AGRA

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: EEO/COMMS/02/2024

AGRA and its Work

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income. 

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets. 

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation. 
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes. 
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation. 
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems’ transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive, and Increasingly Entrepreneurial aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship, and Equity).

We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

The Position

External Engagement Officer – Partners Job Reference: EEO/COMMS/02/2024

The External Engagement Officer – Partners contributes to AGRA’s efforts to position & implement the Division’s strategy that focuses on AGRA’s external engagement efforts with partners at regional and continental levels. The ideal candidate is expected to bring in seasoned marketing and relationship-building expertise, significantly contributing to the development and delivery of the division’s strategy to achieve institutional positioning ambitions and engagement efforts.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead in the conceptualization, development, and implementation of a robust partner engagement plan.

• Identify new complimentary opportunities for AGRA’s partners, programs & partners (PPP) engagement.

• Identify and generate strategic ideas that favorably improve AGRA’s and its partner’s experience and engagement experience.

• Develop partner-related content, including partner announcements, signature publications and reports, feature articles, and partner videos.

• Develop and lead engagement initiatives to ensure alignment on deliverables with partnership teams.

• Conceptualize and assist in the production of communications materials and reports for partners.

• Build favorable brand association and familiarity with key stakeholders.
• Responsible for content planning management dissemination.
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders to ensure alignment in all related communications materials.
• Increase and measure the visibility of the different partner’s work.
• Collaborate with multiple stakeholders and train partners to showcase partners’ work to key stakeholders.
• Oversee external vendors and ensure compliance with contractual obligations while building long-term cooperation agreements.
• Scope and prioritize activities and ensure timely & quality delivery of outputs.
• Drive and collaborate on AGRA and Partner events working with other teams and partners to ensure optimal outcomes for partners.
• Support in reviewing and editing partner releases, toolkits, and other engagement-related materials as necessary.
• Build and regularly update Partners database for engagement and communication purposes.
• Synthesize complex material into structured, readable documentation for targeted audiences.
• Respond to requests for information from donor, media, government, and the public regarding the programs, provide them with relevant and/or facilitate their access to relevant information sources and technical staff.
• Contribute to the other units’ requirements for building a robust market intelligence system and tools.
• Monitor, track, and report on PPP performance against agreed KPIs on time.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

• Degree in Business or related studies. Professional qualifications in CIM, Communications, or project management are an advantage.
• Must be able to work in close collaboration with staff and partners from multicultural backgrounds.
• Results-oriented, focused, accountable, proactive, good writer and communicator, and able to work with a wide range of partners.
• Ability to work effectively within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Deep understanding and knowledge of key issues relevant to development and program or product development.
• Extensive experience working with multinationals, continental frameworks, and or Global Alliances.
• Experience developing written materials and audiovisual production.
• Must be familiar with Advocacy tools of Engagement at a global level especially Europe and North America.
• relations and mid-high-level stakeholder engagement.
• Possess a solid working knowledge of social media strategy, planning, and implementation.
• Demonstrate ability to develop & execute strong social media campaigns.
• Experience in digital storytelling in multiple channels.
• Fluency in English.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 27th February 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer