Policy, Government Relations & Partnerships Lead

Key Responsibilities:

1. Government Relations and Policy Engagement

- Build and maintain strong relationships with relevant ministries, government agencies, regulators, local authorities, public institutions, and industry associations.

- Represent the company in government meetings, policy forums, public-private dialogue platforms, trade missions, exhibitions, and stakeholder engagements.

- Monitor policy, regulatory, and legislative developments affecting food manufacturing, agriculture, nutrition, trade, tax, standards, labor, investment, and industrial development.

- Prepare policy updates, briefs, and recommendations for management.

- Support the CEO and management team in preparing for high-level government and stakeholder meetings.

- Identify government programs, incentives, partnerships, grants, and opportunities relevant to the company’s work in food manufacturing, nutrition, agriculture, and farmer empowerment.

2. Government, NGO and Institutional Tenders

- Identify relevant government tenders, NGO tenders, donor-funded opportunities, institutional supply opportunities, and corporate procurement opportunities.

- Track tenders and opportunities from ministries, government agencies, councils, schools, hospitals, UN agencies, NGOs, embassies, foundations, and development programs.

- Prepare and coordinate tender applications, expressions of interest, concept notes, proposals, quotations, and supporting documents.

- Work closely with Finance, Operations, Production, Quality, Sales, and Legal to ensure all tender submissions are complete, accurate, compliant, and submitted on time.

- Ensure the company is registered on relevant procurement portals, supplier databases, donor platforms, and government vendor systems.

- Maintain a clear tender tracker showing opportunity name, deadline, requirements, value, responsible persons, status, and follow-up actions.

- Follow up professionally after tender submissions and maintain communication with procurement officers and partner institutions.

3. NGO, Donor and Development Partner Engagement

- Identify and build partnerships with NGOs, UN agencies, donor-funded programs, foundations, embassies, development partners, and impact-focused institutions.

- Develop opportunities in nutrition, food security, agriculture, women empowerment, school feeding, emergency food supply, and local manufacturing.

- Prepare partnership proposals that position the company as a reliable local manufacturer and nutrition partner.

- Coordinate product presentations, sampling, site visits, and follow-up meetings with development partners and institutional buyers.

- Support applications for grants, donor programs, challenge funds, awards, and strategic development partnerships.

4. Strategic Partnerships and Institutional Sales Support

- Identify and develop partnerships with schools, hospitals, transport companies, corporate clients, distributors, NGOs, public institutions, and private sector partners.

- Support institutional sales by preparing company profiles, product documents, price lists, compliance documents, samples, presentations, and proposals.

- Work with Sales and Finance to ensure partnership pricing is commercially viable and aligned with the company’s production capacity.

- Maintain a partnership pipeline showing potential partners, status, value, next steps, and responsible departments.

- Ensure each partnership has clear objectives, commercial value, timelines, reporting requirements, and accountable owners.

- Follow up consistently to convert partnership discussions into signed agreements, purchase orders, contracts, or active programs.

5. Farmer Partnerships and Relationship Management

- Oversee and strengthen the company’s relationships with farmers, farmer groups, cooperatives, aggregators, and agricultural partners.

- Support structured engagement with farmers supplying raw materials to company.

- Maintain good communication between company and farmer partners to ensure trust, consistency, and long-term collaboration.

- Identify opportunities to support farmers through training, partnerships, donor programs, input support, aggregation support, and market access initiatives.

- Work with Operations, Production, and Procurement to ensure farmer relationships support quality, reliability, traceability, and sustainable supply.

- Position the company’s farmer engagement as part of the company’s wider impact story around women empowerment, local sourcing, food security, and value addition.

6. Regulatory and Compliance Support

- Work with Operations, Quality, Finance, Legal, and HR to support compliance with relevant government requirements.

- Follow up on licenses, permits, certifications, inspections, registrations, approvals, and renewals with relevant authorities.

- Maintain a tracker of government-related requirements, deadlines, pending submissions, and responsible departments.

- Support the timely resolution of regulatory issues that may affect production, distribution, imports, exports, taxation, facility operations, or institutional sales.

7. Proposal Writing, Reporting and Documentation

- Draft proposals, concept notes, expressions of interest, official letters, partnership briefs, policy briefs, company profiles, and impact summaries.

- Prepare talking points, presentations, and briefing notes for meetings with government, NGOs, donors, and strategic partners.

- Maintain proper records of meetings, contacts, commitments, applications, tenders, partnership discussions, permits, and correspondence.

- Submit weekly and monthly reports on government engagement, policy updates, tenders, partnerships, farmer engagement, risks, opportunities, and next steps.

- Ensure all statutory documents, company documents, product documents, certificates, tax documents, and compliance documents are updated and ready for tender and partnership use.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy, Political Science, Law, International Relations, Development Studies, Business Administration, Economics, Agriculture, Food Systems, or a related field.

- A master’s degree is an added advantage.

- Minimum of 5 years’ experience in government relations, public policy, partnerships, NGO engagement, donor programs, regulatory affairs, corporate affairs, procurement, tenders, or stakeholder management.

- Experience working with government institutions, NGOs, donors, development partners, farmer groups, or industry associations is highly preferred.

- Experience in food manufacturing, agriculture, nutrition, FMCG, food security, industrial development, or private-sector advocacy is an added advantage.

Required Skills and Competencies:

- Strong understanding of government systems, policy processes, procurement procedures, and regulatory requirements.

- Experience identifying and applying for tenders, grants, donor programs, and institutional supply opportunities.

- Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.

- Excellent proposal writing, report writing, and presentation skills.

- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English and Swahili.

- Ability to prepare professional letters, concept notes, policy briefs, and partnership proposals.

- Strong follow-up, coordination, planning, and documentation skills.

- Commercial awareness and ability to convert partnerships into revenue, contracts, grants, or strategic value.

- High level of professionalism, integrity, confidentiality, and discretion.

- Ability to represent the company confidently with government, donors, NGOs, farmers, and institutional partners.

- Proactive, organized, results-driven, and able to work independently.

Key Performance Indicators:

- Number of relevant tenders and institutional opportunities identified monthly.

- Number of tender applications, EOIs, proposals, and concept notes submitted.

- Value of tenders, grants, partnerships, or institutional contracts won.

- Number of active government, NGO, donor, and institutional partnerships developed.

- Number of farmer partnerships strengthened or formalized.

- Timely maintenance of tender, partnership, compliance, and farmer engagement trackers.

- Timely submission of government, NGO, donor, and institutional applications.

- Number of high-quality stakeholder meetings secured and followed up.

- Improved company visibility and positioning with government, NGOs, donors, and development partners.

- Quality and timeliness of weekly and monthly reports.

- Effective coordination with internal departments to support tenders, partnerships, compliance, and institutional sales.