As part of the Green Commodities Programme, and to promote sustainable palm oil production and operation in Indonesia, the Ministry of Agriculture, UNDP and several multinational companies have launched the Sustainable Palm Oil (SPO) Initiative.  The SPO initiative aims to improve the capacity of palm oil smallholders and conserve natural resources together with the Government of Indonesia’s Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) system.
 
The SPOI is managed and led by a National Project Manager. One of the key activities of the SPOI is to facilitate a government-led multi-stakeholder forum (FoKSBI) to develop, formalize and then support in the implementation of a Sustainable Palm Oil National Action Plan (NAP, or RAN-KSB). One of the key activities is the engagement of various stakeholders, including the national and sub-national government, private sector, donors, civil society organizations (CSOs), and communities, to support the implementation of the NAP. The NAP has now been finalized and legalized through Presidential Instruction. The Director General of Estate Crop at the Ministry of Agriculture has stated that the forming of the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Forum or FOKSBI demonstrates that all players – government, private sector, NGOs, business associations, and smallholder associations – have the same strong determination to create a more sustainable Indonesian palm oil industry from the social, economic and environmental point of view. The Director General believes that the National Action Plan (NAP) has been developed at the right time, considering that the government has a target that by the year 2020, at least 70 percent of Indonesian palm oil is to be certified sustainable. The Indonesian government believes that as the global leader of palm oil production, Indonesia has a significant role in ensuring a sustainable product for consumers around the world. It is also a national sector that must be carefully managed and closely guarded for generations to come. The Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs believes the National Action Plan (NAP) is intended to be one of the initiatives that will play a role in transforming the sector, as it will support in coordinating much of the on-going programmes and initiatives focusing on developing a more sustainable palm oil sector. 
 
SPOI has recently expanded its scope of work beyond developing and legalizing the NAP, thanks to new funding sources including the Good Growth Partnership programme, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and SECO, IKEA  and GIZ´s contributions to the Green Commodities Programme, all parallel sources of funding to achieve the SPOI´s goals. SPOI, through those globally managed projects, already directly supports NAP´s implementation by improving the enabling policy environment for sustainable palm oil at national and subnational level including through landscape level land use planning, and by strengthening smallholder farmers’ support systems. It also has a strong component of knowledge creation and dissemination inherent within the goals. 
 
The SPO Initiative is under National Implementation Modality with the Ministry of Agriculture with support services from the UNDP Country Office. Taking into account the parallel financing mentioned above is being re-organized around 4 components:
1. Support smallholder farmers via the creation of sustainable farmers support systems that will enhance their engagement, their organization and governance (through Farmers Groups) and their adoption of good agricultural practices; 
2. Enhance dialogues, build consensus and partnerships with key national and regional stakeholders related to palm oil production, and create more effective policy enabling environments;
3. Collaborate with the government and other stakeholders to improve environmental monitoring and management; and
4. Strengthen the national palm oil ISPO standard for greater market access.
 
In order to achieve the above outcomes and outputs, the National Project Director (NPD) requires a strong and professional team to be led by the SPOI GGP National Project Manager (NPM). A SPOI NPM is being sought to support the project. 
 
As the role of stakeholders’ management is key to the success of this project and requires dedicated resources, a SPOI Senior Advisor covers that function separately.
 
Under the overall guidance and on behalf of the Project Board, the national project manager has the authority to run the project on a day-to-day basis. The national project manager is responsible for making the day-to-day decisions on project implementation and ensures that the project produces the results specified in the project document to the required standards of quality and within the specified time and cost. The primary reporting responsibility of the incumbent is to the board through the Programme Manager for Natural Resource Management, Environment with matrix reporting to the GGP Global Project Manager. Additionally, for matters related to UNDP contractual administration the Head of Environment Unit will be the secondary supervisor. The national project manager is responsible for ensuring smooth flow of information and services between the UNDP Country Office and the SPOI Project Management Unit (PMU). The post holder will also be in charge of ensuring proper design of additional workstreams and interventions to support broader SPOI programme goals, and assess project proposals for relevance and coherence. 
 
The national project manager will also be responsible for acting as main contact and main representative for SPOI nationally and internationally and including to the Green Commodities Programme (GCP) global team.