Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people- especially those with the fewest resources - have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Senior Program Officer - Agriculture Policy, Advocacy & Strategic Communications
Job Requisition ID:B021558
Location: Abuja
Employment type: Full-time
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.