Advisor -Integrated Landscape Management Inclusive Sustainable Rice Landscapes (ISRL) Project

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Nonprofits / องค์กรไม่แสวงหาผลกำไร
1369
25 Apr 2023
10 May 2023

As an international cooperation enterprise with worldwide operations, the German government owned Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH operates on behalf of German ministries, the governments of other countries and international clients to provide tailor-made, cost-efficient and effective services for sustainable development. GIZ has a record of more than 60 years working in Thailand. We are looking for a Bangkok-based Integrated Landscape Management Advisor to support the Inclusive Sustainable Rice Landscapes (ISRL) project.

Advisor -Integrated Landscape Management
Inclusive Sustainable Rice Landscapes (ISRL) Project

Thailand is a global leader in rice production and exports. Increased rice production over the past decades without a sustainable landscape approach has resulted in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The Inclusive Sustainable Rice Landscapes (ISRL) project (2023 – 2026) seeks to transform rice and agricultural production landscapes in Thailand by reconciling competing social, economic, and environmental interests. To achieve this, the project proposes an integrated and multi-disciplinary landscape management approach to support transformational change from conventional rice farming to inclusive, sustainable rice farming by building policies, capacity, and financing to apply and upscale adoption of sustainable rice farming practices while maintaining, restoring, and improving landscapes, ecosystems and biodiversity.

Inter-ministerial land use planning at the national and local levels (in the target provinces of Chiang Rai and Ubon Ratchathani) must precede the adoption of sustainable practices by smallholder farmers. As such, the project will support the strengthening of inter-ministerial collaboration to foster national-level policies and agreements for the integrated management of rice production landscapes. Under this framework, provincial governments and national agencies will conduct provincial-level spatial land management planning as a basis for an integrated approach to landscape conservation, connectivity and sector investments for biodiversity and other ecosystem service benefits.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The primary responsibility of the Advisor is to ensure that the project undertakes all necessary activities specified to produce the following outputs and achieve the related indicator targets:

Demonstrating economic and environmental benefits of a sustainable rice landscapes approach (1.1)
Developing a national roadmap for integrated target setting, management, and monitoring for sustainable rice landscapes and to enable restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services (1.2)
Strengthening alignment of public programs to meet the interests of both the rice sector with the financing and protection of lowland and upland hydrological and forest biodiversity services (1.3)
Developing spatial landscape management plans at provincial level that integrate sustainable agriculture with improved conservation and restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity (2.1)

Specific technical related duties and responsibilities, include:

Support the Project Manager(s) in the overall coordination of multi-stakeholder partnerships required for the development of approaches for integrated management of rice production landscapes
Support the setting up of national and provincial sub-committees for project steering and to guide and advise on policy development, roadmap development and monitoring of implementation (1.2.1)
Coordinate an inclusive participatory process to prepare a national roadmap (which will provide a framework for provincial landscape management plans) with clearly indicated targets and milestones, toward increasing investments and budgets for landscape level sustainable land management (1.2.3)
Coordinate consensus among national stakeholders on how to align rice sector interests and forest, land, biodiversity, water conservation and restoration (1.2.4)
Design and conduct technical design meetings, stakeholder workshops and high-level engagement with decision-makers for endorsement of final national roadmap (1.2.6)
With Provincial Managers and provincial sub-committees, coordinate an inclusive participatory process to develop spatial landscape management plans at provincial level (which align with the national roadmap) and integrate sustainable agriculture with improved landscape conservation and restoration of ecosystem services and biodiversity (2.1.6)
Design and conduct (or support) workshops and meetings to facilitate agreement on spatial landscape plans at provincial level among stakeholders (2.1.7)
Prepare terms of references for local consultants
Provide technical direction and coordination among local consultants to be hired to support delivery of related outputs, including:
- Needs assessment and capacity building for multisector policy development; technical support for multi-agency policy development on integrated landscape management (1202)
- Social economic feasibility assessment of draft spatial land management plans (1212)
- Policy and spatial research for mainstreaming biodiversity and forest-land protection services through valuation and sustainable agriculture landscapes scenarios (2101)
Support information provision and the facilitation of agreements between GIZ, UNEP, and public partners where applicable
Contribute to knowledge management for the FOLUR Global Platform
Ensure the overall quality of implementation, through a landscape lens

Qualifications:

Thai nationality only
A university degree in, Forestry, Land Use Planning, Integrated Landscape Management, Natural Resources Management, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Policy, Food Systems, Agriculture, or a field related to this assignment (PhD would be an asset)
At least 5 years of experience in designing integrated landscape management plans
At least 5 years of experience in implementing projects/programmes on land use planning and restoration, natural resource management, forestry experience on agri-food systems and/or crop diversification
Knowledge of integrated land management, including the political, institutional, and socio-economic contexts in Thailand
Working experience (including in management roles) with ministries, national institutions, national and international private sector in Thailand
Ability to coordinate multi-stakeholder development processes and work effectively with counterpart staff at all levels
Ability to fluidly handle the political, technical, and people management challenges
Strong writing, verbal presentation, and reporting skills
Excellent command of Thai language (both written and spoken), and at least good English skills (written and spoken)
Excellent command of MS Office package (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and Microsoft Teams; familiarity with landscape/ land-use modelling software or applications would be an asset

Personal attributes and competencies:

Thai nationality only
Self-motivated, flexible and resourceful
Good organizational and conceptualization skill
Hands-on mentality and detail-oriented work ethics
Ability to work independently and in a team
Ability to work under time pressure and meet deadlines with strong attention to consistency, detail, and quality
Interest and desire to work in a cross-cultural context, climate change mitigation and adaptation and sustainable agriculture value chains
Ability to travel and work with several partners and actors

Duty station and timeframe:

The staff will be based in Bangkok, with frequent travel to project sites in Chiang Rai and Ubon Ratchathani. The position is expected to commence on 1 June 2023.

Please carefully read this announcement and submit 1) a CV AND 2) a cover letter in English to aroonratt.soontonbura@giz.de . The deadline for applications is 10 May 2023. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.