Livelihood Specialist

Livelihood Specialist 

Based in Paris, France or Toronto, Canada

Full-time position, Permanent contract

Field travels: up to 30%

Beginning: ASAP

PUR Description

PUR is a global, impact-focused B-Corp specializing in supply chain sustainability. We design, develop, and implement nature-based solutions projects to help our corporate partners reduce their environmental footprint and meet their ESG targets. Many of PUR's projects fall within the categories of insetting, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, forest conservation, and landscape restoration.

These projects aim to introduce more sustainable agricultural practices, regenerate and preserve ecosystems, and socially and economically empower local communities. Today, we employ 200 staff across 16 countries, with key offices in Paris (HQ) and Toronto.

Industry Description

PUR operates within the dynamic and rapidly evolving sector of environmental consultancy services and nature-based solutions (NbS) markets. The NbS market has recently gained traction as society recognizes the invaluable services provided by nature and the need to preserve, restore and harness these services to mitigate and adapt to environmental challenges. To be considered a nature-based solution, projects must address real societal challenges and offer strong environmental, economic and social benefits for local communities.

Market KPIs:

If combined with deep decarbonisation efforts, NbS projects could provide up to 30% of the mitigation needed to limit global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels by 2030 (World Economic Forum, 2023)

NbS project credits make up the largest volumes of carbon credits available in the VCM (voluntary carbon markets ) with $9bn invested between 2020 and 2022 (Sylvera, 2023)

5,307 companies have set science-based targets - a 4.2x increase since 2022 – and a significant driver of demand within the NbS and VCM markets (SBTi, 2024)

Role

PUR is seeking a technical specialist with experience and expertise in the design, development, and monitoring of livelihoods and farm economic impacts within projects in agricultural landscapes. This person will be asked to lead the evolution of PUR’s livelihood offer

design, and directly support the technical integration of livelihood and farmer economic priorities into PUR’s projects on a global basis.

The successful candidate will have experience working with international technical teams, remotely and in person, and have the ability to digest and manage complex topics related to project design and stakeholder engagement, risk management, relevant industry

frameworks and impact monitoring. They will be excellent at helping the team to execute product development roadmaps within their respective scopes, on time and within budget. They will be comfortable working with, and travelling with, diverse project locations.

The successful candidate will report to the Chief Product Officer based in Toronto, Canada.

The main responsibilities in a non-exhaustive manner of this ambitious role will be:

Product Development, Piloting and Management
- Economic Livelihoods Co-Benefit Offer for Differentiated Temperate & Tropical (Impact of Core Initiatives)
- Selection of Best Industry Framework(s) for Alignment;
- Development of a methodology for Baselining and Evaluation of livelihood and farm economic impact models (aligning with available network of data);
- Support in evaluation of pathways to improve impact with Intervention Specialists;
- Leading piloting of framework/activities.
- Carbon Equity Offer Design, Development & Testing;
- Refinement and Evolution of Benefit Sharing and Stakeholder Consultation Mechanisms, in line with and evolving carbon/nature certification frameworks (with Human Rights Team);
- Based on resource availability and timing, support the progressive scaling, implementation and adaptive management of the above items across PUR’s global portfolio of projects – starting with Priority Countries/Projects

Research & Design
- Perform technical research (through literature reviews, expert interviews and in-field data collection) to continually improve internal technical capacity and inform project design and adaptive management for livelihood and agriculture economics topics across the organization;
- Market & Industry mapping for best practices to meet / exceed client social programming requirements and framework demands with robust scientific support;
- Support regional teams in piloting livelihood and agriculture economics MRV approaches;
- With other members of the Product team, develop innovative internal project evaluation models for livelihood and agriculture economics.

Industry Engagement & Expertise
- Act as a key representative for PUR’s livelihood and agriculture economics interests and offer externally – to industry working groups, frameworks/certifications, partners and clients, in partnership with External Affairs team (e.g. Living Income Community of Practice);
- With the support of the Marketing and Communications Team, engage market through speaking engagements and webinars, the publishing of technical marketing material and attendance at conferences.

Training & Education
- Support PUR’s global team by developing internal education material appropriate for various audiences from technical to least technical;
- Support PUR’s commercial teams through the engagement and provision of technical trainings and materials to clients and partners.

We are looking for a candidate with : 

Masters or equivalent degree from a broad range of disciplines will be considered including international development, rural
development, agricultural economics, or similar.At least 8 years of experiences in Livelihood topics. Proven track record of industry engagement and network in the context of Farmer Livelihoods and nature-based solutions; Living Income and benefit sharing; Equitable business models; Carbon equity; or related fields.Experience with economic model for farms and living incomeGood excellent communication skills to be able to represent PUR at conferencesStrong experience at international level Fluent in English. French and/or Spanish is considered an asset.

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