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.

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.