The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The mission of the Global Policy & Advocacy (GPA) division is to understand and shape the public policy debates affecting the foundation's work, build support for its major program and policy objectives, and develop partnerships and alliances that can advance the foundation's objectives nationally and globally. Because the foundation's resources alone are not enough to solve the challenges ahead, GPA also supports advocacy efforts to engage diverse partners and promote innovative solutions that advance our program goals. We work in close partnership with grantees, our colleagues in the Global Health, Global Development, Global Growth & Opportunity, U.S. and Gender Equality programs, and Foundation Communications to build an environment in which all people have the opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives.

The Program Advocacy and Communications (PAC) team works in partnership with program teams and teams in GPA to achieve their policy and finance goals by:
• Developing and coordinating the execution of advocacy and communications strategies.
• Developing, when required, resource mobilization strategies in collaboration with relevant teams.
• Demonstrating leadership and foundation voice to implement advocacy strategies.
• Developing and leading a grant portfolio dedicated to achieving advocacy outcomes.
• Directly advocating with sector leaders, influencers, media, and government officials to achieve advocacy outcomes.
• Leading issue-specific communications in service of advocacy goals.
• Developing policy recommendations or proposals in partnership with programmatic and regional offices.

Application Deadline: 7th July, 2026

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Your Role

This is an issue communications and advocacy role — not a general country communications, brand, reputation, media relations, or corporate communications position.

The Senior Program Officer will lead issue communications, policy advocacy, and strategic communications that translate the foundation's renewed Agricultural Development strategy, Policy, Government Relations and Partnerships (PGRP) priorities, and Economic Opportunity agenda into actionable influence, strengthened partner capacity, and narrative change in Nigeria, with targeted contributions across Africa.

The role demands a senior issue communications and advocacy professional with deep experience operating at the intersection of policy, political economy, programmatic communications, and systems change. The successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to translate complex agricultural and economic opportunity priorities into issue-driven influence strategies that shape narratives, strengthen partner ecosystems, support policy reform, and accelerate implementation outcomes. They should bring strong political judgment, experience working through locally led advocacy networks, grantmaking expertise, and the ability to navigate contested information environments — while supporting senior leadership engagement and partnership-building efforts across Africa.

Using issue communications, evidence translation, partner engagement, and narrative-shaping as its primary tools, the role will advance policy influence and programmatic outcomes. It will position agriculture as a driver of economic opportunity, food and nutrition security, job creation, women's economic empowerment, climate resilience, and inclusive growth. It will support the foundation's big bets and respond to leadership expectations for sharper policy influence, stronger partner ecosystems, disciplined grant execution, and clearer evidence-based narratives for agricultural transformation.

This position sits at the intersection of agricultural development, public policy, political economy, advocacy, issue communications, and investment strategy. It is designed for a leader who can work through partners, shape high-stakes policy debates, build coalitions, manage advocacy communications investments, and protect reform momentum in contested information environments. While the role will work closely with Communications colleagues to ensure alignment and coordination, its mandate is firmly rooted in issue communications and advocacy — driving the narrative and policy conditions necessary for lasting agricultural transformation.

• Agriculture is central to the foundation's economic opportunity agenda in Nigeria and across Africa, including productivity, inclusive markets, climate adaptation, livelihoods, nutrition, and women's economic empowerment.

• Nigeria is a priority country for demonstrating how agriculture-led growth can unlock broad-based economic opportunity when policy, investment, implementation, and accountability are aligned.

• The role should support the new AgDev strategy by moving beyond general awareness-building toward targeted policy influence, partner-led advocacy, evidence translation, and system-level reform narratives.

• The role should support PRGP priorities by connecting agriculture advocacy to country/continental-level political windows, public financing, delivery institutions, accountability, and the broader reform ecosystem.

• The role should reflect lessons from recent Nigeria engagement and leadership expectations: sharper prioritization, stronger local ownership, better coordination across foundation teams, and clearer line of sight from communications activities to policy outcomes.

What You’ll Do

1). Time Allocation and Geographic Focus

60% - Nigeria agriculture policy, advocacy, and strategic communications

• Lead Nigeria-specific advocacy communications strategies that advance defined agricultural development, economic opportunity, and country office priorities.

• Support policy and implementation moments through grants linked to agricultural transformation, including public investment, input and extension systems, market access, value-chain development, climate resilience, digital agriculture, inclusive finance, and women's economic empowerment.

• Serve as the primary advocacy communications partner to Nigeria-based Economic Opportunity and Ag dev leadership, ensuring strong alignment with NCO 2026 priorities and the foundation's approach in Nigeria.

40% - Africa regional agriculture and economic opportunity advocacy communications

• Contribute to regional and pan-African advocacy narratives and partner ecosystems where ARO priorities intersect with continental agriculture, food systems, DPI, inclusive finance, and women's economic empowerment agendas.

