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.