Grants and Procurement Officer REGAIN

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: GPO/PMU/05/2025

AGRA and its Work

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million small-farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and link to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable, youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers, allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.
5. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.

Implementing Our New Strategy Through People

People are the heart of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery and our impact.

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the continent, combined with an inclusive and diverse workforce from over 24 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems’ transformation by being Deeply collaborative, Executing Excellently, Sincerely Constructive, and Increasingly Entrepreneurial, aligned with our values of (I-RISE; Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship, and Equity).

The Program

The RE-GAIN program – Scaling solutions for food loss in Africa, aims to address the impacts of climate change on harvest and post-harvest food losses in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The program focuses on strengthening food security by supporting the innovative adaptation of the harvest and post-harvest value chain. It seeks to reduce food loss, improve food quality, enhance local capacity, and reduce climate risks through the wide-scale adoption of Food Loss-Reduction Solutions (FL-RS) among smallholder farmers. The program operates across three primary pathways: farmer-centric, supplier-centric, and institutional support.

We are looking for people who are passionate about Africa to join our innovative, growing, and multidisciplinary team. Together, we can grow Africa’s food systems by improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Want to join us?

The Position

Grants and Procurement Officer Job Reference: GPO/PMU/05/2025

The Grants and Procurement Officer – RE-GAIN: Food Loss Reduction Program will be responsible for facilitating, managing, coordinating, and overseeing the overall process of sourcing and contracting of implementing partners and service providers on the RE-GAIN Program. The officer will also coordinate and oversee all other implementing partners’ contracts and procurement activities of the RE-GAIN program across all target countries. He/she shall ensure that the grant-making and procurement processes are undertaken as per laid down policies, rules, and regulations while enforcing transparency and accountability to ensure value for money. He/she will also be responsible for managing the performance and reporting processes as per AGRA policies and procedures throughout the grants lifecycle.

The ideal candidate will manage all grants as per AGRA policies as follows: request for concept notes, request for proposal, evaluation, selection, award letters, grantee orientation, grant compliance issues, implementation, reporting, and closeout as per AGRA grants policy. He/she will manage framework agreements, routine procurement activities such as consultancies, meeting venues, and management of the asset inventories and disposal processes where required, in accordance with AGRA procurement policies and procedures. He/she will work closely with the operations and program teams to process all grant and procurement activities of the REGAIN Program. In close collaboration with Procurement and Grants colleagues, he/she will support in identifying and implementing transformational strategies related to grant-making, procurement infrastructure, and execution.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Procurement Best Practices

• Ensure procurement best practices are followed using the detailed guidelines provided in AGRA’s Procurement Policy and Procedures Manual.
• Identify grantees requiring technical assistance and facilitate training as needed, including assisting in compliance with AGRA grant application and reporting requirements.
• Manage the portfolio performance of designated countries’ investments (financial performance, payments, amendments, and updating due diligence).
• Coordinate country procurements and ensure that the teams are adequately trained, vendors prequalified, and overall compliance with the procurement and grants policies and procedures manuals.

Procurement Planning and Implementation Coordination

• Liaise with the Head – Program Management Unit, the Head of Grants and the Head of Procurement in the preparation of annual procurement plans and grants pipelines, ensuring that the plans are followed, including quarterly meetings with the Operations Heads to update the plan.
• Review procurement requests and initiate procurement procedures for office and project equipment, supplies, and services in a transparent and cost-effective manner.
• In consultation with the Head of Procurement, prepare and distribute invitations to pre-qualify, pre-qualification documents, invitations to express interest, requests for proposals (RFPs) incorporating terms of reference (TOR), or requests for quotations (RFQs), and statements of work.
• Participate in evaluation of proposals, due diligence checks, negotiations and prepare evaluation reports as guided by the Head of Procurement.

Grant Coordination

• Coordinate country teams to ensure efficient turnaround on grant/service providers’ engagement processes, such as identification and selection of partners, disbursements, review of reports, among others.
• Liaise with the Head – Program management Unit and technical officers on the RE-GAIN Program to develop and manage the grant pipelines.
• Coordinate the timely reporting of grant activities across all RE-GAIN countries.
• Coordinate and update all grant-related data in AMIS.
• Coordinate and manage requests for expressions of interest, requests for concept notes, and requests for proposals.
• Review all grant ToRs.
• Monitor and support institutional delivery through facilitating country portfolio performance, by providing advisory on grants design and re-design for delivery.
• Continuously monitor, track, and resolve emerging issues and risks for process and system improvement.
• Review reports and requests from countries and initiate approvals.
• Extract, analyze, and interpret statistical and qualitative information.
• Prepare reports and communicate results of the grants portfolio on a regular or ad-hoc basis.
• Regularly assess the quality of the data and follow up on problematic issues.
• Collaborate with M&E to provide support in data management and data quality

Procurement and Grants Needs Determination

• In liaison with the Head – Program Management Unit, determine the purchasing and grants/service providers’ needs and specifications related to the RE-GAIN Program.

