Business Skills Specialist I, Petén -- CNCG, TREES
Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Based in New York City, with offices throughout the United States and worldwide, the Rainforest Alliance works with people whose livelihoods depend on the land, helping them transform the way they grow food, harvest wood and host travelers.
Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala (CNCG) will assist in the development of a process to mitigate the impacts of climate change in Guatemala -- improving management of natural resources and conservation of biodiversity, building institutional and technical capacity, and strengthening the policy and legal framework necessary for the country to respond to climate change. The project will strengthen the capacity of local organizations to address biodiversity, forest conservation and sustainable land management and address issues related to food security, adaptation, environmental certification, income-generating opportunities, and low emissions development strategies.
The Rainforest Alliance’s TREES (Training, Extension, Enterprises and Sourcing) program promotes sustainable livelihoods and protects biodiversity in forest-dependent communities. We work to enhance the competitiveness of community and indigenous forestry enterprises by building business skills, increasing efficiencies, and facilitating investment in value-added processing, expanding income opportunities from wood and non-wood forest products and environmental services, and increasing access to local and global markets through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
The Business Skills Specialist I will provide oversight to the business development strengthening of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and/or Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within established chains, SMEs that have a close relation with the management of timber and non-timber products, and SMEs that process raw material from forests inside and outside protected areas. S/he will apply the business development tools provided by the CNCG program while interacting with each SME in order to fulfill the required activities detailed in each business action plan.
- Create and strengthen management and business development capacities of CBOs in the region in order to become SMEs;
- Strengthen SMEs’ business management capacities to assure access to sustainable and maximum return businesses by demanding technical and business development services;
- Promote, support and coordinate strategic market alliances to improve the organizations’ and SMEs’ business and technical capacities for timber and non-timber products, as well as environmental services;
- Promote, support and coordinate strategic supply alliances for CBO/SMEs, so they can turn into buyers of sustainable raw materials;
- Coordinate closely with other Rainforest Alliance units to build a business portfolio for forest products;
- Conduct an administrative, accounting, and fiscal diagnosis that allows decision making and taking appropriate actions to improve performance on relevant areas, as well as to comply with the applicable rules, using the Rainforest Alliance’s business auto-diagnosis tool in order to assess SMEs’ current situation;
- Develop and implement Action Plans that describe activities to improve the performance in several areas, based on the results of the administrative, accounting and fiscal diagnosis;
- Prepare administrative, financial and accounting tools needed to improve CBOs/SMEs business performance;
- Support and coordinate CNCG partners in the region to promote the business of forestry products and services, assisting them on business development topics and establishing new strategic alliances; and
- Other duties as assigned.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Economics, Industrial Engineering or equivalent, emphasizing on rural business development;
- Minimum 4 years proven experience in SMEs business strengthening and through applying business development tools;
- Minimum 4 years experience working in the Western Highlands, especially in rural areas;
- Experience on the preparation of investment plans, business plans, business tools, business improvement plans, production and sales, costs and inventory, preparing and following-up of business diagnoses;
- Ability to work and coordinate multidisciplinary teams;
- Ability to write reports in Spanish; knowledge of English preferable;
- Proven capacity as business development service provider preferred; and
- Willingness to live in Petén area.
Commensurate with experience.
Only candidates authorized to work in Guatemala will be considered.
Send resume, cover letter and salary history to Human Resources, Rainforest Alliance, 8 Avenida 15-62, zona 10, Ciudad Guatemala, Guatemala 01010. Fax: (502) 2383-5777; E-mail: guatemalapersonnel@ra.org. If emailing, use the following format in the subject line: first name and last name, job title of position you are applying for.
The Rainforest Alliance is an equal opportunity employer.