AGRA is an African-led institution that works to transform agri-food systems across the continent. For twenty years, AGRA has been working in partnership with people across the continent to build a more prosperous future for smallholders. Grounded in country priorities, AGRA partners with governments, the private sector, research institutions and development actors to identify and unlock systemic constraints that limit smallholder farmer productivity, market access and resilience. Through catalytic investment, technical insight and convening power, AGRA supports inclusive, sustainable transformation that strengthens food security and long-term economic growth.
The Vice President - Country Programs and Government Relations is a member of AGRA’s Executive Committee, reporting to the President, and is accountable for overseeing AGRA’s work in countries or lighthouses. The mandate for this leader to ensure agrifood system transformation is “increasingly led, financed, and sustained by national institutions” positions national governments as the principal engine to scale. It positions AGRA as an enabler of national agendas, not a parallel delivery mechanism. The role turns AGRA’s strategy into a focused portfolio of country-owned transformation agendas and enables Country Directors and their small teams to operate as trusted advisers, conveners, orchestrators, and delivery partners to governments and the wider agrifood ecosystem.
The Vice President equips country teams to deploy AGRA’s full institutional toolkit - strategic grants, policy and institutional support, technical expertise, evidence and learning, partnership building, resource and investment mobilization, and communications – towards achieving an agrifoods transformation. The role helps each country move beyond disconnected projects toward coordinated action that enables Government to deliver their agriculture transformation strategy.
This is a senior operating and leadership role with end-to-end accountability for Country Programs and Government Relations. The Vice President ensures that agreed country strategies are translated into executable plans; targets, milestones, budgets, grants, risks, and partner commitments are actively managed; and Country Directors and their teams deliver the results for which they are accountable. The role establishes rigorous performance and review rhythms, intervenes early when delivery is off track, resolves organizational barriers, and makes the resource, priority, and people decisions needed to restore performance. At the same time, the Vice President coaches and develops Country Directors, mobilizes AGRA’s full toolkit and external relationships around country priorities, and builds the government, private sector, donor, and local partnerships needed to unlock larger flows of action and investment. Success is measured both by disciplined execution - agreed targets and outcomes achieved, budgets managed, partnerships performing, and commitments delivered - and by durable changes in institutions, incentives, investment, markets, and delivery capability.
1. Country Strategy & Transformation
Set and continuously improve AGRA’s country-delivery model, translating organizational strategy into a coherent portfolio of country-owned transformation agendas across 5 to 6 focus countries or light-house model.
Guide Country Directors to undertake rigorous country, sector, market, institutional, and political-economy diagnostics that identify binding constraints, credible reform windows, high-leverage opportunities, and actors capable of leading change.
With governments and ecosystem partners, select a small number of priorities where AGRA has a distinctive catalytic role; make explicit choices about what AGRA will lead, support, influence, scale, or stop.
Ensure each country strategy connects farm profitability and resilience, supply-demand linkages, markets and value addition, finance and risk management, and political and institutional delivery rather than treating them as isolated workstreams.
Translate priorities into sequenced, multi-year country plans with clear outcomes, theories of change, intervention and grant portfolios, policy pathways, investment requirements, delivery arrangements, risk assumptions, and exit or institutionalization strategies.
Maintain differentiated approaches by country context, including level of state capability, market maturity, fragility, climate exposure, political opportunity, and AGRA’s comparative advantage.
Chair disciplined portfolio reviews that test whether interventions remain relevant and catalytic, and take timely decisions to accelerate, redesign, pause, or exit work based on evidence and changing conditions.
Connect country priorities to regional trade, corridors, continental initiatives, research, technology, and financing opportunities where cross-border action can unlock greater impact.
Ensure gender equity, youth opportunity, climate and natural-resource resilience, nutrition, and smallholder and local-enterprise inclusion are embedded in core country choices and results, not managed as peripheral themes.
2. Government & Institutional Partnership
Establish and steward trusted senior relationships with heads of government institutions, ministers, permanent secretaries, delivery agencies, sub-national authorities, and other public leaders central to country transformation priorities.
Coach Country Directors to navigate political economy with judgement and integrity: understand incentives and decision processes, identify reform champions, manage sensitivities, and protect AGRA’s non-partisan and mission-led standing.
Position AGRA as a candid strategic partner that brings evidence, implementation discipline, networks, and practical problem-solving - while ensuring that government and national actors retain ownership and accountability.
Support policy development through the full reform cycle: agenda setting, analysis and consultation, decision and enactment, implementation planning, institutional capacity, financing, monitoring, and course correction.
