Country Lead – Vietnam

Job Description

Country Lead – Vietnam, Tara

The European Climate Foundation (ECF) was established in 2008 as a major philanthropic initiative to help Europe foster the development of a low-carbon society and play an even stronger international leadership role to mitigate climate change. The foundation works through several sectoral, cross-cutting and regional initiatives and collaborates with a wide network of partners to advance progress towards this shared goal. The ECF also hosts a number of initiatives with a global outreach.

Bringing together two successful ECF programmes, Tara is a new philanthropic initiative which aims to achieve prosperity, clean air and a safe climate in Asia by supporting a diverse group of partners to accelerate the transition to sustainable, clean energy. Tara is a regranting initiative working in South, Southeast and East Asia - excluding India and China – which focuses on supporting think tanks and civil society actors to achieve a rapid transformation in the energy sector in order to meet global climate targets and ensure clean air for all citizens.

Tara is a platform currently hosted at the ECF, but with a mandate to localise in the future. ECF is committed to both backing it throughout the transition and to the objective of localising.

Tara is expanding its energy transition work in Vietnam and is seeking to hire a full-time country lead to manage its country programme. The programme is currently focused on supporting think tanks, business and civil society efforts to accelerate the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures and achieve clean air, prosperity, good health and security for the people of Vietnam. There is possibility of additional areas of work in future.

We are looking for an experienced strategist with outstanding networking skills and grants management experience to drive systemic change. The role requires a very good understanding of the policies as well as economics of energy transition in the country. The ideal candidate will need to develop a strong network across multiple stakeholders including but not limited to NGOs working on sustainable energy, environmental and health issues, think tanks, corporates, finance and government agencies working in relevant sectors. Understanding of the Vietnam power market and regulatory framework and opportunities for transitioning to a more sustainable structure is desirable.

Key responsibilities

Strategy:

• Lead the development of the country strategy for Vietnam in consultation with the Tara programme directors and partners.
• Develop resources requirements, budget plans, forecasts and reviews for the country.
• Proactively scan the country’s policy, energy and economic environment for emerging threats and opportunities for Tara’s work. This may include developments in the public, private and people sector including but not limited to policy developments, changes in regulatory framework and legislation, corporate investments etc.

Partnerships and Coordination

• Network with various stakeholders including existing grantees/ partners in-country.
• Proactively develop a trust-based ecosystem of diverse partners who are encouraged to respect each others’ roles and work collaboratively towards a common goal.
• Identify new programme delivery partners in-country to achieve the goals of Tara.
• Support partners to access coaching and organizational development resources to help them maximize their potential, if needed.
• Lead coordination among partners within the country to ensure Tara achieves outcomes that are larger than the sum of the individual partners’ efforts.
• Coordinate with other Tara counterparts in the region to ensure coordination of efforts within the region.

Grant management

• Guidance and advice to grantees, partners and prospective partners in the field to ensure activities achieve their intended objectives and results.
• Monitor deliverables and submissions from grantees/ partners and provide general oversight to their timeliness and quality.
• Advise operations team on specific legal/ operational /risks requirements for grant-making in the country.
• Advise programme directors/ senior management on any potential risks and recommend mitigation measures when needed.

Others

• Perform other related responsibilities including but not limited to supporting Tara programme or management teams in preparing action memoranda and reports, expenditure and grants forecasting, responding to audits, evaluations requests and other related activities.

Key Relationships

• Managing Director
• Programme Directors
• Operations team

Experience and competencies

The successful candidate will have deep knowledge and network within Vietnam’s energy sector development including think tanks, research centers, NGOs and others involved with environment, climate and energy transition. S/he will have broad credibility across different stakeholder groups. S/he will be have a demonstratable track record of building ecosystems working across different stakeholder /interest groups to achieve common goals.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate a majority of the following:

Knowledge and experience:

• At least 7+ years of relevant work experience, gained in either local or international foundations, donor agencies, or NGOs.
• Network and credibility across the multiple geographic regions of Vietnam.
• Strong experience interacting and networking with senior policy and decision-makers in industry, government and/or the financial sector, NGOs.
• A good grasp of energy policy and energy system transformation or related issues.

Skills:

• Intrinsic motivation, excellent organisational and self-management skills.
• Experience working with philanthropic funders or donors and an understanding of how to build and sustain successful partner network.
• Strong networking skills and political acumen.
• Professional grade written and verbal English language skills and native level Vietnamese language written and verbal fluency.

Personal:

• Deep commitment to solving the climate crisis and enabling systemic change.
• Flexibility over working hours to accommodate global time zones.
• Willingness to travel both regionally and internationally.
• Impeccable ethics, and experience working confidentially and operating with high security.

• The unique opportunity to work as part of a highly dynamic, international team who combine their passion to make a difference with a rigorous and results-oriented approach to work.

• A flexible work environment and a space to develop and challenge yourself.

• Competitive compensation commensurate with experience and country benchmarks.

• Initial one-year contract with possibility for renewal based on performance.

Location

The candidate must be based in Vietnam, in either Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi and be a citizen of Vietnam or someone with long-term residency status with legal permit to reside and work in the country.

Start date: As soon as possible

Deadline for Applications: Friday, 24 April 2020

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