Fairtrade Africa Global Flowers Product Manager Job in Nairobi, Kenya

Job Title: Global Flowers Product Manager
 

Team: Regional Support Team 

Location: Nairobi, Kenya
 

Fairtrade Africa Purpose: To improve the socio-economic conditions of African producers through increased access to better trading conditions.

Reporting Lines
 

Post holder reports to: Executive Director of Fairtrade Africa (for African context) and to GPM Manager (for global context)

Staff reporting to this post: None but there will be close working with Liaison Officers
 

Scale Level: Manager 1 Scale Point 5
 

Salary Range (Basic): USD 2500 – 3960 per month
 

Budget Responsibility: Yes
 

Background:
 

Fairtrade Africa (FTA) is the producer network representing all Fairtrade certified producers and workers in Africa. 

FTA aims to effectively represent and provide services to producers and workers within the International Fairtrade system and to contribute to livelihood improvement of African producers and workers by increasing access to markets.

Established in 2005, the FTA directs policy and strategic development of the organisation. FTA has four (4) regional networks - Eastern, Southern, West and North Africa supporting producer activities.
 

Job Purpose and Reporting:
 

To coordinate the global Fairtrade flowers strategy development and implementation. 

The immediate focus of this role will be to coordinate the effective achievement of the current market demand for Fairtrade flowers; while leading flowers strategy development at origin to increase volume and impact on producers and workers in the medium and long term. 

This shall further include the improvement of collaboration amongst producers and workers. 

In addition, as an expert in supporting Hired Labour organisations and workers; this role will take the lead across FTA for the development of Hired Labour and worker programmes. 

Please note that scope of the region will go beyond Africa for flowers.
 

Specific Tasks

Origin Support

• Maximize the impact of Fairtrade on flowers producers through increased sales and also the development of capacity building programmes in the region.
• Provide strategic direction to Fairtrade flowers support programmes at origin by creating the right balance of regional vs country specific activity
• Collaborate with field based teams to understand potential production and business capacity of Fairtrade Producer Organisations, to forecast future flowers volumes and to estimate farmer/community impacts in the medium to longer term
• Support the development of project proposals and projects to ensure adequate financing for the regional Flowers programme within the Fairtrade flower strategy
• Support the development of partnerships and working relationships with development partners and government bodies to ensure broad support in the delivery of the global flowers strategy
• Establish and be accountable for rigorous monitoring of programme performance, including KPIs and milestones as agreed with line manager.
• Communicate programme progress and performance to all key stakeholders, both internally and externally
• Research, develop and maintain in-depth understanding of current, future and historical context of flowers operations and the Fairtrade market to inform strategy and plans, (origins, processes, bottlenecks, producer base, pesticide usage, key players, potential risk and opportunities) and external market (global potential, competition, demand, product formulation )

Stakeholder Relations and Support

• Build strategic/senior relationships with commercial partners (flowers traders, processors and brands) in the region, collaborating with Fairtrade market colleagues in the North, to facilitate effective partnership with Fairtrade
• Actively engage with flowers advisors (experts, traders, and producers) and ensure producer involvement in the flowers strategy.
• Communicate progress against flowers strategy and plan, and make relevant information available to all key stakeholders.
• Represent Fairtrade in the flower sector and at relevant conferences
• Understand relevant issues in Fairtrade operational scope – pricing mechanism; social and environmental criteria, production (quality, processing), certification & inspection requirements – and its applicability to flowers
• Provide flowers-specific guidance to other functions within Fairtrade, including the Standards and Pricing functions, Producer Services and Relations, and FLO-CERT.

Market Relations and Support

• Coordinate effective achievement of current market demand of Fairtrade flowers from Africa and Latin America
• Support the development of a global supply strategy to scale up Fairtrade flowers, supporting volume growth and increased producer developmental impact
• Forecast flowers demand against planned supply (short and long term). Provide updates, variations and reforecast against baseline on a regular basis.
• Collaborate with market facing counterpart in the North / Fairtrade Germany (who generates demand for Fairtrade flowers), producer support colleagues in Africa and Latin America, Fairtrade Flower Producers and Producer Networks, to develop the Fairtrade flowers strategy, for the short, medium and longer term.
• Identify the supply need (linked with the market opportunity and existing capacity) for new Producer Organisations to enter the Fairtrade system
• Provide sourcing assistance, guidance, and risk management to National Fairtrade Organisations interfacing with the market and with their accounts.