Strengthen anchor institutions, coordination platforms, delivery units, and local agencies that can sustain execution beyond an individual project, funding cycle, administration, or AGRA’s direct involvement.
Assess coordination mechanisms against five tests - authority, focus, accountability, durability, and representation - and help partners correct weaknesses that turn coordination into meetings without decisions or follow-through.
Build the capacity of public institutions and local partners through embedded support, targeted expertise, practical tools, peer exchange, and learning-by-doing rather than substituting for their roles.
Maintain high-level situational awareness and provide the President and Executive Committee with timely insight on policy shifts, political transitions, delivery risks, partnership opportunities, and issues requiring executive intervention.
3. Ecosystem Orchestration & Investment
Map the actors, incentives, capabilities, relationships, and resource flows around each priority and identify the specific coordination failures preventing actors from investing or acting together.
Enable Country Directors to convene focused coalitions of government, private sector, producers, financial institutions, donors, research and civilsociety organizations around defined decisions, commitments, investments,and delivery milestones.
Use AGRA’s neutral platform and relationships to align supply with credible demand, connect producers and enterprises to markets, support local value addition and trade, and address bottlenecks that cannot be solved by a single actor.
Develop deep, purposeful relationships with domestic and international companies, investors, banks, insurers, off-takers, aggregators, processors, and logistics providers relevant to country priorities.
Work with partners to shape investable opportunities, improve enabling conditions, reduce real and perceived risk, and mobilize public and concessional resources that unlock larger flows of private capital.
Coordinate with bilateral and multilateral partners, foundations, and implementing organizations to reduce duplication, align support behind country-led priorities, and direct funding toward unresolved system constraints.
Secure explicit commitments from coalition members, establish transparent governance and escalation routes, track collective delivery, and intervene when interests, incentives, or power imbalances threaten results or inclusion.
Represent AGRA selectively at high-value national forums, negotiations, and partner engagements where executive presence can build trust, unblock action, secure resources, or elevate effective country practice.
4. Country Leadership & Full Toolkit
Lead, coach, mentor, and hold accountable the 15 Country Directors, creating a high-trust environment in which they can exercise local judgement, surface difficult realities early, and make clear strategic choices.
Set explicit expectations for Country Directors as ecosystem leaders - not only managers of offices and grants - including government counsel, coalition leadership, opportunity development, resource mobilization, and delivery discipline.
Provide differentiated support based on country needs and leadership maturity, including regular one-to one coaching, field-based problem solving, deal and stakeholder reviews, and targeted executive sponsorship.
Build strong, fit-for-purpose country teams with the right mix of relationship, policy, market, grant, execution, and analytical capabilities; address performance gaps and succession risks promptly.
Create peer networks and structured practice exchanges through which Country Directors and teams can test ideas, share failures and solutions, and adapt relevant approaches across contexts.
Broker rapid access to AGRA’s technical experts and enterprise functions. Translate country needs into clear assignments, agree outputs and accountabilities, and ensure support is practical, timely, and integrated into country decisions.
Deploy the full AGRA toolkit intentionally: grants, policy and institutional advice, technical expertise, evidence and foresight, convening, partnership and resource mobilization, investment facilitation, communications, and executive influence.
Create cross-functional country squads for priority outcomes, resolve conflicts between vertical functions and country needs, and escalate enterprise barriers that country teams cannot remove themselves.
Protect an entrepreneurial culture that surfaces ideas from local actors, tests promising approaches with discipline, and scales only when evidence, ownership, capability, and financing support durability.
5. Portfolio, Grants & Accountability
Own the overall quality, coherence, performance, and risk profile of AGRA’s country portfolio, ensuring that resources are concentrated on priorities capable of producing catalytic and durable results.
Establish clear stage gates for country initiatives and grants - from concept and partner selection through design, approval, implementation, adaptation, close-out, and sustainability - with evidence proportionate to the decision and risk.
Ensure grants are used as strategic instruments to build capability, test or de-risk solutions, enable coordination, and leverage wider action, rather than as disconnected projects or ends in themselves.
Review country work plans, budgets, pipelines, forecasts, resource deployment, and performance dashboards; make trade-offs across countries transparently and allocate flexible support to the highest value opportunities and risks.
Maintain strong delivery rhythms with Country Directors, including milestone tracking, outcome reviews, financial and grant performance, partner commitments, emerging risks, and decisions or executive interventions required.
Work with Impact and Learning functions to define credible outcome indicators, baselines, contribution pathways, and decision-useful evidence; require teams to adapt when assumptions fail or contexts change.
