Emplois actuels liés à Associate, Diversification Enterprise Development - Abidjan, Abidjan - Rainforest Alliance

Position summary:

At Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a collaborative and engaging Associate who will work to create an entrepreneurial society in rural landscapes and increase awareness about how to increase economic opportunities for farmers and strengthen business development in forest-fringe communities. The incumbent will accomplish this by building resilience and helping farmers to create viable additional income through community-based forest enterprises that support rural economies and communities to improve livelihoods while combating deforestation and degradation of tropical forests and contributing to global climate change and loss of biodiversity. The incumbent will work closely with the Chief of Party to advance the interest of the RESTORE (Resilient Ecosystems and Sustainable Transformation of Rural Economies) project to secure economic and social empowerment of women and youth in rural landscapes.

Responsibilities:

• The Rainforest Alliance's Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviors we demonstrate:
• Contribute to designing approaches and economic incentives to support and empower cocoa producing families, local authorities, local governments to foster socially inclusive additional economic opportunities and make scalable contribution to rural and national living income targets;
• Support implementation of actions of RESTORE among farmers and communities in the designated landscapes and critical ecosystem to promote sustainable business practices to improve upon the livelihood of farmers;
• Facilitate economic and social empowerment of women and youth through inclusion and improved access to inputs and services and through micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), based on sustainable use of natural resources;
• Contribute to RESTORE project learning and support colleagues to communicate and share findings with external parties and interested general public.

Entrepreneurship Development

• Facilitate an entrepreneurial society by organising community wide session to create awareness about business ideas, and supporting to identify entrepreneurial women and youth;
• Facilitate business idea development among Landscape Management Boards (LMBs), rural entrepreneurs, women and young people and help increase understanding of opportunities and respond with simplified business ideas and/or plans;
• Design and provide training, awareness raising, technical assistance and coaching to LMBs, rural entrepreneurs, program colleagues and partners, and stakeholders on entrepreneurship and business gender and youth perspectives and support them in including these in their way of working;
• Teach, coach and backstop entrepreneurial women and young farmers to start, develop and/or grow their diversified enterprises as economically viable additional livelihood opportunity;
• Provide supervision, backstopping and monitoring of farmers' activities after training to check progress of implementation of training ideas.

Business and Diversified Value Chain Development

• Apply capacity needs assessment tools to assess capacity gap of farmers for each of the value chains identified in their individual and collective LMB business plan and build capacity for each of the value chains identified;
• Provide strategies for recruiting farmers, analysing business plans to determine which enterprises will qualify for start-up funding and designing incentive package plan for farmers for participating in the implementation of their business and financial plans;
• Provide the LMB and cooperative groups with advice and recommendations regarding new revenue generating opportunities and services in the rural forest economies;
• Facilitate training, coaching and mentorship for adult entrepreneurs, women and young people in bookkeeping and record keeping, financial management and marketing and branding of their products;
• Build and provide guidance and support to selected artisans to construct the relevant tools of trade and required infrastructure for additional diversified livelihood enterprise and businesses in the landscape;
• Coordinate with stakeholders to strengthen access to finance for women-owned MSMEs and support farmers/rural entrepreneurs in identifying and obtaining funding from multiple sources to launch and grow their diversified livelihood enterprises; and
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Commerce, Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, Social Study or equivalent field of study;
• Proven experience (3 years) in a similar position, including minimum of 2 years of work experience in developing and implementing business plans with MSMEs and working with smallholder cocoa farmers in South Taï National Park Landscape (Tabou department) and/or Béki-Bossématié Landscape (Abengourou, Arrah, Adzopé, Béttié departments);
• Knowledge of natural resource management and/or agriculture commodity production or trade and/or development themes in the regions is strongly preferred;
• Highly skilled and hands-on experience in forest-based enterprise development, tools development, entrepreneurship, and demonstrable experience in establishing scalable models and technical capacity, and economic incentives for rural entrepreneurs to diversify income;
• Creative thinker, highly organized and autonomous, and able to multi-task and prioritize workload;
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship building skills;
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills in French and English;
• Strong computer skills required (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, project management systems); and
• Willingness and availability to travel up to 40% of the time per year.

Job Level: 5

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Deadline: 26 July 2024

Notes: Only candidates authorized to work in Côte d'Ivoire will be considered.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department:

Who we are:
The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

Why
To protect nature and improve lives it's becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How
Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.