Duty station: Regional Project Office, Fort Portal, Uganda, with frequent travel to Kampala and project locations.
Reports to: Country Manager Uganda; with strategic engagement/ matrix relations with relevant global departments
About Cordaid
Cordaid is a value-based international development and emergency relief organisation, based in the Netherlands with operations in over 14 countries including Uganda. We work in and on fragility and support communities in their efforts to improve health care, education, food security, and justice. Cordaid believes in a world without poverty and exclusion. We strive for just and sustainable societies where every person counts. We stand for knowledge and talent sharing between North and South, between farmers and businesses, between activists and policymakers. Where poverty, conflict and exclusion divide societies, we connect people and communities. We stand for professionalism, expertise and solidarity across borders. We aim at maximizing our social impact and contributing to systemic change. We operate where natural disasters strike, where conflicts tear up communities and where lack of opportunities and service delivery keep families in poverty.
For the Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project (A-GRIP), with its main office in Fort Portal, Cordaid is looking for Chief of Party.
Programme Overview
The Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project (A-GRIP) operates across 16 district local governments in five regions of Uganda. A-GRIP strengthens the public systems around smallholder farmers to so they can farm with greater security, access better services, invest more confidently in their land and production, and improve their livelihoods through more sustainable and resilient farming systems.
A-GRIP is part of a broader ecosystem of programmes funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). Within this ecosystem, A-GRIP has a distinct systems-strengthening role: it creates and strengthens the enabling environment for smallholder farmers by focusing on improving land tenure security under customary law, governance, institutional performance, and the quality and responsiveness of public services. This role complements other EKN-funded partner programmes that are more directly farmer-facing, including initiatives focused on production, markets, services, value chains, farmer organisations and access to finance. A-GRIP works in close collaboration with other partners to strengthen the outcomes for small holder farmers.
A-GRIP is structured around three inter-related outcome areas:
- Increased formal and equitable land ownership under customary law, especially for vulnerable populations.
- Increased sustainable agricultural production among smallholder farmers through enhanced uptake of effective, quality and equitable agricultural and natural resource management services.
- Strengthened governance, regulation, enabling policies and institutional performance at district level, supporting improved service delivery by the Department of Production and Marketing (DPM), Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), and the Chief Administrative Office (CAO).
About Result Based Financing (RBF)
Cordaid has been active in Uganda for over 25 years. In Uganda and in 15 other sub-Saharan African countries Cordaid has experience in system strengthening through the Result Based Financing (RBF) approach. In Uganda we are implementing the Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project (A-GRIP) since November 2023 as an RBF project. The project has a lifespan of 5 years and a multimillion Euro budget.
Purpose of the Position:
The Chief of Party (CoP) provides overall strategic leadership, high-level stakeholder engagement, external representation, overall accountability and risk management for A-GRIP. The CoP ensures that the programme is positioned effectively within the wider EKN-funded ecosystem and that its enabling environment mandate is translated into measurable improvements in land tenure security, public service delivery and governance, thereby enhancing smallholder farmer outcomes.
The CoP is supported by a Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP), who leads day-to-day programme management and operational execution. Together with the project management team, the CoP and DCOP ensure that strategic priorities are translated into coherent delivery across all programme components, districts and partner interfaces.
This is a senior leadership / director-level role within Cordaid’s organisational structure, reflecting full accountability for a large, multi-year, multi-stakeholder programme; strategic high-level representation with government and other key stakeholders; line management of a project management team; and oversight of complex programme, operational, financial, compliance and learning functions.
Job Category: Programmes
Grade: Grade 12 (Cordaid Salary Scale)
Contract Period: One year renewable based on performance and availability of funding.
Direct reports: Deputy Chief of Party and senior functional leads across technical, MEL/data, finance, operations and regional/field coordination.
Legal Eligibility: Applicants must possess the legal right to work and reside in Uganda.
Key Responsibilities for the Chief of Party.
Strategic Leadership, Representation and EKN Ecosystem Engagement
- Lead high-level strategic engagement with relevant line ministries and district local governments to strengthen the enabling environment for land tenure security, agricultural service delivery and natural resource management.
- Promote collaboration, joint learning and coordinated planning with EKN-funded partner projects, ensuring that A-GRIP contributes to portfolio coherence and shared results.
- Provide overall strategic direction for A-GRIP, ensuring alignment with the grant agreement, approved workplans, national priorities and EKN strategic objectives.
- Serve as the primary external representative of A-GRIP with Government of Uganda institutions, national level, political and district leadership, development partners and strategic stakeholders as well as the donor.
- Position A-GRIP clearly within the broader EKN-funded programme ecosystem, ensuring complementarity with farmer-facing partner programmes and promoting system-wide impact for smallholder farmers.
Programme Oversight, Results Delivery and Strategic Steering
- Maintain overall accountability for delivery against A-GRIP outcomes, milestones, targets, budgets, risk management, and donor commitments.
- Provide strategic oversight across technical components, ensuring coherence between land tenure, agricultural governance, natural resource management and institutional strengthening interventions.
- Lead annual and periodic, multi-stakeholder strategic planning processes, including workplans, budgets and adaptive adjustments in response to performance evidence and contextual changes.
- Ensure that programme strategies strengthen public systems and services in ways that enable and reinforce farmer-level results achieved through the wider EKN ecosystem.
- Identify and manage strategic risks, dependencies and opportunities, including those arising from coordination with government institutions and partner programmes.
Programme Leadership, Delegation and Senior Team Management
- Lead and manage the senior programme management team, including the DCOP and functional leads across technical components, MEL/data, finance, and operations.
- Lead the implementation of the land tenure component; ensure a good understanding and analysis of the challenges and opportunities to enhance land tenure security; translate these in a strategy and approach that will enhance the delivery of inclusive land tenure security; lead an evidence-based policy dialogue.
