GRET is an international solidarity organization that aims to improve the most vulnerable populations’ living conditions and promote social justice, while conserving the environment. Founded in 1976, GRET is now present in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its areas of expertise are manifold: natural resources, local essential services, cities and housing, professional integration and employment, nutrition and health, food systems, land governance, inclusive economics and finance.
Its actions – generated by longstanding, sustainable presence in its countries of operation – are based on an approach involving co-construction with communities and on the creation of lasting connections with a vast network of partners representing civil societies, public authorities, local economic stakeholders and the world of research. By sharing its experiences and knowledge, GRET also contributes to changing development policies and practices.
GRET promotes gender equality and democratic participation in its work and internal operations. The association is also particularly committed to preserving biodiversity and combating climate change.
GRET has a thematic organization around which our strategies and actions are forged. Within the ALER, Alimentation et Economie Rurale (Food and Rural Economy) department, the Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture thematic team works more specifically on the economic and social development of family farming and agricultural and food chains.
Context
The Agroecology Learning alliance in South East Asia (ALiSEA) is supported and coordinated at national and regional level by GRET (www.gret.org). ALiSEA’s goal is to enable local and regional agroecology stakeholders to leverage one another’s expertise to produce evidence-based studies and share them broadly to support a regional transition towards agroecology. It has 3 folded objectives:
- Strengthening knowledge and experience sharing among agroecological initiatives and actors
- Increasing visibility and credibility of agroecological movement towards policy makers and consumers.
- Scaling up the development and adoption of agroecological practice among farmers.
ALiSEA Network gathers to date over 200 members from different backgrounds and approaches to Agroecology. It is quite unique by its diversity of stakeholders (CSOs and NGOs, Farmer organizations, Research & Academia, Private Sector, Government), its broad geographical focus (Greater Mekong Sub-Region), and its attractiveness. ALiSEA works at local and regional alike, and currently counts four countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
ALiSEA is a regional platform that currently benefits from and is part of a wider program, Agroecology and Safe Food System Transitions (ASSET) project (2020-2025), funded by the French Agency for Development (AFD), the European Union (EU), and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM), coordinated by GRET in close collaboration with CIRAD.
The documentation and dissemination of experiences made with agroecology, the promotion of agroecological principles, as well as the fostering of exchange and collaboration among diverse stakeholders are key requirements to drive transformation. ALiSEA, with support from the ASSET project, is transforming its current website into a knowledge hub (KH) to enhance the visibility of the network and its ability to drive transformation. The expected output is a digital platform that includes a library, a map interface featuring knowledge products, agroecology practices and champions, and a datahub.
Objectives and duties of the internship
The objectives of the internship are to formalize ALiSEA members’ field evidence in order to valorize it into a capitalization book and to stimulate the content creation on agroecology for the multimedia tools of the network (website, knowledge hub).
The main tasks will be as follows:
- Support the team in formalizing knowledge products from the 2023 small grants facility
- Review the form and content of knowledge products (video, practice brief, research brief, technical leaflet) from nine projects on agroecology
- Write 4 or 5 summary notes to introduce each topic of the small grant
- Develop a capitalization book on agroecology initiatives in the Mekong region based on the small grants projects intervention areas (food systems, youth support, technical innovations etc.)
- Conduct one need assessment of youths (training and network) in targeted countries in consultation with national research institutes/NGOs/Farmers cooperatives and review the existing assessment reports
- Conduct a literature review of agroecology approach, practices and initiatives in the Mekong sub-region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) to feed the online library of a knowledge platform
- Identify relevant documents to cover diversity of interventions, around 100, and fill in a summary reference form;
Terms and conditions
Internship duration: 6 months (35h/week), preferably from July to December 2025
Internship based in Lao PDR, in Vientiane capital, after a week’s induction at GRET headquarters in Nogent sur Marne. The student will be under the dual responsibility of the ALiSEA manager at headquarters and the Project Manager on site.
Internship agreement for abroad required. Allowance of €669.90/month. GRET will cover the cost of round trip travel between France and Vientiane capital (Laos PDR), as well as local and region travel. A mission of a few weeks in Cambodia could be tentatively be planned (to be confirmed).
Qualifications and Profile
- Master Student in Social Science with strong interest in knowledge management (notably SciencesPo or IEDES University)
- Fluency in English (oral and written) is essential
- Strong competence in analyzing, synthesizing and writing
- Ability to conduct literature review
- Knowledgeable about agroecology would be a valuable asset
- Good knowledge of the MS Office package
Gret is committed to people with disabilities and actively fights against all forms of discrimination. This vacancy is open to anyone with the required profile.
How to apply
CV and cover letter to be sent before 21th May,2025 to reynaud@gret.org, with the subject of the email “ALiSEA Internship Laos”.
Gret publishes all its job and internship offers on its website: https://gret.org/rejoindre-le-gret/
To apply, please refer exclusively to the job offer on GRET’s website.
Applying is free of charge. Any request for a financial contribution constitutes fraud. Please do not respond to any such requests.
Gret never uses personal data entry forms. Requests to fill in such forms could be an attempt to phish for your personal data.
Only selected candidates will be contacted – Please do not call.
For more information about Gret : www.gret.org
