Stratégie de communication pour le riz durable – Cambodge

Lieu : Cambodge
Organisation : Ucoopia Cambodia
Type : Travail de fin d'études
Durée : À définir

Model Terms of Reference for Internships in the Ucoopia Actions

Development of a Communication Strategy for Awareness Raising, Visibility and Promotion of BUAC SRP Rice in Local Markets – Cambodia

  • Background

Uni4Coop is a coordination platform created by four Belgian university NGOs that are ECLOSIO (the NGO of the University of Liège), Louvain Coopération (Catholic University of Louvain), FUCID (University of Namur) and ULB – Coopération (Free University of Brussels). The 4 NGOs are all engaged in development and international cooperation projects, mainly financed by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid(DGD) of the Belgian State. Uni4Coop's specificity is to contribute to development by mobilizing the human and scientific resources of the university community. 

In Cambodia, Uni4Coop is represented by ECLOSIO and Louvain Cooperation (LC). The programs of intervention include (i) Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), (ii) and Health, with an emphasis on non-communicable diseases and mental health. Under the SFS program, the Partnership for Agroecology Transition, Networking and Efficient Resilience (PArTNER) project provides direct financial and technical supports to the ALiSEA network (https://ali-sea.org/) and Farmer Organization (FO) partners including Agricultural Cooperatives (ACs) and Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (UACs) in Battambang, Takeo and Kampong Thom provinces, with additional technical supports from other partners and collaborators of the project.

The outcome pursued by the PArTNER project is to generate economic and social changes of the Cambodian rural farmer families by improving Cambodian food market through agroecological transition and gender equity in agriculture.

The PArTNER project aims to enhancing FOs’ capacities in their business management, in promoting agroecology transition among the FOs’ members and stakeholders, strengthening FOs’ institutional functions, building market linkages for the products of ACs and UACs, increasing access to finance as well as reinforcing collaborations between FOs and relevant stakeholders.

The PArTNER project contributes to the following five results:

  • Result 1: Small-scale farmers and their family members improve their knowledge and capacity to ensure sustainable, healthy, diversified and culturally appropriate food production.
  • Result 2: Value-chains and market access of products from agroecological practices are upgraded
  • Result 3: Improved governance to favour peasant rights, gender equity and democratization of decision-making space
  • Result 4: Improved sustainable and healthier consumption patterns
  • Result 5: Innovations derived from the experimentation by small-scale farmers in the agroecology transitions, the upgrading of value chain and the better governance are consolidated in research-actions, studies or systematizations that are co-constructed with farmers and disseminated for their internal and external valorisation, to influence policies and decision-making in favour of the transition to AE

In order to build a strong relationship between Uni4Coop’s team at the field and the Academia at the University of Liège, participation from students and professors to capitalize on-the-ground practices is always welcome. Internship has become a part of the project where students from Belgium are mobilized to work with local students in Cambodia in a co-learning program to develop knowledge products benefited to both the project and the academic advancement.

  • Preamble

The Sustainable Rice Platform Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation(SRP) is the world’s first voluntary sustainability standard for rice (SRP Global, 2024).

The SRP aims to help smallholder farmers and protect the environment by building a context-dependent modular standard for sustainable rice production and processing (including decision–making tools and quantitative sustainability impact indicators), developing and promoting outreach models that enable large-scale adoption of best practices through supply chain mechanisms and public policy development; and establishing an international platform globally recognized for its role in promoting continuous improvement in sustainability in the rice sector with a broad participation from all actors throughout the value chain, the public sector and non-profit organizations. SRP’s aim is to offer the global rice supply chain a proven set of instruments to facilitate wide-scale adoption of sustainable best practices (SwissContact, 2024).

Battambang Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (BUAC) is one of the ECLOSIO’s main partners under the consortium of Uni4Coop’s PArTNER project. This organization of farmers is formed by its 11 Agricultural Cooperative (AC) members to produce and commercialize rice seeds and SRP-certified paddy rice. Most of the products are sold to other ACs and private rice milling companies in unprocessed forms. As part of BUAC’s visions, the union plans to vertically expand its business to process and sell SRP-certified milled rice to local consumers.

Last summer (2023), Ucoopia accompanied one TFE intern from Gembloux AgroBioTech (University of Liège) to work on consumer appreciation of the SRP rice. This internship had for main focus consumer behaviour towards rice consumption and reflected mainly consumption at Phnom Penh.

