Senior Associate, Community Listening Program - Rainforest Alliance

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, 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:

The Rainforest Alliance is launching the Community Listening Program (CLP), a new program that aims to systematically hear and respond to the voices of the stakeholders who are at the heart of our mission: forestry community members, smallholder farmers, farm workers, and farm owners.

The program will begin with a start-up phase that focuses on

1) working with Community Listening Program staff, Country Directors, and other staff to engage stakeholders in Ghana, Mexico, and Guatemala using a variety of existing and novel approaches;

2) within the Rainforest Alliance, setting up new internal decision-making systems (or modifying existing ones) to enable the incorporation of and response to stakeholder feedback;

3) ensuring that the voices of these stakeholders are heard and taken into account in local-, country- and organizational-level projects, programs, and strategies;

4) working with local teams to communicate the outcomes of the listening program back to stakeholders. Countries in addition to Ghana, Mexico, and Guatemala where teams are setting up Community Listening Programs will be supported with tools, best practices, and systems. In 2023, the Community Listening Program will transition to a global program.

The Community Listening Program Senior Associate will coordinate all aspects of this program in Ghana, working with the Country Director, other local staff, as well as the country staff who manage aspects of our Certification, Landscapes & Communities, Tailored Programs, and Advocacy programs.

Responsibilities: 

• The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate;
• Coordinate and oversee the planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting of the Community Listening Program in the country, working closely with the local program staff, and Country Director;
• Develop and monitor the Annual Operational Program and the annual budgets allocated to the Program in Ghana;
• Manage and maintain relationships with community leaders and members of associations, organizations, Certificate holders, and cooperatives;
• Develop and maintain relationships with public officials and members of private companies, as well as any other actor involved in the development of productive activities in the various landscapes where the project is executed;
• Meet with local and regional stakeholders to promote the themes and participation of the different key actors of the project;
• Develop tools to insert in the daily work of Rainforest Alliance to capture the lessons learned from the spaces of social participation, as well as from the Advisory Committee and the regional subcommittees;
• Technically accompany the development of governance structures and regional organization;
• Formulate technical and financial reports quarterly or as required by the donor; and
• Other activities assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications:                                  

• Education: BA or BS Degree in Social Sciences (i.e. Social Anthropology, Political Sciences, International Development Studies), Environmental science /Forestry or related field. Master’s degree preferred;
• Work Experience: At least 5 years experience as an international development practitioner, experience in leadership of governance processes, community organization, as well as in the development of spaces for social participation;
• Experience with worker participation and workers’ rights, gained through working with labor unions, governments, technical assistance providers, or NGOs;
• Experience with and a vision on stakeholder participation and organizational change;
• Knowledge and experience designing and implementation quantitative and qualitative social research methods;
• Excellent cultural intelligence and sensitivity, interpersonal skills, and deep listening and reflective capabilities. Ability to build rapport and trust with and between diverse internal and external constituencies;
• Highly organized and self-motivated, with an ability to prioritize tasks and deliver high-quality work products under strict deadlines;
• Management of Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and geographic information systems software; 
• Excellent written and verbal proficiency in English;
• Ability to travel locally at least 40% of the time.