• Manage regional grants and strategic partnerships that strengthen advocacy capacity, policy influence, storytelling, and learning across priority African contexts.

2). Strategy, prioritization, and policy influence

• Develop and execute a Nigeria agriculture advocacy communications strategy aligned with the new AgDev strategy, PRGP priorities, NCO priorities, and relevant investment goals.

• Identify priority policy windows, decision-makers, risks, partners, messages, and influence pathways where communications can accelerate reform or protect progress.

• Translate technical agricultural priorities into clear, politically aware narratives for policymakers, regulators, public-sector delivery institutions, political leaders, civil society actors, private-sector actors, media influencers, and development partners.

• Ensure advocacy communications plans are disciplined, sequenced, measurable, and linked to policy, financing, implementation, or ecosystem outcomes - not just outputs or visibility.

3). Nigeria narrative shaping and evidence translation

• Shape compelling narratives that connect agriculture to jobs, incomes, food security, nutrition, resilience, women's economic empowerment, and inclusive economic growth.

• Convert evidence, investment insights, grantee learning, and policy analysis into usable advocacy assets, briefs, talking points, convening materials, partner toolkits, and leadership messaging.

• Support high-stakes policy, budgetary, regulatory, and implementation moments with timely messaging, stakeholder analysis, and partner activation.

• Strengthen the foundation's ability to communicate agricultural transformation as a national development and economic opportunity priority in Nigeria.

4). Partner ecosystem building and coalition support

• Build and steward a strong advocacy communications ecosystem of Nigerian and African partners capable of advancing locally grounded agricultural policy reform.

• Support partners to improve message discipline, storytelling, policymaker engagement, evidence use, coalition coordination, and adaptive advocacy.

• Prioritize local ownership and partner-led influence, ensuring the foundation enables credible voices rather than substituting for them.

• Identify ecosystem gaps and drive investments that strengthen advocacy infrastructure, accountability, and reform sustainability.

5). Grant strategy, management, and learning

• Develop clear theories of change, outcomes, milestones, partner roles and responsibilities, risk mitigation plans, and results frameworks for grants.

• Design, manage, and oversee advocacy communications grants aligned with AgDev, PRGP, EO PAC, and NCO priorities.

• Monitor grant performance, synthesize evidence of influence, document learnings, and recommend adaptive adjustments to advocacy approach.

• Ensure grantmaking strengthens partner capacity, ecosystem resilience, and measurable policy or implementation progress.

6). Risk, misinformation, and contested policy environments

• Develop proactive and responsive approaches to misinformation and disinformation that could undermine reform momentum or partner credibility.

• Monitor political, media, and information risks affecting agriculture policy, technologies, markets, public financing, inclusion, and reform implementation.

• Advise internal teams and partners on narrative risk, stakeholder sensitivities, reputational considerations, and politically informed communications choices.

7). Cross-foundation coordination

• Coordinate closely with Nigeria Country Office leadership, AgDev, Economic Opportunity, PRGP, Africa Regional Office, Global Policy and Advocacy, Communications, and relevant foundation business partners.

• Ensure Nigeria and regional agriculture advocacy communications are coherent with broader foundation priorities across DPI, inclusive financial systems, nutrition, climate adaptation, and women’s economic opportunity.

• Contribute to leadership briefings, trip preparation, post-trip follow-up, partner engagement plans, and strategic decision-making.

Your Experience

• At least 7 years’ experience in policy advocacy communications, strategic communications, public affairs, or issue-based advocacy, preferably in agriculture, food systems, rural development, or economic opportunity.

• Strong understanding of Nigeria's policy and political economy environment, with the ability to operate effectively in sensitive, complex, and contested reform spaces.

• Demonstrated ability to translate technical evidence into policy-relevant narratives, messages, and advocacy strategies.

• Experience working through partner-led advocacy ecosystems, coalitions, and locally credible voices.

• Experience designing, managing, or supporting advocacy-oriented grants and contracts

• Strong strategy, synthesis, writing, facilitation, stakeholder management, and influencing skills.

• Ability to work across geographies, teams, and issue areas while maintaining clear priorities and accountability for results.

• Experience with agricultural transformation, food systems policy, public investment in agriculture, climate adaptation, digital agriculture, and inclusive finance.

• Experience supporting senior leadership engagements, country visits, policy convenings, or high-stakes external moments.

• Experience addressing misinformation, disinformation, or contested narratives in public policy environments using digital tools and platforms.

• Familiarity with key continental or regional policy frameworks, African agriculture institutions, coalitions, and advocacy platforms.

Other attributes

• It is not a traditional press office, media-relations, events, or corporate communications role.

• It is not primarily about foundation visibility or brand promotion.

• It is not a purely technical agriculture role; it requires political judgment, advocacy strategy, and communications leadership.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences and build consensus, ideal.

• A deep understanding to development issues in Nigeria.

• Willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact HR@gatesfoundation.org with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.