Specialist - Program Governance, YEFFA Program

AGRA is seeking a Specialist - Program Governance for the YEFFA Program in Nairobi, Kenya. The role involves coordinating and documenting governance structures, ensuring alignment between strategic decisions and operational delivery. Key responsibilities include managing governance processes, tracking action points, preparing briefs, and maintaining governance calendars. The position aims to strengthen AGRA's partnerships and ensure effective oversight across ten YEFFA countries, focusing on inclusive agricultural transformation.
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 five areas of intervention:


Policy and state capability - We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation. 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. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation. Inclusive markets trade and finance – We work to increase the linkages between farmers and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.
The Position The Specialist - Program Governance is responsible for ensuring the effective coordination, documentation, and implementation of YEFFA’s technical governance structure. This includes the Program Steering Group (PSG), Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), and Coordination & Collaboration Committee (CCC). The role provides essential oversight and logistical management of governance processes that ensure alignment between strategic decisions, operational delivery, and institutional accountability across AGRA’s 10 YEFFA countries.


The ideal candidate will serve as the governance backbone of the YEFFA Portfolio Management Hub (PMH), ensuring that decision-making processes are well-documented, action points are tracked, and feedback loops between oversight and delivery are efficient. S/he will maintain governance calendars, coordinate high-level meetings, prepare briefs, and track the implementation of resolutions. The role is critical for strengthening AGRA’s credibility and coherence with the Mastercard Foundation and other strategic partners by ensuring that all governance engagements are timely, transparent, and results-oriented.


Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Governance Coordination and Documentation


Provide high-level coordination support to YEFFA governance bodies and associated boards/committees. Plan and manage governance calendars, including scheduling, logistics, and meeting coordination for PSG, SAG, and CCC. Prepare and circulate agendas, briefs, and background materials in advance of meetings. Document, synthesize, and share minutes, action points, and follow-up trackers to drive accountability. Ensure alignment of governance decisions with organizational policies, donor requirements, and regulatory frameworks in collaboration with the Director, Gender, Youth and Inclusiveness.
Decision Tracking and Alignment
Maintain a centralized governance decision log and track implementation of action items to completion. Monitor progress of resolutions and recommendations to ensure strategic and operational alignment. Identify bottlenecks, escalate risks, and support timely resolution with relevant leadership. Produce periodic (including monthly) governance performance updates and insights for leadership. Ensure systematic archiving of governance records within AGRA’s knowledge repository.
Stakeholder Relations and Coordination
Serve as the central coordination point for governance stakeholders, including PSG, SAG, CCC, AGRA leadership, and external partners. Facilitate effective stakeholder engagement and communication before and after governance meetings. Coordinate cros