The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bogota is looking for a Junior Policy Advisor Agriculture.
The working area of the LAN in Bogota is Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Major focus areas are market access and SPS matters, sustainable agricultural production chains and supporting Dutch agribusiness companies and knowledge institutes. The office was only opened recently (September 2017) and now LAN Bogota is looking for a new junior colleague to join and enforce the team, which is fully integrated and works closely together with all the other colleagues at the Embassy.
The new colleague we are looking for needs to have an educational background or experience in agriculture and must be fluent in both Spanish and English. Knowledge of the Dutch language will be a benefit in the selection procedure. Furthermore the new colleague needs to be pro-active, flexible and be able to work independently in a dynamic environment. Team work and collegiality is – an important – standard practice at the Embassy and LAN Bogota.
General features of the job
- Reports directly to the Agricultural Counsellor who carries final responsibility and is
responsible for policy-related support for the LAN; - Gives form and direction to his or her own activities within a specified framework;
the monitoring of schedules and progress; - Directs processes so the work can be carried out as efficiently as possible within
the framework established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality; - Will adhere to departmental administrative and procedural rules, regulations and
working agreement; - Draws up for this management information and provides upon request conclusions;
- Collects data and checks that it is accurate, useable, timely, correct and complete;
identifies and reports on developments relating to the policy area; - Processes and organizes data and manages and maintains digitally or op paper;
- Prepares trade delegations, incoming missions and draws up programs for trade
delegations and visitors; - Dealing independently with trade requests by the Dutch agricultural industry;
- Gives form and direction to his or her own activities within a specified framework;
- Independently draws up monthly reports, processes, analyses and interprets data;
- Supports on desk research for the purpose of networking;
- Ensures that accounting records are accurate and well-coordinated; is responsible
for budget management within the LAN, making interimreports and is responsible
for the financial part of the activity plan of the LAN; - Draw up contracts for contractors for major events and/or development
cooperation projects; - Coordinator within LAN for Achilles;
- Makes up drafts for http://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl;
- Will make independent and active use of network contacts;
- Draft, manage and coordinate the LAN part of the digital ‘cooperation space’ for the archive and documents.
Actual duties
- Is responsible for the budget administration within LAN and payment procedures at
ZMA Bogota and Lima (Ecuador does not have an Embassy). - Independently takes care of the monthly accountability reporting and detects
abnormal matters herein; - Offers support on organizing official visits, trade missions, seminars, workshops,
fair activities, networking events and other activities in Colombia, Peru and
Ecuador; - For this establishes and maintains relevant contacts and independently makes
substantive arrangements; - Will contribute to expand the LAN network in Colombia and will build LAN network
in Peru and Ecuador; - Will contribute to expand knowledge of the agricultural sector and developments in
Colombia but especially will built the knowledge base for Peru and Ecuador; - Gathers and manages relevant market information for the Dutch agribusiness /
agricultural sector, especially for Peru and Ecuador; - Will advise and support the Dutch agribusiness and knowledge institutes on
approaching the – especially but not exclusively -Ecuadorian and Peruvian markets
, while pursuing trade and investments promotion and market access for Dutch
agricultural products; - Shares information with interested parties in the Netherlands;
- Will deal independently with trade inquiries of Dutch companies businesses and
informs them on market opportunities , especially for/ in Ecuador and Peru; - For this will also closely cooperate with the colleagues from ZMA Lima and the
Dutch trade officer in Ecuador/Guayaquil ; - Supports the process of preparation of speeches and presentations and make up of
information dossiers; - Supports the preparation of business trips of the Agricultural Councellor and
contributes to substantive preparatory work of these; - Substitutes the Agricultural Councellor or represents the LAN at specific meetings;
he/she therefore in detail is informed of pending dossiers; - Makes active use of network contacts and independently extends this network;
- Supports with the LAN communications and social media channels management,
providing inputs and publishing content.
Knowledge and skills
Level of education: At least educated to a higher professional level;
Level of experience: 3-4 years of relevant experience required;
- Knowledge
General knowledge and understanding on financial and (agriculture) economic
affairs; - Experience in writing (policy) reports;
- Good verbal and written command of the native language and or English;
- A command of the Dutch language and culture highly appreciated;
- General financial know how and experience with financial procedures;
- Knowledge and experience with HTML docs.
Skills
- Good communication and contact skills;
- Flexible and proactive;
- Computer knowledge and skills (Windows, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, E-mail,
Internet).
The selected candidate will get an employment contract (Spanish language) for determined period with a probation period of 2 months. The formal working week at the Embassy is 36 hours per week. The minimum gross salary is COP. 6.160.735 per month, depending on the level of knowledge and experience. Start is foreseen on May 1, 2019.
Pre requisite for the application: the candidate lives in Colombia and is in the possession of all documents that are required to be employed by the Embassy (Cedula (de Extranjería)). Where applicable the candidate itself is responsible for applying and getting the required legal documents within short notice.
Closing date for receiving these application letters with CV, both in the English language, is set on Thursday February 21, 2019 at 16:00 hours. Questions, as well as the application, are to be directed to bog-lnv@minbuza.nl , with the reference “Job Vacancy Junior Policy Advisor Agriculture”, to the attention of Patricia de Vries- van Loon, Agricultural Counselor.