Job Description
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.
