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.

Position summary:

At Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a collaborative and engaging Senior Associate, responsible, community development and stakeholder engagement. The focus of this role is to implement models to deliver participatory, inclusive development and guarantee tangible improvements for producers, entrepreneurs, communities and landscape actors through capacity development, social inclusion tools and systems and access to incentives for adoption of project supported production practices. The incumbent will promote effective implementation of the landscape and community projects through application and adaptation of the gender and social inclusion toolkit and various forms of stakeholder engagement. The role is part of the Africa team, and will report to the Chief of Party, with matrix reporting to the project advisory group.

Responsibilities: 

• Lead the community and stakeholder engagement and social inclusion work in a landscape in Côte d'Ivoire, especially in supporting women, youth and children in our community and landscape development, and their inclusion in participatory governance for conserving forest and restoring degraded areas;
• Lead the mapping, growth and management of relationships with key stakeholders from farmers, cooperatives, communities, businesses (including Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), agricultural and diversified enterprises and labor providers), civil society, government, and international stakeholders (e.g., international buyers) to gain their participation in the landscape project;
• Work with Rainforest Alliance subject matter experts and project managers and in-country experts on local contextualization of tools, and/or develop new tools as needed for the country and sector;
• Work with colleagues to facilitate community participation and mobilization for collective actions towards natural resource governance;
• Collaborate with team members to prepare organizational strengthening and business skills training sessions with participating communities, and contribute to landscape project planning, strategic development and review activities;
• Assist with the development and dissemination of communications content and materials through the Rainforest Alliance and Olam Food Ingredient (ofi) communication team and the RESTORE project stakeholders and team networks; identify and follow up on opportunities for engagements and learning;
• Support project Monitoring & Evaluation reporting and technical delivery requirements and report to the Chief of Party, including the use of the Project Management Platform and other reporting needs of the donor; and
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications: 

• A minimum of bachelor’s degree in business management, community development, social science or related field with extensive experience in development work involving cocoa communities or organizations and/or assisting small rural producers;
• Minimum of five years’ experience of working with businesses and sustainability issues, either working internally within a business or externally in partnership (e.g. not-for-profit organisation), with a minimum of one year work experience in sustainability or agriculture commodity production or trade and/or development themes in the region;
• First-hand knowledge of the landscapes, social anthropology of the area and livelihood and human right issues in the [Southwestern] region of Côte d'Ivoire;
• Good understanding of value chains and experience working with private companies;
• Initiative, self-motivated, resourceful, detail-oriented, dependability, strong attention to detail, and excellent interpersonal and relationship building skills;
• Must have excellent English and French speaking and writing skills and be able to create content for different audiences. Fluency in the local language of the landscape is preferred;
• Strong research and computer skills required (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, project management systems);
• Ability to work regularly and collaboratively with colleagues who are working in similar landscapes and others who are based in different countries and time zones;
• Willingness and ability to live in the landscape as workstation, with capacity to travel up to 30% per year, nationally and regionally.
• Ability to ride a motorbike in rough terrains; and
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Salary:

Commensurate with experience.

Deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until a successful candidate is selected

Notes:

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

Please send your application in English as only candidates with a sufficient level of English will be considered.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org