You have (or would be able to quickly develop) a broad network in cocoa production and trading, and have excellent presentation skills, with the ability to represent Solidaridad and UTZ CERTIFIED at all levels. You have strong interpersonal skills, and have experience of delivering training with an engaging manner.
You are a self-starter, able to deliver in a complex environment. You have an analytical mind and have the capacity to develop coherent plans for the growth and expansion of the programme.
You are fluent in English and are able to provide written reports on the progress of the program.
The offer
The post is a full time job with good remuneration in a challenging and fast developing international
organisation. Contract will be 1 year in length, with the option for annual renewal.
Application process
If you are interested in this post, please send a motivation letter and CV by 31st August 2010 to
andre.brasser@solidaridad.nl
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