Global Affairs Officer (m/f/d)

The Mission

FSC works to take care of our forests and those who rely on them: by protecting plant and animal species, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, forest workers’ safety, and much more. We achieve this through FSC certification, ensuring forests around the world are responsibly managed. For more information on FSC, visit our website at www.fsc.org.

To effectively meet the challenge of protecting the world’s forests, we are committed to ensuring we have the world’s most skilled people working with us. This commitment extends to everyone that works in FSC around the world: from those that lead the design of policies and standards, to those that roll out those same policies and standards on the ground, and to those that provide us with backbone to do our work.

We are looking for an engaged Global Affairs Officer (m/f/d) who brings solid expertise and a passion for FSC’s mission, to work with us in a multinational environment.

The Scope

To coordinate and support FSC’s work on global affairs and engagement with intergovernmental organizations.

Main Roles and Responsibilities

• To actively plan, coordinate and support the management of FSC’s work to engage and build relationships with relevant inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). This role focuses on FSCs relationship with globally relevant entities such as (but not exclusively), the UN international bodies. It excludes regional bodies such as the European Union (taken care of by FSC’s regional teams), although there may be a supporting role on occasions.
• To monitor, track, analyze and brief relevant colleagues about external public affairs trends, sustainability-related policy processes and outputs from relevant international political fora. 
• To establish and co-ordinate an FSC “Policy Affairs” Community of Practice with colleagues from across the FSC organization to support stronger alignment on relevant affairs topics at global, regional and national levels. This Community of Practice will also act as a peer-to-peer learning platform to support national government engagement efforts.
• To contribute to the development of written material such as position papers, reports, (de)briefing notes, news items, and presentations. This will also include inputs into communication material developed by FSC Communications team, such as relevant FSC webpages and crisis communications.
• To design and manage an internal process that identifies relevant engagement opportunities (mostly in person or virtual events), prioritizes these opportunities, coordinates which staff or member(s) of FSC are best placed to represent or input on behalf of FSC and obtain high level outputs/outcomes.
• Working with relevant colleagues, organize FSC events/ meetings involving visitors from the Global Affairs stakeholder community.
• To coordinate the design and implementation of assigned projects and activities on key topics related to engagement with key political actors.
• To organize, coordinate and handle administration of memberships, accreditations and relevant partnerships.

Qualification, Experience and Skills

• Education and Training:
  • University degree in a relevant field (e.g., International Relations, Political Science, Geography, Environmental Science, Public Relations, Communications, International Business, Sustainability, Social Sciences or similar) or equivalent through vocational experience.

• Working Experience, Style and Skills:
  • At least 2-3 years of professional experience in an international organization – preferably in an Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) or entities affiliated to the United Nations, or in a policy research-oriented organization/ thinktank.
  • Excellent understanding of the United Nations system and the global sustainability political agenda. Knowledge of forest and natural resource governance would be an advantage.
  • Experience with academic research. Proven record of published research is an asset.
  • Critical thinking skills and ability to synthesize complex ideas, analyze information from several sources and reflect on data and information.
  • Service and solution-oriented attitude to work.
  • Proactiveness and high level of engagement.
  • Good time management skills: Ability to perform well while handling simultaneously several administrative and support functions.
  • Excellent command on MS Office especially MS Word, Excel and Power Point.

• Languages and Communication Skills:
  • Fluency in in English (spoken and written).
  • Fluency in any other language especially Spanish and French (spoken and written) is an advantage.
  • Exemplary writing skills.
  • Public speaking skills would be an advantage
  • Ability to explain complex topics to a non-professional audience.
  • Ability to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relations.

Terms and Conditions

• Location: Bonn, Germany.
• Working Hours: Full time - 40 hours per week.
• Duration of Employment: Temporary contract - 2 years (extension possible, subject to satisfactory performance).
• Starting Date: As soon as possible.
• Travel: Sporadic travel is required.

How to Apply

• Please apply via our website by submitting your CV in English
• Please do not send any photos of yourself.
• The deadline for applications is 31 May 2013.

We will confirm receipt of your application. However, only candidates shortlisted for an interview will be further contacted and will receive notice of the outcome of the selection process. Should you not receive a confirmation of receipt please check your spam filter and if you cannot find it there contact us at recruitment@fsc.org

For FSC, inclusiveness and diversity are important values. As such, we welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds and are entirely committed to consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age and disability.  

Please be informed, that by applying for this position you automatically accept our Data Protection Information on processing your personal data.

We are looking forward to your application!