New Position: Policy Support Officer: Agricultural Network

Noticia | 12-03-2019 | 17:30

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Buenos Aires opens a new position for a Policy Support Officer: Agricultural Network

Basic Details

Job title: Policy Support Officer
Unit/mission: Agricultural Network/Buenos Aires
Job grade: 07 Number of hours: 38 (fulltime)

General areas of work of the Agricultural Network

The Agricultural Network (in Dutch: Landbouw Attaché Netwerk/LAN) represents the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in its areas in the countries of accreditation, and to this end maintains intensive contacts with the local authorities, Dutch and local businesses, civil-society organisations and knowledge institutions. It is an integral part of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the area of accreditation. The LAN makes an essential contribution to strengthening the international position of the Netherlands in the areas of agriculture, food and nature, by:

policy support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality;
providing business services to the Dutch agribusiness and related sectors;
bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the areas of agriculture, food and nature.

Focus includes promoting agro-trade and investments, and negotiating market access for Dutch agri-products (plant and animal) with the authorities in the country of representation. In addition to that, the Agricultural Network contributes in some countries to strengthening food security.

The Agricultural Network adopts a proactive approach, seeking out opportunities for
Dutch agribusiness and related sectors, and establishing direct contact with the relevant players and communication via newsletters, www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl, social media and the Embassy website.

General job characteristics policy support officer LAN

 Reports directly to the agricultural counsellor who carries final responsibility;
 Is responsible for policy-related support in the agro-related fields;
 Shapes and directs his/her own activities within the specific framework;
 Manages processes so the work be carried out as efficiently as possible within
the framework established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality, RVO/LAN, as well as that of the Embassy, including the year(work)plan and multi-annual strategy;
 Will adhere to the Ministry’s and Embassy’s administrative and procedural rules, regulations and working agreements;
 Draws up management information (reports);
 Processes and organises data and information, and manages and maintains those digitally;
 Prepares (trade) missions, incoming delegations and visits, and draws up their programmes;
 Deals independently with agro related trade requests within the working areas;
 Ensures that accounting records are accurate and well-coordinated; is responsible for budget management within the LAN, drafting interim reports, and is responsible for the financial part of the LAN activity plan, including for events;
 Coordinates Achilles within LAN;
 Drafts news items, articles and other content for www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl;
 Manages and coordinates the LAN part of digital cooperation spaces and archives;
 From the economic section actively cooperates with other working areas of the Embassy.
 Cooperates with the Santiago (Chile) office, and where necessary with other embassies, to coordinate tasks.

Actual Duties

 Is responsible for the budget administration and payment procedures within LAN.
 Independently takes care of the monthly accountability reporting and detects abnormal matters herein;
 Support the organization of official visits, trade missions and fairs, seminars, workshops, networking events and other activities in Argentina; where applicable in Uruguay and Paraguay;
 For this, establishes and maintains relevant contacts and independently makes substantive arrangements;
 Collects and manages relevant market information for the Dutch agribusiness/
agricultural sector, and shares information with interested parties in the Netherlands and in the working area;
 Deals independently with trade inquiries of (foremost) Dutch agri-businesses and related sectors, and informs them on market opportunities;
 Supports the process of preparation of speeches, presentations and information dossiers;
 Supports the preparation and follow-up of business trips of the agricultural staff and contributes to substantive preparatory work of these;
 Supports the LAN communications and social media channels activities, providing inputs and publishing content.

Knowledge, Skills, and Competences

Level of education: at least educated at a higher professional level;
Level of experience: a minimum of 3-4 years of relevant experience required.

Knowledge

 General knowledge/understanding financial and (agriculture) economic affairs;
 Experience in writing (policy) reports;
 Good verbal and written command of Spanish and English;
 A good command of the Dutch language and knowledge of Dutch culture is an advantage;
 General financial know-how and experience with financial procedures;
 Knowledge and experience with HTML docs.

Skills

 Good communication and social skills;
 Flexible and proactive;
 Computer skills; easily handles various software.

Competences

 Integrity
 Initiative
 Customer focus
 Result-oriented
 Ability to cooperate with others
 Awareness of the external context of work
 Ability to plan and organise
 Analytical thinking
 Can cope well with working under time pressure or with peaks in activity

Working Environment and Contacts

Working Environment

The Agricultural Network falls within the organisational structure of the Embassy, and is responsible for agri-business and agro&food related affairs. The Agricultural Counsellor manages the LAN, which consists of a senior agricultural advisor, and a 50% policy support officer, who additionally performs secretarial tasks for the embassy in general. The LAN is part of the Economic section, and cooperates closely with other Embassy sections. As the agricultural counselor has a working area of several countries, tasks for those are performed in close cooperation with the local mission (Chile).

Contacts

 With Homebase LAN at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) in The Hague and with other Agricultural Networks worldwide;
 With the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in The Hague (especially with Directorate General for Agriculture and Nature) and other ministries as required;
 With staff of the Dutch Embassy and especially with Economic Section team members;
 With local ministries and authorities, professional organisations including knowledge institutions, the business community (associations, individual companies), and NGOs;
 With (agro-related) news media, where applicable.

Deadline for application: April 12, 2019

Contact person

Roel Nieuwenkamp - Ambassador of the Netherlands in Argentina

BUE-secr@minbuza.nl

4338-0050