We are excited to be searching for a strategic, proactive and pragmatic Program Director, Cocoa with an interest to join our team, and we hope it’s you! The IDH Cocoa Program focuses on leveraging the industry wide commitments for a sustainable cocoa sector – free from deforestation and child labour and enabling smallholders farmers to earn a living income – into new investments, changing business practices and more effective support services.
Your role.
You will provide strategic leadership and management for the development, implementation, and monitoring of the program as well as key strategic convening within the sector.
This role requires having a strong network within the cocoa sector (public and private), building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders for effective convening and ensuring the successful and efficient delivery of program objectives by the IDH cocoa team in West Africa and Europe.
Key Responsibilities:
- Utilise a strong network with both public and private sector decision-makers, ensure strong convening towards common interests for the cocoa sector. This includes origin government entities, multi-stakeholder and member organisations such as the ISCOs, private sector partners, NGOs, and community organizations towards the delivery of living income, gender and DEI, deforestation and climate adaptation goals.
- Convene and have existing connections with decision-makers on government level in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon, as well as on European market level with private sector partners while facilitating multi-stakeholder discussions
- Lead the delivery of the existing Cocoa program and design (ensuring timely, effective and within budget delivery of the Cocoa program) and execution of a clear strategy that aligns with the organization’s mission and strategic objectives for 2026-2030 ensuring a clear sector vision
- Strategic representation of the organization in relevant forums and networks, positioning IDH as a leader in the cocoa sector
- Oversee the development of strategies for securing funding and building partnerships for the Cocoa program.
- Collaborate and align effectively with other relevant organisational departments.
Who you are:
You are a dynamic leader with a strong ability to lead, manage and mentor program staff, fostering a collaborative and high-performance team environment.
Your strategic mindset allows you to balance internal and external ambitions and timelines, delivering excellent results while navigating complex stakeholder environments with varying interests and priorities. You excel at ensuring program adaptability in dynamic and changing contexts, driving continuous success even in challenging situations.
As a strong conceptual thinker, you are adept at developing innovative solutions and strategies while maintaining a focus on practical implementation and impact generation within the Cocoa program.
Furthermore, as a confident and diplomatic negotiator, you consistently aim for results and progress, balancing competing interests with finesse. You bring extensive experience in participatory planning, monitoring, evaluation, and management approaches, enabling you to operate effectively at a strategic level in situations with potential conflicting interests and objectives. Your strong people skills allow you to manage an international team and stakeholders with diverse interests and backgrounds in an equitable and inclusive way.
What you bring:
- 15 years + with knowledge of the (cocoa) value chain from a private sector perspective, including sustainability programs and procurement issues
- Possessing a network in the cocoa sector in West Africa and Europe and an insight in the public sector interests and objectives with a strong political judgement and strategic analysis with partners
- Master’s degree in business administration (agricultural) economics, or tropical agronomy or other relevant academic qualification
- Experience in high-level convening aligning multiple interest towards a common goal.
- Knowledge and skilled in gender sensitive and transitional strategies in the agricultural sector
- Passionate about making a difference to the lives of smallholder agricultural farmers and workers around the world.
- Experience with setting-up and managing public-private partnerships
- Proficiency in project management tools and MS Office applications.
- Fluent in English (C2) and French (at least B2)
We offer you
IDH offers a challenging position with opportunities for growth within an enthusiastic and passionate team. As an IDH team member you can contribute to positive global change. The position is for 40 hours per week. We offer a competitive salary based on experience and solid fringe benefits, including a pension scheme.
For more information about IDH, please visit www.idhtrade.org. For questions about this position, please contact Conrad Willars at willars@idhtrade.org
Interested?
- Would you like to apply? Please follow this link and submit your application in English: Here
- We encourage applicants to respond before [02/09/2024]. In the event that the right applicant is found, the application link may be closed earlier.
- Important note: In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we do not proceed your applications via email/ LinkedIn with attached CVs, and motivational letters. We kindly request that you submit your application link shared as above. This process ensures that we can review your application while safeguarding your personal information in accordance with GDPR regulations.
- For the successful candidate, a certificate of conduct (verklaring omtrent gedrag) is required to submit as a part of IDH onboarding procedure.
Who we are.
IDH seeks to transform markets through collaborative innovation, convening and investment in inclusive and sustainable solutions that enable businesses to create value for people and planet. To achieve this, IDH brings together coalitions of committed stakeholders from across global value chains towards joint visions and program agendas for sustainable trade.
IDH’s international presence extends to multiple regions and landscapes, facilitated by a network of around 400 staff including experts who are embedded in key agricultural, manufacturing, apparel and commodity value chains. In 15 years of operation, IDH has mobilized private sector investment and support to test and innovate new business models designed to create better jobs, better incomes, a better environment, and gender equity for all.
For more information, go to http://www.idhtrade.org or follow @IDHTrade on Twitter and LinkedIn.
At IDH, 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.