The internship proposed here is the following of the work of our former intern. Academic research and studies might contribute significantly to the promotion of the movement to promote local farmers’ SRP milled-rice of the BUAC.

  • Purpose of the Internship

The general objective is to develop a communication strategy for BUAC in other to permit their milled rice access the market, to be supported by the project, considering the communication actions carried out or underway by all the actors involved in the promotion of SRP rice in Cambodia.

  • General principles underlying the traineeship

The trainee will be supervised, on the one hand, by the pedagogical staff of the institution from which he comes and, on the other hand, by the Ucoopia’s staff (both from the headquarters and from the field), as well as by the Southern partners of Ucoopia. Ucoopia will be attentive to the technical orientation of the works, their harmonisation and their continuity.

The student will have to follow at least a training before his departure ("Agriculture and Cooperation" ; "Preparation to Departure").

The student involved in the internship will in turn act as a global education and solidarity education (ECMS) by engaging, by testimonials, video and photo reports, the writing of articles for the Periodical of Ucoopia.

  • Duration and desired period of the internship
  • Up to 16 Weeks (Master 2)
  • Place of study
  • Country: Cambodia
  • Province: Battambang
  • Methodology and steps of the study

The study will involve:

  • Conducting a situational analysis of communication strategies, actions and tools for marketing of BUAC and other local rice business actors;
  • Identifying target groups (public, private, non-state) to be impacted by the communication strategy at the provincial and national levels as well as their specificities;
  • Identifying levers, influencers or positive elements on which to act for better promotion of the SRP milled rice;
  • Facilitating in a participatory manner, the identification and prioritization of strategic axes and innovative communication actions in favor of the promotion of SRP milled rice;
  • Formulating a communication strategy with concrete and effective actions to be implemented by BUAC for the promotion of the SRP milled rice and to be supported by the project.
  • Products expected by Ucoopia and its partners

The main result will be a communication strategy in English for BUAC marketing of SRP rice on local markets and following direct marketing principles. The deliverables are:

  • A situational analysis report that takes stock of the existing strategies, actions and communication tools for a milled rice marketing at Cooperative level;
  • A communication strategy accompanied by concrete and effective actions for marketing to promote BUAC SRP milled rice.

A TFE report that integrates all the sequences of the mission, the lessons learned as well as the recommendations to be implemented by the project.

  • Internship conditions
  • Financial conditions:

Financially, no scholarship is awarded by Ucoopia to the student. Everyone pays for their plane ticket and meals. However, facilities are provided on site for accommodation and travel of the trainee. However, the expenses incurred for the realisation of the project (through the internship) are covered by Ucoopia.

Return plane ticket

At the trainee's charge

Meals

At the expense of the trainee

Conditions of the accommodation

(place and care)

Supported by Ucoopia

(only accommodation fees related to the internship are reimbursable)

On-site transportation

(conditions and management)

Supported by Ucoopia

(only travel fees related to the internship are reimbursable)

Equipment and logistics

(access to a desk, a computer, the internet, etc.)

At the trainee’s charge

Other expenses related to the study subject of the internship

Supported by Ucoopia by respecting the procedures of engagement

Other expenses

At the trainee's charge

Conditions of supervision on the spot

The field supervisor of the intern when he/she is in Cambodia is Mr. MEY Veata, Sustainable Food Systems Program Manager (Ucoopia Cambodia).

  • Working conditions:
  • Working hours: full time
  • Peer Learning Condition: The Belgian intern will carry out the internship in collaboration with a local intern from a local research institute or university.
  • Profile sought
  • Research Areas:
  • Agroecology
  • Socio-Economics
  • Communication
  • Domain of studies (M2):
  • Communication
  • Marketing
  • Languages ​​
  • The intern will have to prove a sufficient level of Englishto enable him/her to communicate with the field teams and partners.
  • Behavioral and professional aptitude:
  • Good autonomy and organization of work;
  • Good capacity for innovation and scientific rigor;
  • Motivation and ability to meet challenges;
  • Good communication skills and good listening skills;
  • Good ability to work in extreme weather conditions;
  • Good writing skills: a brief monthly report will be requested according to a template provided previously.
  • Contact person

Claire Wiliquet, responsible for civic education and communication at 081.62.25.76 or at the email address claire.wiliquet@eclosio.ong.

Please send your CV + cover letter.

Please, note that the applications will be treated as and when they arrive.

Document

📄 Télécharger l’offre complèteTélécharger