Background

The PALMSTEP Program aims to strengthen sustainability and traceability in the independent smallholder palm oil sector in Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan. The program focuses on ensuring that Kotawaringin Barat district level policies are aligned with sustainability and traceability standards, while also supporting an enabling policy environment for cooperatives, independent smallholders, and market actors. 

Kotawaringin Barat has already taken an important step by issuing Peraturan Bupati Kotawaringin Barat No. 10 Tahun 2025 concerning the Regional Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil, or RAD KSB, 2025 to 2029. This regulation creates a strong local policy foundation for sustainable palm oil development, including implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and financing mechanisms. However, the regulation still needs to be translated into practical actions, coordination mechanisms, and implementation support for independent smallholders and cooperatives. 

At the national level, the Government of Indonesia continues to strengthen sustainable palm oil certification through Ministry of Agriculture Regulation No. 33 Year 2025 on Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil, or ISPO, certification. In practice, independent smallholders still face important barriers to ISPO readiness, especially limited ownership of Surat Tanda Daftar Budidaya, or STDB. This creates a need for stronger policy alignment between national direction and district-level implementation, particularly to accelerate STDB issuance and improve smallholder legality, traceability, and certification readiness. 

In parallel, buyers and international markets are increasingly requiring stronger traceability, legality, and sustainability assurance. These buyer traceability standards need to be understood carefully so that they do not conflict with national policy, and so they can be translated into realistic local implementation. For KSMJ and its seven primary cooperatives – KUD Tani Subur, KUD Karya Tani, KUD Karya Utama, Koperasi Gotong Royong, Koperasi Berkat Maju Bersama, Koperasi Usaha Mulya, and Koperasi Tani Bahagia – this alignment is critical to support member data improvement, future CPO mill traceability, certification readiness, and access to sustainable markets. 

Job Description

The district consultant will ensure that the assessment captures the real bottlenecks faced by district government, KSMJ, primary cooperatives, and cooperative members. This role is also important because the workshop must not only validate findings but also become a practical policy dialogue and advocacy exercise for cooperatives and selected members who have participated in Lobby and Advocacy activities. 

To conduct a district-level sustainability and traceability policy gap assessment in Kotawaringin Barat and facilitate a participatory workshop that validates policy gaps, maps local stakeholders, and identifies practical follow-up actions for STDB acceleration, RAD KSB implementation, and cooperative-based traceability. 

Job Requirements

Education & Technical Skills 

• Minimum bachelor’s degree in public policy, law, agriculture, agribusiness, regional development, environmental management, rural development, governance, or other relevant fields. A master’s degree is preferred. 

• Strong understanding of district-level policy implementation, local government planning, public administration, and coordination among OPDs. 

• Good technical knowledge of sustainable palm oil development, independent smallholder issues, STDB, ISPO readiness, farmer legality, and traceability requirements. 

• Familiarity with district-level sustainable palm oil action plans, particularly RAD KSB or similar local action plans for sustainable palm oil. 

• Ability to conduct local policy and institutional gap analysis, including reviewing implementation challenges, coordination bottlenecks, and practical constraints faced by district government and cooperatives. 

• Ability to design and facilitate stakeholder consultations, focus group discussions, and workshops involving government officials, cooperatives, farmer representatives, private sector actors, and development partners. 

• Strong writing skills in Bahasa Indonesia, with the ability to prepare practical assessment reports, stakeholder mapping, workshop documentation, and district-level policy recommendations. 

Professional Expertise 

• Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience in district-level governance, agricultural development, plantation sector development, sustainable palm oil, policy implementation, or rural development programs. 

• Proven experience working with district government institutions, particularly agencies related to agriculture/plantation, cooperatives, planning, environment, licensing, legal affairs, or regional economic development. 

• Experience conducting local policy assessment, stakeholder mapping, institutional analysis, or advocacy support at district or provincial level. 

• Strong understanding of practical bottlenecks faced by independent smallholders and cooperatives, especially related to STDB issuance, farmer data, land legality, certification readiness, and traceability. 

• Experience facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops or policy dialogues involving OPDs, cooperatives, farmer groups, private sector actors, and civil society organizations. 

• Familiarity with Kotawaringin Barat, Central Kalimantan, or palm oil producing districts is strongly preferred. 

• Previous involvement in donor-funded programs, sustainable palm oil initiatives, cooperative development programs, or local government strengthening assignments is an advantage. 

• Ability to translate national policy direction into practical district-level implementation recommendations that are realistic for local government and useful for cooperatives. 

Competencies 

• Strong local facilitation and coordination skills, especially in engaging district government officials, cooperative leaders, and farmer representatives. 

• Practical problem-solving ability, with a focus on identifying realistic solutions for STDB acceleration, policy implementation, and traceability coordination. 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to build trust with local stakeholders and manage sensitive policy discussions constructively. 

• Ability to work collaboratively with Agriterra, Fortasbi, KSMJ, the national-level consultant, district government, and primary cooperatives. 

• Good political and institutional sensitivity in understanding local government mandates, decision-making processes, and coordination dynamics. 

• Strong documentation and reporting discipline, including the ability to capture consultation results, workshop agreements, stakeholder inputs, and follow-up actions clearly. 

• Field-oriented working style, with willingness to engage directly with cooperatives, farmer representatives, and local government stakeholders in Kotawaringin Barat. 

• Commitment to smallholder inclusion, cooperative strengthening, sustainable palm oil governance, and traceable supply chain development. 

How to Apply

Interested Individual Consultants or Firms should submit the following documents in PDF to (sasono@agriterra.org) and cc to (indonesia@agriterra.org) by (17 July 2026): 

• Cover Letter expressing interest and availability.  

• Curriculum Vitae (or firm profile) highlighting relevant experience.  

• Technical Proposal (max. 8 pages) outlining: 

• Understanding of the assignment.  

• Proposed methodology and work plan. 

• Team composition (if firm) and division of tasks. 

• Financial Proposal detailing daily rates, total cost estimate, and any anticipated expenses. 

• Examples of previous similar assignments (if available). 

More details check the ToR :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lnIXYihhJdwm0QZNX5Rs2tAyVPJpGq5L/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114943840605345078554&rtpof=true&sd=true