Vacancy Title: Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Compliance – GAIN

About the Role

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Compliance to manage the incorporation of new entities, the change of legal status of already existing ones, and ensure compliance with local laws and regulations to maintain GAIN’s registration worldwide. This role is open to applicants both from Nairobi, Kenya or Cotonou, Benin.

The Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Compliance, will play a key role in enhancing the corporate structure of GAIN’s country programmes worldwide. This is a cross-cutting function, dealing with all teams and senior managers of the foundation.

Under oversight of the Head of the Legal, the Senior Legal Counsel, Corporate & Compliance, will manage the incorporation of new entities, the change of legal status of already existing ones, and ensure compliance with local laws and regulations to maintain GAIN’s registration worldwide. This is a specialist advisory role focused on corporate matters internationally.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Manage the process of registering new entities where GAIN programmes are implemented, including (i) advising management on available options for registration; (ii) providing recommendations on the most suitable option; and (iii) registering the entity.
• Manage the process of renewing the registration or dissolving entities whenever required.
• Ensure the legal status of already registered entities is aligned with new legislation and meet the organization’s legal and compliant obligations/requirements.
• Facilitate, and ensure that the foundation is conducting its operations in full compliance with all statutory requirements by maintaining a careful legal watch and escalating when necessary. This role will review the foundation’s process for monitoring statutory compliance and will provide recommendations for improvements.
• Provide guidance to Country Directors and operations staff on legal governance and statutory compliance matters.
• Responsible for drafting and/or reviewing country specific documents, such as lease agreements.
• Responsible for preparing and processing for signature Power of Attorneys and revocations for Country Directors.

About our Offer

The starting gross salary on offer for this role is as below:

• Cotonou, Benin: XOF 10’351’440 – XOF 11’811’504 per annum, depending on experience.
• Nairobi, Kenya: KES 3’019’680 – KES 3’454’680 per annum depending on experience.

GAIN has a fair and competitive salary structure that allows for annual progression subject to good performance. In addition, GAIN offers a total of 37 days holiday per year (including annual leave, public holidays and additional office closure days), an attractive pension scheme and competitive insurance cover including health, travel and life assurance. We are committed to the health of our staff, especially in these challenging times, and have developed a programme of wellbeing that includes flexible and hybrid working, additional leave allowances, wellbeing days, mindfulness coaching and access to independent and confidential counselling.

GAIN also has a strong commitment to professional development. We will support you to grow in your career through both formal and informal training, and are committed to providing opportunities through internal recruitment, secondments, and promotion. All of this is delivered in a supportive and collaborative environment.

About GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Due to COVID19, conflict in Ukraine and climate change, malnutrition and hunger have worsened significantly since 2019, reversing a decade of progress. There is growing recognition that our food systems need to change if we are to reverse these trends.

GAIN’s Strategy aims to transform food systems to make healthier diets from sustainable food systems accessible to all people and especially those whose are most vulnerable to shocks. By 2027, we aim to improve the access of 1.5 billion people to nutritionally enhanced staple foods, improve the access of 25 million people to healthier diets, and support positive food system change in 10 countries. This is bold and complex, and the only way to achieve this is to work together with partners including governments, businesses, and civil society at the country and global level. These goals, and the ways of achieving them, build on our twenty-year legacy of transforming people’s lives with improved nutrition through concerted action and effective policy change.

Our Working Culture and Environment

We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.

All of our positions are based in one or more of GAIN’s designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAIN’s country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations.

GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.

Applicants must have the right to work and be currently based in the advertised country location, to be eligible to apply for this position.

This advert closes on 24th January 2024. Early applications are encouraged. GAIN reserves the right to close this advert early should we receive suitable candidates ahead of the closing date.