Palladium International Indonesia - Associate: Stakeholder Engagement & Community Forest Business Development - Fourth Multistakeholder Forestry Program, Indonesia

Background

DFID has appointed Palladium, in collaboration with Systemiq, to deliver the fourth phase of the Multistakeholder Forestry Programme in Indonesia (MFP4).

MFP4 is supporting Indonesia to achieve its ambitions on sustainable timber and community forestry. The programme is operating for an initial period of 3 years, with a possible extension to 5 years. MFP4 builds on earlier programme phases to deliver an ambitious set of results on coverage of timber licences, export volumes of sustainably sourced timber, area under community forest management, and number and value of community forest businesses.

To deliver these results, the consortium members have established a joint technical assistance facility in Jakarta, drawing on their respective experience in facilitating forest governance reforms, collaborating with Indonesian ministries on community forestry polices and enabling investments in forests and sustainable land use. The MFP4 facility directly supports the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) to deliver two core workstreams:

1. Sustainable and legal timber: Ensuring the sustainability of Indonesia’s governance reform in the timber sector through the national timber legality assurance system ‘SVLK’, which underpins FLEGT licensing; and

 

2. Community forest business development: Facilitating the expansion of community forest businesses through increased access to skills, finance, knowledge and services for business development and forest stewardship.

 

Under Workstream B, MFP4 partners with ‘Market Access Players’: businesses that buy products from communities and sell them onto the market. Many forest-based communities lack the economies of scale, logistical and processing capacity, and technical know-how to bring products to market themselves. In these cases, market access players can bridge the gap – aggregating communities’ outputs and selling them to the market. Importantly, market access players distinguish themselves from normal intermediaries by integrating the full value chain from farmer to market. They also uphold social and / or environmental values as core objectives for their business, as well as commercial profit. This means that communities gain more returns for their business, as their products do not have to travel through long value chains with many ‘middle-men’ steps as they try to access markets.

MFP4 is partnering with five high potential Market Access Players in the forestry sector. These are players that do business with community-based forest enterprises to produce and trade forest commodities, in order to support the restoration of forest ecosystems and provide inclusive benefits for the communities they work with.

Through the President’s Social Forestry initiative, the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry had been granting access to communities to utilize and directly manage up to 12.7 million hectares of forest area. This initiative aims to improve the welfare of communities, reduce unemployment, and protect forests.

In 2020, MFP4 is establishing a Community of Practice learning programme with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. This programme will bring together members of government, business and civil society to discuss and develop successful approaches and new strategies to build on the Social Forestry initiative and MFP4’s investments in market access players, in order to connect more CBFEs to market and protect forests. The learning programme will cover several key topics over the course of the year, including: preparing communities to access markets, understanding successful business models for connecting communities to market, accessing the right type of finance and investment, gathering information required for businesses to enter into partnerships with communities, and facilitating an enabling regulatory environment for community forest enterprises to grow.

Purpose of Assignment

The Associate: Stakeholder Engagement & Community Forest Business Development will provide project coordination support in the implementation of Community of Practice learning programme. The Associate is expected to work in close collaboration with the MFP4 team unit and MoEF. The Associate will report directly to the Manager: Stakeholder Engagement.

Primary Responsibilities

Specifically, the Associate: Stakeholder Engagement & Community Forest Business Development will:

§  Support the Manager: Stakeholder Engagement to establish the Community of Practice and arrange key kick off events including the Steering Committee launch, induction of participants, and briefings with stakeholders.

 

§  Coordinate a series of Community of Practice learning sessions and activities. This will involve logistical preparation, drafting and confirmation of official invitations, arranging procurement of technical experts and equipment, arranging speakers, and assisting in the production of meeting reports.

 

§  Plan a monthly budget require for activities, forecast spending and manage payments.

 

§  Collect information on stakeholders’ existing activities related to CBFEs and market access, from the MOEF, other government institutions, business and NGOs.

 

§  Facilitate the open sharing of information between Community of Practice participants, particularly between the private sector, NGOs and different government bodies - such as the MOEF, Ministry of Villages, the Ministry of Finance’s Environment Fund, Ministry of SMEs.

Deliverables

Under the Manager: Stakeholder Engagement, the Associate: Stakeholder Engagement & Community Forest Business Development will produce the following deliverables:

• Organisation of initial Community of Practice events
• Detailed financial plan for each month of 2020, based on budget available
• Event reports: Minutes of Meetings, Proceeding of Workshops, Seminars etc
• Summary analysis of different CBFE related activities currently implemented by Community of Practice participants

 

Input level

An initial period of three (3) months is allocated for this work, with a possible extension.

Skills required

• University degree in social, economic, forestry or environmental science
• Demonstratable practical experience in planning and organizing events and meetings with participants from several different institutions
• Strong English language skills
• Project and financial management experience – particularly activity budgeting / forecasting
• Ability to lead on dialogue with Government officials, senior civil servants, educational experts and CSOs
• Experience working with community-based programmes, particularly in the forestry sector

 

Applying for this role

Applicants are asked to submit the following documents:

1. A short CV (no longer than 2 pages) in English
2. A page covering letter (no longer than 2 pages), detailing:

• What makes you interested in this role
• How you bring the right skillset to help MFP4 deliver the Community of Practice programme

3. Your daily fee rate (in Indonesian Rupiah, exclusive of tax)

Please submit your applications via email to Junita.Silalahi@thepalladiumgroup.com

The preferred candidate will be hired on a consultancy contract.

The deadline for application is Sunday 23^rd February 2020.