Vacancy Announcement

Rural Development Advisor

for

Cluster Great Lakes Region

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. The GIZ Office in Kigali covers GIZ’s portfolio in Rwanda and Burundi. GIZ Rwanda/Burundi implements projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union and other commissioning authorities in the following priority areas: Sustainable Economic Development; Good Governance; Climate, Energy and Sustainable Urban Development; Digital Transformation and Digital Economy; and regional projects in the Great Lakes Region.

Implemented by GIZ, the Global Fund to Promote Innovations in Agriculture and Nutrition (i4Ag)” is part of Priority Area “Transformation of the Agriculture and Food Systems”. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), i4Ag promotes gender-sensitive and use-centered innovations. With co-financing from the European Union and the Dutch Government, i4Ag is financing the project Sustainable Agriculture for Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) in Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Zambia, Peru, Cameroon, Vietnam, DRC and Uganda. The project is envisaged to also implement activities in Burundi towards the end of 2024.

Tropical agricultural commodities like palm oil, cocoa and coffee provide the livelihoods for millions of smallholder farmers around the world and have contributed to rural development. However, the rise in their production over the last decades has also been linked to deforestation and forest degradation. As forests are critically important to mitigating climate change, maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, their sustainable management has become a global priority.

Against this backdrop, the European Commission (EC) has drafted a regulation on deforestation-free products. The European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Commodities and Products (EUDR) requires the coffee sector to be deforestation-free; compliance with the regulation, especially traceability, are important to ensure European market access.

To address these challenges in Burundi, the BMZ has provided additional funding to the GIZ, with the aim to improve the protection of forests while supporting local communities in accessing markets and increasing their incomes.

GIZ is recruiting a Rural Development Advisor to support in the implementation of its activities in Burundi.

A. Key Responsibilities

The Rural Development Advisor will be responsible for:

• Contributing to the strategic and operational planning of the project, aligning the conceptual design of the global project with the regulatory environment in Burundi.
• Building and managing relationships to public and private stakeholders on the national level in the coffee sector. Provide technical advice on sustainability and transparency in the coffee sector

B. Specific Tasks

The Rural Development Advisor performs the following tasks:

1. Knowledge and advisory services

• Observe relevant developments and build knowledge on policies, research and initiatives on sustainable agricultural supply chains and forest protection in Burundi.
• Provide technical knowledge and an overview of the actors landscape to guide strategic planning and implementation of the project.
• Advise the political and implementing partners as well as stakeholders from government, civil society and the private sector on sustainability in agricultural supply chains, market access, avoiding deforestation as well as transparency and traceability.
• Generate learnings from the piloting of selected approaches in the field of sustainable production, traceability, legality of production
• Contribute to the development of concepts and materials for promoting suitable approaches, including processes, guidelines, partnership agreements, training manuals.

2. Partnership management and coordination

• Cooperate and maintain regular contact with relevant parties from government, civil society, research institutes, private sector and international agencies.
• Engage stakeholders from government, civil society and the private sector in multi-stakeholder processes related to project activities.
• Participate and contribute relevant processes, fora, events and meetings on the national and sub-national level.
• Support the planning and implementation of study tours, visiting delegations, exchange visits, missions from GIZ and German government institutions, and other official events as required.

3. Project management and coordination

• Develop an adapted Theory of Change, overall workplan and annual workplans including budget planning.
• Prepare terms of reference for service contracts or financing agreements in line with GIZ rules and regulations and participate in the selection and supervision of contracted third parties.
• Supervise grantees in the technical and administrative implementation of grants by the project.
• Coordinate the implementation of project activities with members of the steering team, partners and contracted third parties.
• Provide monitoring data and contextual knowledge to contribute to reporting and public and internal communication.
• Organize internal and external events and meetings.

Other Duties/Additional Tasks

• Perform other duties and tasks at the request of management.

C. Required qualifications, competences, and experience.

Qualifications

Education and professional training

• Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management, Business Management, Agriculture, International Relations or a related field (preferably with a focus on sustainable supply chains and coffee production).

Professional experience

• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience, of which at least 5 years in a comparable position.
• At least 5 years’ experience in providing advisory services on sustainability in agricultural supply chains to government agencies, private sector associations and development agencies.
• Sound knowledge of policies and regulations related to agricultural commodities, land use planning and climate change in the land sector in Burundi.
• Knowledge of the international discussion on sustainability in agricultural supply chains and forest preservation.
• Proven experience working in or in close cooperation with government agencies, ideally related to ODECA.
• Experience in engaging stakeholders from different institutional backgrounds in multi-stakeholder processes
• Experience working for or in cooperation with the private sector in agricultural supply chains, particularly in the coffee sector
• Familiarity with the concept of due diligence, transparency and traceability in agricultural value chains

Other knowledge, additional competences.

• Strong network with institutions working on agricultural commodities and forest protection.
• Proven ability to set-up collaborative initiatives or projects with private companies.
• Strong analytical, conceptual and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate complex topics to be understood by different audiences.
• Knowledge of GIZ instruments, procedures and (procurement) rules is considered an advantage.
• Pro-active attitude, flexibility and intercultural competence.
• Fluency in written and spoken French and English languages.…

Interested candidates should submit their application (motivation letter, updated CV, certificates and references) via our electronic job portal https://www.giz-jobs.com/burundi/#id=87786544-9717-43f6-9177-28d0e0eb12ab by using the button “apply”; until 30^th   October 2024 at 4:00 PM. All attachments should be put together in one PDF file not larger than 2 MB.

GIZ is a signatory of the Diversity Charter. Recognition, appreciation and inclusion of diversity in the company are important to us. All employees shall be valued – regardless of gender and gender identity, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, social background, age or sexual orientation. We support equal opportunities and welcome applications from people with disabilities.

This includes the provision of reasonable accommodation, if needed, in order to participate in the job application and interview process and to perform essential job functions. Please let us know, if you have any particular requirements should you be invited for assessment/interview or that you wish us to consider, when considering your application.

Women and persons with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for test and interview.

GIZ Office Burundi

1, JRR/Prince Louis Rwagasore

B.P. 41

Bujumbura

BURUNDI

GIZ reserves all rights!