AGRA

General Counsel & Corporation Secretary

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: PR/GCCS/09/2025

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 small-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 link 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.
5. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.

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).

The Position

General Counsel & Corporation Secretary Job Reference: PR/GCCS/09/2025

Purpose: To lead AGRA’s legal function and governance, ensuring the institution operates with integrity, compliance and accountability while maximizing the effectiveness of its Board and governance structures.

This role combines legal stewardship, board governance, institutional compliance and strategic advisory to the President and Board. The General Counsel & Corporate Secretary will ensure AGRA’s legal resilience across its multi-country operations, while enabling its Board to play a more strategic, value-adding role in the transformation of African food systems.

The General Counsel & Corporate Secretary will report to the President administratively and to the Board Chair in their secretarial capacity, serving as a key member of AGRA’s executive leadership team.

The General Counsel & Corporate Secretary will:

• Serve as AGRA’s principal legal advisor: oversee all legal matters, mitigate legal risk, and ensure statutory and regulatory compliance across multiple African jurisdictions.
• Strengthening governance and Board effectiveness: act as Secretary to AGRA’s Board and Committees; manage board documentation, action tracking, and communication; enhance alignment between Board and Management.
• Enable strategic Board engagement: design systems and structures that leverage AGRA’s influential Board more fully supporting strategic input, stakeholder convening, and aligned communications.
• Lead institutional compliance: review contracts, grants, procurements and partnerships; ensure legal soundness and adherence to donor and statutory requirements; provide oversight of litigation.
• Build capacity and leadership: develop and mentor AGRA’s legal team; oversee external counsel; ensure governance and legal processes are strategic enablers rather than bottlenecks.
• Shape future structures: advise on placement of risk, compliance and regulatory affairs functions within AGRA, ensuring alignment with best practice.

Key Responsibilities of the role include: 

• Legal Stewardship and Risk Management

• Serve as AGRA’s principal legal advisor, providing timely counsel to the President, Executive Committee, and Board.

• Ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements across AGRA’s multi-country operations.

• Lead contract negotiation, drafting and review for grants, procurements, partnerships, and consultancy agreements.

• Manage litigation, oversee external counsel, and safeguard AGRA’s legal and reputational integrity.

• Establish and enforce policies, processes and systems that reduce legal risk and enhance institutional efficiency.

• Governance and Board Effectiveness

• Act as Secretary to the Board of Directors and its Committees, accountable to the Board Chair.

• Manage the scheduling, preparation, and documentation of all Board and Committee meetings, ensuring best-in-class governance practices.

• Drive innovation in Board engagement, introducing practices such as communiqués and enhanced strategic dialogue to optimize Board contribution.

• Support the President and Board Chair in strengthening AGRA’s governance frameworks, aligning them with international best practice.

• Board Relations and Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and sustain strong relationships with AGRA’s influential Board members, enabling them to contribute more fully to AGRA’s strategy.

• Ensure alignment of external communications with Board messaging; manage Board-related communications and representation at key convenings.

• Work closely with the Partnerships and Communications teams to leverage Board members’ networks for institutional positioning and strategic opportunities.

• Serve as a trusted liaison between the Board, management, and external stakeholders on governance and legal matters.

• Compliance and Regulatory Affairs

• Provide oversight of organizational compliance, including grants, procurement and donor requirements.

• Advise on the institutional placement of enterprise risk, compliance, and regulatory affairs functions, ensuring coherence and independence of checks and balances.

• Maintain custody of AGRA’s legal documents and ensure adherence to donor, national, and international compliance frameworks.

• Partner with internal audit and risk functions to ensure robust governance and accountability mechanisms.

• Leadership and Capacity Building

• Lead, mentor, and develop AGRA’s legal and governance team, fostering a culture of professionalism, accountability, and service excellence.

• Strengthening legal capacity across the organization through training and knowledge-sharing.

• Ensure that legal and governance functions are enablers of AGRA’s mission, supporting agility and innovation while safeguarding compliance.

• Build strong relationships with external legal partners and regulators, ensuring AGRA is represented effectively in relevant forums.

The Ideal Leader

This is a pivotal executive role in a moment of transformation for AGRA. The ideal leader will bring not only legal excellence but also the vision and gravitas to strengthen institutional governance and help AGRA navigate complexity with agility.

The ideal leader will be:

• Strategic and seasoned: a senior lawyer with pan-African legal experience, deep operating expertise in Kenyan law, and maturity gained from working across jurisdictions and complex organizations.
• Governance-minded: adept at board relations, skilled in enabling high-performing boards, and committed to the highest standards of governance and compliance.
• Stakeholder-savvy: able to engage confidently with government, donors, partners, and Board members, leveraging networks to advance AGRA’s mission.
• Team-builder: capable of leading and empowering a legal and governance team, with a focus on mentoring, delegation and institutional resilience.
• Adaptive and values-led: resilient under pressure, collaborative in style, and motivated by AGRA’s mission to transform Africa’s food systems.

Key Requirements of the role include:

• Master’s degree in law from a recognized university; admission to the Bar in a sub-Saharan African jurisdiction.
• Certified Public Secretary; Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
• At least 15 years’ post-qualification legal experience, with significant leadership in a pan-African or multi-country roles.
• Proven experience in board governance, corporate secretariat functions, and compliance management.
• Strong negotiation, litigation and contract management expertise.
• Demonstrated ability to build legal teams and mentor senior counsel.
• Excellent communication skills: ability to influence and align senior stakeholders including Board members.
• Experience in non-profit, intergovernmental, or international development organizations is a distinct advantage.

AGRA is a crucible for diversity and equal opportunity organization. We welcome the torch bearers of change for this role. All expressions of interest will be enveloped in confidentiality. Interested executives are requested to send in a cover letter and their updated resume/CV via email to recruit@agra.org before the application deadline of 3rd October 2025. 

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

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer