Company Profile

Established in 2012, Star Shea Ltd. is a social business dedicated to commercialize shea nuts and butter directly supplied by the Star Shea Network, a federation of rural Ghanaian women involved in informal shea processing. Its mission is to empower these informal shea women producers and provide them with access to the formal economy.

To accomplish this mission, StarShea Ltd. has the following objectives:

• Reinforce and expand the Star Shea Network (SSN), a national association of shea producers established as part of the “Shea Value Chain Reinforcement Project”, a project implemented by PlaNet Finance and supported by SAP, the European Union and the French Development Agency, to achieve economies of scale
• Facilitate the production of premium quality shea nuts and butter through the SSN by providing the necessary quality control and training
• Develop sustainable market outlets and a market strategy to sustain the business and thus the livelihoods of SSN members
• Diversify and help stabilize the women’s sources of revenue by including shea nuts and shea butter to their income stream.
• StarShea Ltd. is positioned as a “reliable and sustainable supplier of economic quantities of consistently high quality, traceable and ethically sourced shea kernels and natural butter”.

StarShea Ltd target is to reach 35 000 women within 2018 to reach breakeven.

StarShea Ltd is a social business, ie the management is evaluated on:

• the capacity to increase women’s revenue on a long term perspective
• the number of women benefiting from the service provided

Job Description

• Location: Tamale
• Office: Tamale, Ghana
• Mission Start: January
• Contract duration: 1 Year (renewable)

The Quality and Certification manager is in charge of all the process of certification for the staff and the women suppliers ; from recruitment, training, inspection preparation and production follow up.

He is in charge of creating and adapting all required documentation (for trainings, procedures, reporting) as well as maintaining the documentation at all levels (office, field staff, communities, groups).

He is in charge of supervising the implementation of the procedures at all time during the season.

Main assignments

Certification process and procedures
StarShea Ltd certifies part of its production as organic and Fair Trade.

RSM and traceability tool

• Management of the traceability information system, in partnership with SAP, a German ICT company. This comprehensive traceability system includes :
• the database of the women network (“MasterData”).
• a reporting tool used at the office level to follow the field buying, storing and loading of shea nuts and butter 
• a complex barcode system aimed at tracing the production, its quality (regular, organic, fairtrade) and the producing woman. Production of labels and printing
• The management of this data includes
  • Updating the masterdata yearly, and maintaining updated system (women names, buying stations, butter or nuts suppliers, level of certification, help registration and yield)
  • Following all transactions on field weather certified or not certified, and creating control tools for accounting / supply chain / evaluation.
  • Providing traceability of batches for clients, analysis, in payment
  • Providing reports on premium payment and usage.
• The labels for traceability management
  • Design of the labels, printing at the office of the labels for the season
  • Management of the labels during the season (distribution, usage, functionality)

Relation with the certification bodies and documentation for yearly inspection

• Follow-up of the certification standards applied by StarShea: the US and EU organic standards, and the Ecocert ESR and IMO Fair For Life FairTrade Standards. Be informed of changes in the requirements and evolution.
• Review and update of all documentation and procedures for the certification and more generally for operations. Maintain the soft copies updated and makes sure all the staff is using proper documents.
• Prepare all reports related to certification (profile of the company, statistic, traceability of batches, ..)
• Interact with the certification bodies throughout the year to prepare the inspection, follow the inspector, take note of the Non Conformities, propose a plan to remove them to CEO and Operation Manager, and follow the implementation of mitigation actions.
• In charge of the internal control system and inspection of the different key points (done by himself).

Training and operations

• Prepare the training supports for staff and women in all fields related to the certification,
• Implement those training with the help of Operation Manager and Field staff.
• Build evaluation system of staff training and knowledge, check lists, control systems, Internal control procedures at all level. Organise tools for internal inspection, plan internal inspection and control the results and corrective actions.
• Follow up implementation on training with the women, the documentation required, collect all data at office level and make sure that proper documentation is available at all other levels (shea coordinator, supply chain, women group / community / association
• Supervise and assist in proper selection of communities for organic purpose, check feasibility of proposed targets (accessibility of shea parkland, water and grinding mills, for butter processors. Organise and monitor the relationship with the land traditional authorities in order to ensure sustainable certified collection areas.
• During the season, make sure procedures are implemented and followed, proper documentation  is created and collected from field at all steps.
• Use RSM to follow proper traceability of batches in butter and loading of trucks

Documentation

• Manages all the documentation system at office and field level:
• Prepare supports for the field
• Check proper distribution and usage
• Adapt continuously the tools to fit to a better and easier operation

Mapping

• Implement a data collection system of GPS coordinates by the Shea coordinators through their smartphones, on organic areas, but also on regular communities
• Gather and check information collected, develop adequate tool to facilitate collection and control
• Build certified areas maps on GIS system, and communities location for all activities.

Supervision of sustainability of the shea parkland
In the frame of the certification of part of the production, StarShea is requested to analyse the sustainability of the shea tree resources. It is requested to demonstrate that the company activities are not threatening the long-terms use of the parklands. 

This will be done by :

• studying in the bibliography what is known about the link between shea nut picking from one side, biodiversity and sustainability of the resource from the other side,
• Identifying 3 pilot zones in organic and FairTrade areas to build a control on
• Building a shea survey tool and implement it in the three zones: number of trees, diameter, other species, …
• Preparing a tool/method for yearly control

Support of the production operations and link with the accounting and marketing department

• Production supervision: statistics about reception and loading with traceability tools, editing of supporting documents for reception of nuts / butter, payment of the women, sales analysis
• Technical support of the staff in ICT: improving training methods/skills of Shea Coordinators, Implement training on laptop management, excel training, traceability tool training…
• Field support: reception / loading / butter processing supervision, …
• Commercial support: communication support to develop (website, leaflet..) with sales assistant for the next season

Reporting line:  to Operation Manager

Required Skills or Experience

• Level of studies: HND or BSc
• Languages :  local northern languages
• Driving license (motorbike)

Skills

• High proficiency in Excell and computer skills
• Good writing skills and thoroughness
• Managing skills and training capacity with rural women
• Organizational strength for a very autonomous and intense position
• Thoroughness in handling documentation, reporting experience
• Field supervision of studies,
• Statistics manipulation, analytics
• Reporting and writing
• Training capacities