Ensure timely, accurate, and candid reporting to the President, Executive Committee, Board, donors, governments, and partners, distinguishing activity, output, outcome, leverage, contribution, and sustainability.
Hold country operations to high standards of financial stewardship, legal and donor compliance, safeguarding, ethics, security, duty of care, data protection, and reputation management.
Anticipate and manage contextual, fiduciary, delivery, partnership, political, and security risks; lead remediation of underperformance and activate escalation and crisis-management protocols when necessary.
Ensure country offices are operationally lean and enabling, with systems and processes proportionate to their mission and with corporate services responsive to frontline delivery needs.
6. Adaptation, Scale & Enterprise Leadership
Create a country-led learning agenda focused on the practical questions that shape strategy and execution, including which combinations of policy, institutional, market, finance, and coordination interventions work, for whom, and under what conditions.
Build regular reflection and adaptation into portfolio governance; reward teams for surfacing weak signals, failures, and unintended effects early and for making evidence-based changes rather than defending sunk costs.
Identify practices, institutional models, partnerships, and innovations with potential beyond one context; support codification, peer validation, adaptation, and responsible replication across countries.
Feed country intelligence and demand into AGRA’s continental programs, technical priorities, foresight, policy positions, fundraising, and external narrative; ensure continental work in turn delivers tangible value to countries.
Contribute to organizational strategy, annual planning, investment and resource-allocation decisions, enterprise risk management, culture, and cross-functional performance as an active member of the Executive Committee.
Partner with Development to shape fundable country propositions and steward strategic donors; ensure fundraising follows country priorities and does not create fragmented delivery commitments.
Partner with Communications and Thought Leadership functions to elevate credible African solutions and country voices while protecting government relationships, partner contributions, and evidence integrity.
Represent AGRA with authority in selected external forums and networks, building confidence in AGRA as an African institution capable of helping countries organize and deliver agrifood transformation.
Model AGRA’s I-RISE values and The AGRA We Want behaviours; build a collaborative, inclusive, accountable, learning-oriented, and entrepreneurial country-delivery culture.
Education
Master’s degree or equivalent in agricultural economics, economics, public policy, public administration, international development, business, food systems, or a closely related field.
A combination of highly relevant executive experience and professional education may be considered where it demonstrates equivalent depth.
Professional Qualifications & Languages
Relevant executive education or professional qualification in strategy execution, public-sector delivery, portfolio or program management, systems change, finance, negotiation, or executive coaching is advantageous.
Excellent command of written and spoken English is required.
Professional proficiency in French is a strong advantage; additional African languages are valued.
Relevant Experience
20+ years of progressively responsible experience in agricultural transformation, economic development, public policy and delivery, market systems, or a related field, including at least 8 years in senior executive leadership.
Demonstrated success leading decentralized, multi-country teams and coaching senior country or regional leaders to deliver through influence, partnership, and local ownership.
Substantial leadership experience in Africa and a strong understanding of the diversity of African political economies, institutions, markets, and agrifood systems.
Track record of building trusted relationships with ministers, senior civil servants, private-sector executives, investors, donors, producer organizations, and local institutions.
Evidence of moving complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives from diagnosis and coalition building to policy, investment, institutional, and delivery results.
Experience shaping and managing large grant or program portfolios, including partner selection, adaptive delivery, financial stewardship, risk management, and donor accountability.
Demonstrated ability to mobilize and align funding and investment, including public resources, donor finance, and private capital, around country-owned priorities.
Experience working across policy reform, institutional strengthening, market and value-chain development, finance, resilience, and inclusion; deep expertise in every domain is not required, but the ability to integrate specialists is essential.
Strong executive communication, judgement, negotiation, and problem-solving skills, including the ability to act effectively amid ambiguity, political sensitivity, and changing conditions.
Willingness and ability to travel frequently across AGRA’s focus countries and internationally.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Research shows that individuals from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for roles unless they meet every listed qualification. At Millar Cameron, we are committed to supporting our clients in building diverse and inclusive teams. If you’re enthusiastic about this role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply - you could be exactly what our client is looking for, either for this position or another.
Please note that due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are only able to respond to candidates who are shortlisted for the next stage of the process. We sincerely appreciate your interest and the time taken to apply.
Since 2007 Millar Cameron has specialised in sourcing leadership and keyperson talent across a number of industries, including agribusiness, international development, industrial, consumer, financial and professional services, private equity, and technology, media and telecommunications. Our mission and purpose is to positively contribute to the development of Africa, and other emerging markets, through the provision of people.