- Delegate day-to-day programme management, coordination and operational delivery to the DCOP, ensuring clear roles, decision rights, performance expectations and accountability mechanisms across the management structure.
- Provide strategic guidance to the DCOP and project management team members to ensure effective translation of programme strategy into integrated implementation across all geographies and technical areas.
- Ensure the project management team operates as an integrated structure, with strong communication, coordinated decision-making and accountability for results.
- Align organisational structures, staff capacity and leadership arrangements with programme delivery requirements, including capability development, knowledge transfer and sustainability.
Performance Management, MEL, Learning and Adaptive Management
- Champion a culture of results, learning, adaptive management and continuous improvement across the programme.
- Ensure MEL and performance management systems are used to track progress, assess contribution to outcomes, inform strategic decisions and support timely course correction.
- Lead structured programme review and reflection processes with the DCOP, project management team and partners, ensuring data, evidence, field insights and stakeholder feedback inform management decisions.
- Ensure A-GRIP learning is shared with EKN and relevant partner programmes to strengthen portfolio-wide understanding of how governance and systems strengthening enable smallholder farmer results.
- Oversee high-quality donor reporting and performance communication, including clear articulation of A-GRIP’s contribution to the wider EKN-funded ecosystem.
Compliance, Accountability and Resource Stewardship
- Ensure full compliance with donor requirements, grant agreements, Cordaid policies and applicable laws and regulations.
- Maintain oversight of financial, operational and administrative controls, ensuring transparent, accountable and effective use of programme resources.
- Ensure programme risks, safeguarding, safety and security considerations are appropriately managed and escalated where required.
- Promote accountability to communities, government counterparts, the donor and partners through transparent communication, responsible decision-making and strong internal controls.
Integrity
- Showcases integrity standards as outlined in Cordaid’s integrity policies. Fulfils integrity responsibilities as outlined in Cordaid’s Integrity Framework and Standard Operating Procedures.
- Actively contributes to a safe environment within their scope of influence by encouraging dialogue, trust, as well as understanding and adherence to Cordaid’s integrity standards and procedures.
Positioning, Reporting and Line Management
The Chief of Party reports to the Country Manager Uganda and has overall accountability for the strategic leadership, external positioning, performance and delivery of A-GRIP. The role engages with matrix relations with relevant global departments as required, particularly on strategic, risk, donor and organisational matters.
The CoP provides direct line management and strategic leadership to the project management team. This includes the Deputy Chief of Party, technical leads, MEL/data leads, finance and operations leads, and regional or field coordination staff. The CoP ensures that this structure functions as an integrated management team with clear accountability, coordinated decision-making and effective performance management.
The DCOP is the principal counterpart to the CoP for day-to-day programme management and operational execution. The CoP retains overall accountability and provides strategic direction, oversight and external leadership, while the DCOP ensures coordinated implementation across districts, technical areas and operational functions.
Skills and Qualifications
The Chief of Party is a seasoned senior leader with strong strategic, programme management and structured high-level stakeholder engagement capabilities. The role requires demonstrated experience leading large, complex, multi-stakeholder programmes and the ability to position initiatives within broader donor and partner ecosystems, including effective high-level engagement with senior government and donor counterparts. The successful candidate combines strong leadership and team management skills with the ability to delegate effectively while maintaining oversight of programme performance, risk, compliance and results. S/he brings a solid grounding in results-based approaches, governance and systems strengthening, and are committed to learning and adaptive management, using data and evidence to inform strategic decision-making and continuously improve programme impact. Excellent communication, partnership-building and judgment are essential, along with the ability to operate effectively in complex and dynamic environments.
Qualifications
- Master’s degree in fields related to land governance, public administration, international development, governance, public policy or a related field.
- At least 10 years of progressively responsible senior leadership experience managing large, complex development programme in land tenure, argriculture, governance, rural development or public service delivery.
- Demonstrated experience with, and knowledge of the land tenure sector, preferably in Uganda. • Demonstrated experience working with donors, government institutions, district structures, development partners and multi-partner coordination platforms.
- Experience with results-based financing, performance-based approaches, log frame and data driven management and/or complex results frameworks is an advantage.
- Demonstrated experience and capacity to work on sensitive policy areas, and the capacity to translate political-economy analysis into operational activities.
- Fluency in written and spoken English; ability and willingness to travel regularly within Uganda.
Competencies
- Strategic leadership and influence: sets direction, anticipates risks and opportunities, and influences at senior levels.
- Partnership and ecosystem engagement: builds coherence, complementarity and accountability across diverse stakeholders and partner programmes.
- Programme delivery and accountability: maintains focus on results, quality, compliance and responsible resource stewardship.
- Leadership and team management: leads senior teams, delegates effectively and fosters a high-performance, collaborative culture.
- Learning and adaptive management: uses evidence, reflection and feedback to guide decisions and improve programme performance.
- Communication and high-level representation: communicates clearly, deliberately and credibly with government, donor, partner and internal audiences.
Cordaid is fully committed to provide a safe and welcoming workplace to its employees, and to maintain respect and dignity of everyone that comes into contact with Cordaid. Therefore, Cordaid participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. For more information about Cordaid’s work on integrity https://www.cordaid.org/en/who-we-are/integrity-and-code-of-conduct/.
How to apply
Applications including a motivation letter and extensive CV in English, should be submitted online; https://cordaid.hrmagic.co/careers/job?id=MTAwNg== by 15th July 2026. Due to the urgency to fill this position applications will be reviewed at a rolling basis and candidates can be interviewed and selected before the application deadline expires.
More Information
- Job City Uganda
