Beyond Beans Foundation
Location: Amstelveen, Netherlands
The ORGANISATION
The Beyond Beans Foundation is the implementation partner of international commodities trader ETG for sustainability programmes in cocoa, coffee, and cashew. We are currently working with 70,000 farmers from ETG’s supply chains across West and East Africa and Latin America, developing programmes with and for industrial clients. In close cooperation with our sustainability teams in origin countries, commodity suppliers and programme partners, we support farmers to improve their farming practices towards a living income, help communities to tackle child labour, strive to empower women, support income diversification, and protect the natural environment with agroforestry and conservation efforts.
Beyond Beans is based out of the Netherlands, and our core programmes and activities are implemented through subsidiary foundations in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Togo and Ecuador. The Foundation’s rapidly expanding 100+ FTE operational team consists of a multidisciplinary team of managers and field staff with experience in a wide range of topics, from tackling child labour to climate-smart agroforestry and promoting gender equity.
THE AGROFORESTRY & ENVIRONMENT TEAM
As a signatory to the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI), Beyond Beans is committed to preventing deforestation in our supply chains and ensuring a healthy cocoa landscape. Furthermore, we support our farmers to become more climate resilient by adopting regenerative agroforestry practices. We do this by implementing a variety of agroforestry and environmental landscape projects in the field. Current projects include an extensive cocoa agroforestry programme, a biodiversity project involving payment for ecosystem services, a clean cookstoves programme, a carbon in-setting programme with composting, biochar and planting trees, and an individual coaching program coaching farmers to achieve higher yields through more environmentally beneficial practices.
THE JOB
As Programme Manager Agroforestry and Environment, you will ensure the execution, upscaling and reporting of project activities carried out by our Agroforestry and Environment teams in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria for our clients in the chocolate industry. The focus will be on agroforestry, reforestation, and individual farmer coaching. Furthermore, Beyond Beans wants to stay a frontrunner in sustainable cocoa production. To support us in this, you will be expected to drive innovation within our programme pillar and develop business cases to enable us to scale our best practices to a larger group of farmers.
KEY ACTIVITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Project Development:
- Improve our key activities: Agroforestry, climate-smart cocoa training and individual farmer coaching based on lessons learned from monitoring, best practices in the industry and scientific insights.
- Translate client wishes into activities and projects that we can implement in the field (workplans, budgets etc.)
- Find partnerships and funding for projects and innovations, such as deforestation satellite monitoring, composting and biochar etc. with donors, research institutes and NGOs.
- Find and develop synergies between Agroforestry and Environment teamwork and work our climate desk is doing around carbon certification and in-setting.
- Project implementation:
- Responsible for achieving Agroforestry and Environmental project targets, reporting to industrial clients and institutional donors on their projects
- Support Agroforestry and Environment project managers with activity planning and budgets for field implementation.
- Project Reporting:
- Result reporting – interaction with clients
- Report to the Senior Programmes Manager on project indicators and realised budgets
- Represent Beyond Beans towards sector partnerships such as CFI, WCF, IDH, WRA, Rainforest Alliance etc.
THE TEAM
You will be working in our dynamic sustainability team that is spread over the Netherlands (Amstelveen), West & East Africa and Latin America. You will be based in our HQ in Amstelveen, reporting to the Senior Programmes Manager Agroforestry and Environment, and closely working with the Programme Manager Community Development, M&E manager and others in our 15+ staff team in the Netherlands. Internationally, you will also work in close collaboration with our local project managers for Agroforestry and Environment in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, and later Cameroon and others.
QUALITIES WE ARE LOOKING FOR
- An academic degree in agronomy, agriculture, forestry, international development, environmental management, or other related fields
- At least 3 years’ experience in programme management of which at least 1 year in soft commodities
- Experience in managing project implementation in an international setting
- Knowledge on regenerative agroforestry
- Knowledge on carbon in-setting and carbon certification schemes
- Being a fast-growing company, we are looking for an efficient self-starter who can set priorities
- Ability to think innovatively and focus on continuous improvement of our activities
- Strong capabilities in working with large datasets and budgets
- Excellent networking, communication and presentation skills
- Passionate, with a healthy level of ambition and drive to take initiative
- Fluent in English; French is appreciated
- Having lived or worked in West Africa is an advantage.
WHAT WE OFFER YOU
You will be part of a fast-growing organisation and broad network with excellent future career opportunities. We offer a competitive salary of EUR 45–53k (based on experience) and many other benefits, as well as substantial freedom in your work, engagement in a broad range of sustainability topics, and personal development opportunities.
You will learn about the newest tools and programmes to bring a positive change to farmer’s livelihoods and the environment. Work status 40 hours per week. Based in Amstelveen, the Netherlands with regular travels to West Africa.
INTERESTED?
Please send your motivation letter and CV by the 13 March 2023. (Please Note: Due to the large number of applications we receive, we will only be able to get back to you if you are shortlisted for the position).