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Healthy Food, Healthy Planet Initiative

Director, Europe

About Healthy Food, Healthy Planet

Healthy Food, Healthy Planet (HFHP) is a collaborative initiative of civil society organisations and funders united by a shared vision. The Initiative seeks to align food systems with the climate targets of the Paris Agreement and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by transforming animal-source foods. Since its launch in 2020, the Initiative works on a sense of urgency – without large-scale transformation, it will be impossible to meet international climate goals and the SDGs.

HFHP envisions a cross-cutting, pan-European movement focused on reducing environmental,  (public) health, and social impacts of animal-source foods. The Initiative aims to achieve this goal by cultivating trust, collaboration, shared narratives, and shared infrastructure and funding and otherwise supporting new alliances in the food environment space. It will:

  • Bring together and build trust between health, climate change, biodiversity, animal welfare, labour rights, transitional justice, and other interest groups that target food environments in Europe and beyond.
  • Empower grassroots leaders and bottom-up initiatives, the drivers of change, to help drive global momentum, starting from Europe
  • Ensure that those most affected by our food system’s shortcomings, including farmers, animal agriculture and animal processing workers, and low-income communities, are at the forefront of our work
  • Learn from past and future successes and failures
  • Their efforts take inspiration from the seven principles of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

About the Role

The Healthy Food, Healthy Planet Initiative is seeking an experienced Director to serve as the lead representative for the Initiative. The Director will be the face of the Initiative and will be responsible for its growth, legitimacy, and success. They will work closely with the Coordination and Delivery Team – a group of funders – to plan and execute the tasks of the HFHP Initiative. They will also steer a team of a Programme Manager and several part-time contractors to ensure the Healthy Food, Healthy Planet Initiative success.

Duties and Responsibilities 

The Director will provide support services to the Healthy Food, Healthy Planet Initiative, including:

  • Working closely with CSOs to identify strategic priorities for the Initiative, build strong partnerships, and expand the scope of the Initiative and participation of its CSO partners.
  • Designing and managing the process of planning for, choosing, and launching test campaigns to explore viable and effective movement tactics, focused on the priority levers such as narratives, finance, and retail identified through a co-creation process with CSOs.
  • Managing communications for the Initiative, including regular communications with a wider CSO group through regular newsletters or email communications, calls, and other appropriate communications as scoped by the Director.
  • Collaborating with the co-creation lead on ongoing co-creation activities with CSOs
  • Developing and facilitating a CSO Steering Committee that provides strategic input to the Initiative.
  • Directing other staff working on the Initiative by clearly articulating roles and responsibilities among team members.
  • Developing a Phase III strategy and planning for the future of the Initiative. 
  • Planning for and facilitating CSO meetings and other meetings, as appropriate and deemed necessary by the Director and the CDT; and joining funder Steering Committee meetings.
  • As appropriate, work closely with the Programme Manager, Grants Manager who manages the pooled fund, CDT,  Implementation team, and host organisation.

Skills and Experience

  • Experience in the campaigning, advocacy, and non-profit sector
  • Experience leading pan-European networks or campaigns and working in cross-national and cross-cultural contexts
  • Experience developing and executing strategic plans for advocacy campaigns  
  • Experience working on more than one issue relevant to the Healthy Food, Healthy Planet Initiative, including climate, biodiversity, food systems, animal welfare, food justice, labour justice, and health
  • Connections and existing relationships to CSOs and funders in topic areas relevant to the HFHP Initiative 
  • Familiarity with co-creation and willingness and ability to lead a co-created Initiative that manages input from an extensive range of stakeholders (including a broad universe of CSOs and funders)
  • Excellent organisation and project management skills
  • Excellent communication skills – both written and oral
  • Ability to cope with pressure and deliver to deadlines
  • Able to work well and collaboratively as part of a team
  • Willingness to be flexible and assist with other functions as part of a small team