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 national consultant will ensure that recommendations developed under PALMSTEP do not contradict national policies and can be used as credible technical inputs for policy dialogue, lobbying, and advocacy with relevant government institutions. This role is especially important to connect district-level STDB acceleration and RAD KSB implementation with national-level certification and traceability requirements. 

To provide national and ministerial-level policy analysis that supports the identification of sustainability and traceability policy gaps and ensures that district-level recommendations for Kotawaringin Barat are aligned with national regulations, ISPO requirements, STDB policy, and buyer traceability standards.

Job Requirements

Education & Technical Skills 

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

• Strong technical understanding of national palm oil policy, sustainable palm oil governance, plantation regulation, smallholder legality, and certification requirements. 

• Good knowledge of relevant national policies and standards, including ISPO, STDB, sustainable palm oil action plans, traceability requirements, and smallholder certification readiness. 

• Ability to conduct policy and regulatory analysis, including reviewing the alignment between national policies, district policies, sustainability standards, and buyer traceability requirements. 

• Strong analytical writing skills in Bahasa Indonesia, with the ability to prepare clear policy reports, stakeholder mapping, policy briefs, and practical recommendations. 

• Ability to develop structured assessment tools, interview guides, gap analysis matrices, and policy recommendation frameworks. 

• Good understanding of national and international sustainability discussions related to palm oil, including market expectations on legality, deforestation risk, traceability, and responsible sourcing. 

Professional Expertise 

• Minimum 7 years of relevant professional experience in public policy, agricultural policy, sustainable palm oil, plantation governance, certification, traceability, or related development programs. 

• Proven experience working with or engaging national-level government institutions, particularly ministries or agencies related to agriculture, plantation, cooperatives, environment, trade, or rural development. 

• Demonstrated experience in conducting policy gap assessments, regulatory reviews, stakeholder mapping, advocacy strategy development, or policy recommendation papers. 

• Strong familiarity with Indonesia’s palm oil policy landscape, including the relationship between national policy direction and district-level implementation. 

• Experience in analyzing policy bottlenecks affecting independent smallholders, especially related to STDB, ISPO certification, farmer data, legality, and traceability systems. 

• Experience supporting multi-stakeholder processes involving government, cooperatives, farmer organizations, private sector actors, NGOs, and development partners. 

• Previous involvement in donor-funded programs, sustainability initiatives, palm oil certification programs, or policy advocacy assignments is preferred. 

• Ability to provide strategic insight on how district policy recommendations can be aligned with national policy priorities and ministerial direction. 

Competencies 

• Strong policy analysis and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to translate complex regulations into practical recommendations. 

• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, especially in dealing with national-level policy makers, government officials, and technical experts. 

• Ability to work collaboratively with Agriterra, Fortasbi, KSMJ, district-level consultants, government stakeholders, and cooperative representatives. 

• High facilitation capacity, including the ability to support technical discussions, validation meetings, and policy dialogue processes. 

• Strong political sensitivity and diplomacy when discussing policy gaps, institutional mandates, and government coordination challenges. 

• Ability to produce high-quality deliverables within agreed timelines and respond constructively to feedback from Agriterra and partners. 

• Practical orientation, ensuring that recommendations are realistic, actionable, and useful for both national policy engagement and district-level implementation. 

• Commitment to inclusive development, smallholder empowerment, cooperative strengthening, sustainability, and traceable palm oil supply chains.

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 (30 September 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/11J8e4kgpL7KKcOIWoTykYnS7l-Nkm6eg/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114943840605345078554&rtpof=true&sd=true