Hired Labour and Worker Programmes Support (30%)

• Leads the development of the hired labour and worker development strategies and builds programmes and workplans to deliver these with the regional teams across Africa
• Build relationships with worker representation organs including unions and 3rd party organisations across Africa that are relevant to the hired labour categories,
• Develop programmes to train premium committees and ensure that the risk of inappropriate premium spend is minimised
• Builds with the Heads of Regions and key NFOs the support programmes for Hired Labour Organisations and key stakeholders

Knowledge and Experience

Required

• Graduate Degree in Agricultural Science/ Development Studies/ Economics, Rural Development, Social Sciences or related studies or equivalent by experience
• At least 5+ years with working on value chains market access issues in an INGO setting
• At least 3 years of Programme development and management experience
• Proven experience of developing strategies for capacity improvement programmes
• Experience of developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation systems
• Extensive experience in building and maintaining effective working relationship(s) with external partners; including commercial, NGO and government organisations on a global scale
• Proven experience of project cycle management, ensuring delivery on key programme outputs
• Experience of budget planning, implementation and monitoring.
• Familiarity and understanding of the Eastern African region
• Knowledge and working experience in the flowers supply chains
• Knowledge and working experience of other hired labour organisations
• Knowledge and working experience of worker representation issues and unions
• Competence in relevant IT packages eg. MS Office
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English
• Commitment to Fairtrade and ethical standards
• Clear and demonstrable commitment to contribute to livelihoods improvement of workers within hired labour organisations

Desired:

• A working knowledge Kiswahili and Spanish
• Experience of commodity/flowers strategy development to increase both sales and developmental impact for producers

Skills

• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently
• Able to take the initiative to drive work forward and to lead
• Ability to motivate others and to recruit their support
• Excellent conceptual and analytical skills and effective negotiator with the ability to positively influence project partners.
• Ability to negotiate with, and influence senior level counterparts in commercial, NGO and government organisations
• Strong attention to detail and deadlines, the ability to balance multiple, complex, competing and demanding responsibilities while under pressure.
• Strong negotiation, advocacy and communication including excellent presentation skills;

Competencies
 

The following are core competencies required for the role:

• Passionate commitment - This competency shows you have a passion, dedication, and proactively can show your support for FTA.
• Embracing change - This competency is about you showing you are flexible and responsive to changing needs. It is about innovating, doing something new or differently.
• Working together -This competency is about how we all relate to one another – either as Line Manager and Team, the Team itself, or colleague to colleague.
• Delivering results - This competency is about achieving a high quality of measurable results while at the same time maintaining or even raising, the quality of work.
• Knowledge management - This competency is about working in a way that promotes, information and knowledge sharing to the team and our broader network.

Application

Deadline: 31st August 2013)
 

An application form (CVs will not be accepted) can be found on the jobs and volunteering page of our websitewww.fairtradeafrica.net. 

If you have any queries, please e-mail recruitment@fairtradeafrica.net or call +254202721930 and ask to speak to a member of the HR team. 

Qualified applicants will be subjected to background checks as a condition of employment. 

The final hiring decision is anticipated mid-September 2013 for a start date of 1st October 2013. 

Completed applications should be e-mailed to recruitment@fairtradeafrica.net 

All applicants should state how they meet essential requirements of the post and include their email address, telephone contacts and three referees with contact details on the application form.
 

Notes: This job description is intended as a guide and should not be viewed as an inflexible specification as it may be varied from time to time in the light of strategic developments following discussion with the post holder.

The post holder will be expected to work to agreed objectives, which should facilitate achievements of the key responsibilities in accordance with the Performance Review Process.