Current Opportunities at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Overview:

• As the Theme Leader, you will lead the development and implementation of a strategy and project portfolio that delivers impact at scale for socio-economic development based on sustainable natural resource management.

Duties and responsibilities
Leadership in R&D on sustainable value chains and investments:

• Formulate ground-breaking research for development on sustainable value chains and investments, influencing policy and driving development impact.
• Define and achieve medium-term KPIs and annual goals, contributing to institutional targets and adjusting strategies for impact at scale.
• Cultivate transformative partnerships with research, donors, policy, and development organizations, driving collaborative efforts for thematic and institutional goals.
• Identify and prioritize areas for the theme, potentially modifying current focus areas.
• Ensure career and capacity development opportunities for staff, including mentoring scientists and PhD students.

Develop and lead fundraising strategy:

• Lead the strategic development of project proposals and donor relationships, creating a robust project portfolio.
• Oversee project sequencing, content, and implementation for sustainable funding, staff development, and policy contribution.

Oversight of analytical and methodological approaches:

• Provide scientific and strategic guidance, ensuring research aligns with evidence-based development approaches.
• Support progress along impact pathways, making research relevant to policy, private sector, and practitioner communities.

Generation of robust evidence and scientific outputs:

• Lead the publication of high-impact scientific articles, ensuring accessibility and quality.
• Safeguard evidence integrity and align scientific outputs with staffing and funding levels.
• Convey scientific evidence to stakeholders through user-friendly products and engagement activities.

Deliver impact at scale:

• Develop and implement scaling strategies, identifying critical points in impact pathways for socio-economic development.
• Oversee business and investment case development in collaboration with CIFOR-ICRAF's Resilient Landscapes.
• Foster integration of evidence-based scaling research and document achieved impact.
• Work closely with relevant units to deliver, monitor, and document research outcomes and impacts at scale.

Education, knowledge and experience

• Subject matter authority for tropical commodities value chains.
• Ph.D. and/or MBA in a relevant disciplinary field.
• At least 15 years of proven experience if lacking degrees in the relevant field.
• Expertise in forest products, tree crops, or agri-food value chains.

Personal attributes and competencies

• Thought leadership on value chains in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
• Proven track record in research and development initiatives.
• Documented leadership and management experience.
• Strong track record in business development and resource mobilization.
• Experience in negotiating with executives, managers, and sustainability directors.

go to method of application »

• The Program Coordinator provides support in this to science team leaders and heads of country/regional programs and Principal Investigators in those teams. Each Program Coordinator will support 2-3 such teams, depending on the size of teams.

Duties and responsibilities
Project Management

Provide Project Management function for projects and activities.

• Collaborate closely with research teams/country programs assigned to the incumbent, for planning, implementation and closing of project activities.
• Coordinate start?ups (inception meetings), implementation, and closing phases of project management cycles for projects.
• Support finance and team leaders where needed with annual planning and budgeting processes of projects.
• Liaise with the Quality for Impact (Q4I) team and PIs on Theory of Change – Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Impact Assessment (MELIA) to ensure lessons are fed back to project development.
• Monitoring of projects, including ensuring regular check-ins with country teams and partners on implementation of activities, contractual and financial requirements (such as co-funding, Budget vs Actuals etc.).
• Identify and take action to mitigate potential risks within projects and the work area.

Ensure that the projects are compliant with funder requirements as well as CIFOR-ICRAF policies.

• Review and assess project documents, contracts, and related documentation to understand and communicate funder requirements to project teams.
• Facilitate review of agreements by other units, including legal and finance units.
• Ensure projects meet targets by ensuring that teams and individuals document progress and meet the donor’s reporting requirements.
• Support the preparation of various written outputs, e.g. sections of reports, analysis and draft TORs for partners and consultants in collaboration with the PI.
• Manage the production and processing of the required funder technical reports, monitor the completion of project deliverables, monitor project resource use, and initiate corrective action where necessary, ensuring the quality and completion of the reports is according to funder requirement and CIFOR-ICRAF standard.
• Ensure in collaboration with the Financial Services Unit that CIFOR-ICRAF’s budgetary requirements are met, and internal reports are delivered on time.
• Advise the PIs and funder on issues that may impact the achievement of the project outcomes (including issues of sustainability and post project requirements such as maintenance). Coordinate and negotiate amendments if needed in liaison with PIs and funders.
• Support PI with other tasks as needed.

Coordination

• Focal point of projects ensuring an efficient exchange of information between CIFOR-ICRAF, the funder and the implementing partners
• Engagement with strategic partners and knowledge sharing partners (i.e. for MOU development and implementation), coordinate flow of information between the project steering committee, projec
• Ensure that implementing partners, consultants and CIFOR-ICRAF country staff are fully briefed on their responsibilities, deliverables, work plans, budgets, partnerships, and project status.
• Coordinate with other research teams, country and regional programs, Resource Mobilization Unit (RMU), Communication, Outreach and Engagement (COE) team, Financial Services Unit (FSU), Admin/operations and HR where needed to facilitate effective project implementation and address bottlenecks.
• Keep oversight of entire portfolio of projects in a science team or country program in support of the team leader.

Support CIFOR-ICRAF resource mobilization efforts

• Under the coordination of RMU, contribute to fund raising process though networking and providing related data requirements to support scientists and RMU in proposal/concept note development, specifically using the knowledge of other current and past projects.

Others

• Representation at relevant meetings with visitors/funders, in coordination with RMU/specific scientists/research teams/projects. Participates in and or coordinates field missions, including provision of guidance to external parties (funding or strategic partners, government officials) and drafting mission summaries, etc.
• Support the head of PMU in identifying areas of improvement and implementing improvements of the project management process at CIFOR-ICRAF.
• Support policy development, including review and analysis of issues and trends, preparation of evaluations or other research activities and studies.
• Details of duties, assignments and objectives will be further discussed and laid out in the staff’s annual performance contract.

Education, knowledge and experience

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• 7 years of relevant professional experience including 2 years’ Global experience.
• Familiarity with the CGIAR systems, networks and processes is preferred.
• Experience in working on large projects.
• Strong project management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken command of the English language is essential; knowledge of other major international languages will be an advantage.
• Strong computer skills in all the main Microsoft office programs and database management.

The application deadline is 15 Feb 2024