Land O’Lakes Venture37

Land O’Lakes Bangladesh
Senior Advisor - Public Sector Engagement

Land O’Lakes Venture37 Bangladesh is seeking a high-profile and specialized advisor to inform and guide key decisions, plans, and adaptations toward working collaboratively with the Government of Bangladesh. The Senior Advisor will communicate about the importance of facilitating agricultural trade, diversifying exports, and Bangladesh's commitments and achievements under the World Trade Organization, Trade Facilitation Agreement. We invite dynamic strategic thinkers to join the Bangladesh Trade Facilitation project to develop and manage partnerships and to design and lead advocacy for policy and legislative reforms.

Background:

Land O'Lakes helps communities around the world build economies by strengthening agriculture from farm-to-fork, helping businesses grow, and linking farmers to markets. Since our start in 1981, we have been leveraging nearly 100 years of expertise in dairy, animal nutrition, crop inputs and agricultural insights from Land O’Lakes, Inc., a farmer-owned agribusiness in the United States that is committed to fulfilling its purpose of feeding human progress.

Project Summary:

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Bangladesh Trade Facilitation project (BTF) works to expand regional and international trade in agricultural goods by addressing systemic constraints to agricultural trade at Bangladeshi ports; simplifying and automating import and export processes; improving the capacity of government agencies, laboratories, and warehouses; and by fostering private and public investment in temperature-controlled logistics and cold storage facilities. The project aims to reduce trade costs, increase transparency, and enhance the capacity of relevant government agencies involved in facilitating trade of food and agricultural products. The project activities include improving infrastructure, introducing new technologies, and providing training and capacity building to relevant stakeholders.

Position Summary:

The Senior Advisor – Public Sector Engagement represents BTF in high-level meetings and events and communicates about the (i) goals and objectives of the USDA project, (ii) the importance of facilitating agricultural trade for the country, and (iii) the Government of Bangladesh’s (GoB) commitments and achievements under the World Trade Organization, Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which Bangladesh is a signatory. The Senior Advisor maintains regular communications with GoB agencies to coordinate and facilitate their involvement in BTF and leads internal discussions amongst the BTF technical team about strategy and approaches, advising the Project Director and Deputy Chief of Party on key decisions, plans, and adaptations toward working collaboratively with the Government.

The Senior Advisor leads and organizes various GoB engagement and advocacy programs and identifies and recommends technical topics for BTF to research or advocate for policy change. The Senior Advisor also supports the regular organization of project engagement committee meetings with BTF’s counterpart agencies and oversees the implementation of decisions made in the committee meetings. Based on the needs of the project, the Senior Advisor will also communicate and coordinate with the National Trade Facilitation Committee led by the Ministry of Commerce, Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority and the NGO Affairs Bureau under the Prime Minister’s Office.

The position is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with travel when required to visit ports, quarantine stations, and agricultural and food research, industry, and trade organizations.

Primary Responsibilities:

Lead and advise on strategy and approaches and on key decisions, plans, and adaptations toward working collaboratively with the Government of Bangladesh.
Represent BTF in high-level meetings and events and communicate goals and objectives.
Manage relationships with Government stakeholders.
Schedule and oversee project engagement committee meetings and deploy other project implementation, coordination, and communication tools with counterpart agencies and stakeholders.
Present BTF objectives and work plans and coordinate with Government agencies to get buy-in and approvals for BTF activities, proposals, legislative documents, and administrative reforms, etc.
Design approaches and lead advocacy with the Government targeted to policy and legislative reforms and plan and oversee related/required consultations, awareness-building workshops, and training programs.
Develop new partnership opportunities and organize meetings with different Government Ministries and other agencies.
Negotiate and advocate for regular meetings of the National Trade Facilitation Committee and the Agro-Trade Working Group and position and promote BTF’s role and objectives for these trade facilitation coordination bodies.
Network with representatives of GoB and donor projects and participate in events and forums concerning trade, trade facilitation, and export promotion.
Contribute to compelling communication pieces and impact stories and to progress and performance reporting to USDA.
Advise and lead the development and concurrence of sustainability plans with the counterpart agencies.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

An undergraduate degree in agriculture, international trade, business, economics, public policy, or another relevant field is required.
A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant experience. Demonstrated knowledge of the WTO TFA and about the issues impacting international trade (import and export) of agricultural products is required.
Deep understanding and experience in the following areas: GoB’s legal framework relevant to agricultural trade; plant and animal quarantine-related laws; export-import policy and procedures; trade organization; Bangladesh’s stands on WTO TFA implementation, measures, and standards; and the cross-border trading process and procedures.
Demonstrated experience building effective working relations with a wide range of stakeholders, particularly senior public sector officials.
Strong interpersonal and public speaking skills and ability to communicate with public sector agencies effectively.
Professional fluency in English and Bangla spoken and written languages.
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a cross-functional team environment.

Preferred Qualifications

A Master’s degree in a relevant field is preferred.
Demonstrated experience interacting with the GoB agencies responsible for supporting and regulating trade is preferred.
Experience in, or exposure to, relevant donor-funded development programs.
Experience and knowledge about international best practices and coordination mechanisms for pest risk analysis (PRA), biosecurity, Codex, and One Health initiatives.
Experience supervising and managing staff.
Proven high-quality written and oral communication and presentation skills.

Salary: Negotiable, competitive compensation package.

Job Location: Dhaka (Gulshan-2 or Banglamotor)

Please apply using the link Senior Advisor - Public Sector Engagement - Careers (avature.net)

Send a cover letter and your up-to-date CV as a single document to: umtama@landolakes.com

Application Deadline: May 09, 2024