Staff Sensitization and Training

• Sensitize staff regularly on the procurement and grants processes through regular updates and staff training.
• Support In-Country Grants Officers (GOs) on capacity-building training, e.g., grantee and service providers onboarding orientation, AMIS training as appropriate.
• Coordinate and peer review with In-Country Grants Officers on grantee monitoring and portfolio performance health checks for countries.
• Train program teams on sound financial management to review work-plans, budget and reports from grantees to ensure compliance with AGRA and donor policy guidelines.
• Provide guidance and facilitate grantee institutional capacity strengthening plans, ensuring that grantees have internal controls that adequately measure and manage the risks.
• Provide leadership in grantee risk and compliance training, mentoring, monitoring, reporting, and systems strengthening.
• Support coordination of project-specific audits and donor-driven grantee audits.
• Coordinate flow down donor reporting requirements from grantees and ensure 100% compliance from grantees e.g., 100% reporting & expenditure validation.
• Coordinate HQ grants unit audits and track audit issues, queries, and disallowed costs.
• Coordinate the implementation of grantee audit recommendations across the organization.
• Coordinate assessment of partners, identify, and mitigate risks in situations where contractual obligations may not be met.

Bid Participation and Review

• Participate in bid opening(s) and proposal(s) reviews of both grant applications and procurement bids.
• Provide oversight and guidance in technical and financial evaluations

Negotiation and Contract Management

• Conduct and collaborate with the Procurement team on negotiations or recommend a negotiating team where applicable and negotiate contractual agreements with suppliers and service providers to ensure service quality, added value, and the lowest total cost.
• Maintain tender/contract/grants register

Supplier and Service Provider Relationship Development

• Continuously develop and manage supplier and service provider relationships to deliver breakthrough performance in cost, service, and quality.

Reporting

• Contribute success stories or other communications that seek to highlight the positive impact of AGRA’s procurement and grants operations.
• Manage the alert warning mechanism for both grantee and donor flow-down compliance in day-to-day grant management activities.
• Ensure that all AGRA and donor-required administration procedures are met at grantee level, from proposal budget development through to contracting, implementation and close-out.
• Contribute to and feed into the various grants management, risk, and compliance tools and trackers.
• Support the Head of Grants in managing the annual and interim risk management process.
• Keep abreast of all regulatory compliance and other related requirements.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in Business Administration, Accounting, or a related field, and equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Certification from Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply or a near equivalent from firms such as Institute for Supply Management, American Purchasing Society, International Purchasing and Supply chain Management Institute, The International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management and others is an added advantage.
• Certification in grant-making and management is an added advantage
• Membership to a professional procurement association.
• Knowledge and experience of donor and government(s) procurement processes and procedures
• Knowledge of ERP systems such as Oracle SCM system and other ICT applications, including Excel.
• Experience in a multi-program International NGO.
• Experience and knowledge in the procurement of consultancy services.
• Relevant experience in a grant-making environment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop comprehensive annual procurement plans, maintain strong supplier relationships, execute vendor prequalification processes, conduct evaluations and market research, and analyze data to inform procurement decisions.
• Demonstrate the ability to effectively monitor grantee budget utilization and maintain accurate records while analyzing grant-related data to identify trends and insights, ensuring transparent communication and accountability through comprehensive reporting on grantee progress, achievements, and compliance.
• Demonstrates proficiency in utilizing relevant computer applications and software, such as Oracle, GIFTs, and AMIS.
• Exhibits understanding of relevant legislative and regulatory requirements, standard contractual terms and conditions, and donor and government procurement processes to effectively manage procurement and contracting activities.
• Exhibits capability in managing the bid process by preparing and distributing invitations for bids, proposals, and quotations.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number GPO/PMU/05/2025 in the subject line of the application email.

Applications must be received on or before 5^th June 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

For more information on AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer