Gold Network Coordinator

Team: Programmes

Job Family: Programmes

Category: National/ International

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Budget Responsibility: Yes

Scale: Manager Level II

Salary Range (Gross): £9,000 per year (50% of a full time post – 20 hours per week)

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

Job Purpose: To ensure that a strong network of NGOs, miners and practitioners committed to a common vision of responsible mining in the region is established in East Africa.

Background: Since 2010 Fairtrade International and the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) have partnered to promote the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).

The partnership, with Solidaridad as an allied, supports artisanal and small-scale miners in adopting best practice in social and environmental standards and becoming Fairtrade and Fairmined certified. It also provides consumers in the North with the opportunity to be part of the positive transformation of this sector

Fairtrade and Fairmined certified gold form artisanal and small-scale miners currently from Latin American producers is now available to consumers across North America and Europe in various jewellery products.

The initiative is now expanding into Africa, building on gained experiences and scoping work by some of the partnering organisations since 2007 and aiming to develop capacities within Fairtrade Africa around ASM issues.

Project: Fairtrade Foundation, ARM, Solidaridad and Fairtrade Africa have been awarded £800k to

extend Fairtrade and Fairmined certification to ASM in Africa over 3 years from April 2012 under Comic

Relief’s Trade Programme.

The objectives of the project are;

• 1,100 small-scale gold miners in 3 countries are enabled to mine gold in a fair and responsible manner in compliance with the FT/FM standard
• Creation of an African knowledge network that promotes responsible ASM practices
• Key stakeholders in governmental and non-governmental sectors are influenced in their policy and decision making towards ASM
• At least 5 European jewellers commit to sourcing Fairtrade & Fairmined gold from Africa
• Increased awareness of consumers in the UK and NL on ethical and Fairtrade issues related to gold.

Reporting Lines:

Post holder reports to: The Network Coordinator will have to manage input from and work closely with

all project stakeholders and will report to ARM and FTA on network related issues. In terms of project

management, the position will dually report into the overall project manager within Fairtrade Foundation,

and Fairtrade Africa. From November 2013 the position will report only to Fairtrade Africa.

Staff reporting to this post: None

Key Responsibilities:

• Development and coordination of an active network of at least 20 members including local support organisations, mining organizations, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in the East African ASM sector engaged with formalisation processes and with the Fairtrade and Fairmined project and goals.
• Ensure knowledge sharing among project partners and within the network.
• Organisation of annual regional meetings of key project stakeholders with exchanges between Latin American miners and Fairtrade agricultural producers.
• Assistance with context sensitive training materials to Fairtrade Africa and ARM.
• Support the development of a sustainability strategy for the network facilitating discussions around how a longer-term collaboration FTA and ARM could be established.
• Key link between project partners.
• Regular reporting to ARM and FTA on progress with the network development (objectives 2 and 3)
• Communicate the outcomes and lessons learnt of Objectives 1-3 within the network.
• Member of Public Policy Committee which aims to increase the visibility of ASM issues and the inclusion of miners in key policy spheres.
• Liaise with ASM network in West Africa, Latin America and Mongolia.
• Occasional travel in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya may be required.

Experience/ Skills and Competence: (E) Essential & (D) Desirable

Experience

• Graduate level degree in Agricultural, Economics, Rural development or Development studies(E)
• At least 3 years of work experience with artisanal and small scale mining, preferably in developing countries
• Excellent written and spoken English, some working knowledge of major languages spoken in the region including Swahili will be an advantage.
• Established network around artisanal and small scale mining (E)
• Experience of building networks to promote market access and formalisation of producers/miners.
• Interest and background knowledge in Fairtrade
• Able to handle varied, demanding and complex tasks(E)
• Willingness to travel in very basic conditions and at short notices(E)
• Ability to work independently (E)
• A flexible and enthusiastic approach to work with the ability to be part of a team(E)
• Able to juggle competing priorities to tight deadlines(E)

Skills

• Proactive and can-do attitude.
• Project Management
• Strategic Engagement
• Strong communication skills (written and oral).
• Interpersonal Skills including negotiation
• Excellent planning skills (E)
• Organised and able to use their initiative to reach objectives set.
• Microsoft Office computer skills(E)

Application

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

If you have any queries, please e-mail recruitments@fairtradeafrica.net or call +254 20 2721930 and ask to speak to a member of the Admin team.

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

The final hiring decision is anticipated end of July 2012 for a start date ASAP.

Completed applications should be e-mailed to recruitments@fairtradeafrica.net not later than 14th July 2012.

All applicants should state how they meet essential requirements of the job in the application form, and should include email address and telephone contact details in their applications.

Others: 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 based on discussions with the post holder.

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