4 jobs in Amref Health Africa

Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organisation, currently implementing more than 150 programmes which directly reach more than 20 million people across 35 countries in Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref has fully-fledged offices in Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, South Sudan, and Zambia; eleven advocacy and fundraising offices in Europe and North America; and a staff complement of over 1,500.

Our vision is to bring about
'Lasting health change in Africa'
, and our mission is
'To increase sustainable health access to communities in Africa through solutions in human resources for health, health service delivery, and investments in health'
. We believe that the power to transform Africa's health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.

Y-ACT, Youth in Action is a multi-country youth-led initiative established in 2017 at Amref Health Africa. With current presence in over 21 countries in Africa, Y-ACT mentors, supports, and increases the capacity of youth advocates and youth-led organizations to influence youth health policy and resource priorities. Y-ACT believes that Africa's youth have a huge opportunity to shift policy landscapes to address challenges that the youth face and subsequently achieve their full potential. Y-ACT's network comprises youth-led organizations in over 21 countries. Since inception Y-ACT has been funded at a total of over US $17.5M from various partners, contributing to movement building, youth advocacy and capacity strengthening of youth-led organizations in the region.

Job Description

The National Advocacy Coordinator will lead policy advocacy work-planning, strategy development, and implementation by the partners (youth-led grassroots organizations) and lead policy advocacy, monitoring, evaluation, and learning capacity strengthening, formation of a youth Led coalition, spearhead Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE), and oversee relationships with Government agencies and partners at the country level. The role will focus on advancing tobacco control priorities in line with national, regional, and global frameworks, including the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This role holder will report to the Regional Programme Lead - Youth In Action based in Amref Health Africa.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Policy Advocacy, MEL and Technical support

• Provide facilitation support and mentorship to youth-led organizations at the country level in developing effective Tobacco control advocacy strategies and pursuing common advocacy goals and priorities
• Lead in the establishment of National youth-led coalitions, developing selection criteria and TORs and supporting the youth-led organizations to implement common advocacy priorities on tobacco control
• Support youth-led organizations in drafting policy briefs and policy submissions related to their advocacy strategies
• Support youth-led organizations and coalitions to develop a policy advocacy capacity strengthening plan
• Organize and facilitate trainings on advocacy and MEL to youth-led organizations and coalitions
• Support youth-led organizations in the development of the advocacy MEL framework for outcome harvesting of advocacy wins

Country and Community P
artnerships

• Serve as the primary liaison with youth advocacy and policymaker partners at the national level in Kenya
• Ensure communication with and among partners on project activities at country level
• Manage and ensure timely delivery of contracted activities by partners (youth-led organizations)

Partners' Engagement and Project Coordination

• Serve as a connector and facilitator of partner engagement with policymakers at the country level
• Seek ways to inform and engage policymakers in youth-led advocacy engagement efforts
• Organize and facilitate the coalition's monthly progress meeting
• Support in the coordination of baseline, midline and end line assessments and analyze and share the results with the partners and other stakeholders

Administration and Reporting

• Offer finance and administration oversight to project work at country level and with country youth-led organizations
• Develop timely and accurate reports of field , country activities and donor reports
• Support the youth-led organizations to prepare and submit high-quality financial and programmatic reports on time

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• A Degree in Community Development, Public Policy or related Social Sciences.
• At least 3 years of experience working with and building the capacity of grassroots organizations in advocacy strategy development and implementation in Kenya
• At least 3 years of experience in youth engagement in the health sector.
• Experience working with youth initiatives/programmes in tobacco control advocacy

Skills and Competencies

• Adaptable in dynamic working environments
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Hands-on with both managerial and operational tasks
• Skilled at prioritizing and multitasking
• Maintains confidentiality, tact, and discretion
• Experienced in strategic planning and project management
• High level of diplomacy and public relations skills
• Passionate about youth engagement and advocacy in Africa
• Strong collaboration, coordination, and oversight abilities
• Comfortable working with and reporting to multiple partners
• Effective decision-making and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrates adaptive leadership
• Strong understanding of internal and external political contexts
• Tactical and strategic thinking abilities

Additional Information

Work Environment

• An office space within partner-organizations
• Ability to travel at least 30% time.

Please include a cover letter that highlights why you believe you are an ideal candidate for this role, along with your CV showcasing your relevant skills and experience. The application deadline is
Friday, 19th September 2025.

Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an

address.

Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy.

Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organisation; currently implementing more than 180 programmes, reaching more than 40 million people across 35 African countries; and a staff complement of over 2,000. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref Health Africa has offices in ten countries in Africa – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea (Conakry), Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. An additional eleven advocacy and fundraising offices are located in Europe and North America.

Amref Health Africa is driven by its vision of
'
Lasting health change in Africa'
and its mission
'
To catalyze and drive community-led and people-centred health systems while addressing social determinants of health'
.
We believe that the power to transform Africa's health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.

Job Description

Under the leadership of the Programme Director - Implementation, the Regional Youth Engagement Advisor will lead the development and implementation of a youth engagement and empowerment strategy for the programme. S/he will engage with diverse stakeholders to lead youth engagement, empowerment, and advocacy efforts that promote youth employment and entrepreneurship for Amref's
Learning for Life (L4L): Building a Resilient and Responsive Health Workforce
in Africa programme, which sits within the Institute of Capacity Development (ICD). This 4-year programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation is being implemented in Kenya, Senegal and Zambia during this first phase. The estimated ratio of health workers per population in Africa is 11.2 workers per 10,000 people, far below the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended ratio of 44.5. The global shortage of health workers is estimated to increase from 12 to 18 million by 2030, translating to a shortage of six million health workers. Africa also has the world's fastest-growing population, which presents governments and policymakers with opportunities and challenges to ensure sufficient livelihood opportunities for its young population. To address these challenges and accelerate the current Universal Health Coverage (UHC) gains, Amref is implementing this innovative, multi-country, multi-million dollar programme with the ultimate aim of contributing to increased and sustainable job creation within primary health care (PHC) sectors across Africa.

The role holder will be responsible for collaboratively leading the development and implementation of a youth engagement strategy, youth mobilization, and advocacy, including integrating youth voices in the overall discourse to interest and create opportunities for the youth in the health worker discourse for increased and sustainable job creation. This position requires strong coordination skills, technical knowledge in youth civic engagement and development activities, deep youth networks, and extensive experience cultivating and establishing partnerships and enhancing youth advocacy issues. The job holder will be a member of the Programme Implementation Team (PIT) and will also work closely with Amref's Youth in Action Programme Director to align with the organisation's youth strategy.

About You

You are a people person who understands the importance of working collaboratively with colleagues, programme partners, and external stakeholders across countries. You are passionate about changing the outcomes for young people and ensuring they are at the centre of development sector efforts. You have a strong desire to learn from the various programme partners and understand new concepts, latest developments, and promising practices and use these insights to evaluate current programme strategies and interventions, identify potential issues, develop solutions, and lead the team in learning and adapting for optimal implementation.

You are strategic and innovative, and you can connect dots and communicate complex information effectively, both verbally and in writing, to diverse audiences across the region. You are a problem solver, looking at each challenge as an opportunity to find innovation in the way of doing things. You are highly organised and have great attention to detail. You are committed to achieving stellar results and success, and can delegate responsibility to an empowered team. However, you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and get involved when needed.

Stakeholder and partner engagement and management are skill sets that you pride yourself on. You thrive under pressure, can prioritise, are resilient and have a high level of EQ. You are a great communicator and a leader who can inspire your team. You are confident and can communicate directions and solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical staff. You're a team player who's pragmatic, driven, and passionate about delivering impact

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

• Lead and coordinate the development of the programme's youth engagement, participation and empowerment strategy, ensuring that the necessary tools, guidelines, and SOPs are developed to streamline the programme efforts.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to programme partners, ensuring alignment on the meaningful youth engagement, participation and empowerment agenda
• Provide overall leadership and coordination of the youth civic engagement activities, including youth coalition formation and rollout of youth advocacy activities and the overall meaningful engagement of youth throughout the programme's life cycle.
• Design and implement key strategies to increase youth engagement, participation, and empowerment with critical stakeholders, including national partners, local organizations, youth networks, and individual leaders at local, regional and national levels
• Engage and advocate for youth inclusion in national policy review and formulation for increased and sustainable job creation for the youth within primary health care (PHC) sectors in the programme implementation countries.
• Oversee and ensure that youth engagement, participation and empowerment efforts and strategies are integrated across all programme thematic areas;
• Provide strategic direction, development and implementation of capacity strengthening plans to enhance the capacity of staff, young people, youth networks, youth-serving organizations, and government in youth engagement, participation and empowerment.
• Provide oversight in mainstreaming youth engagement, participation and empowerment activities across programme workstreams, and report progress to internal and external stakeholders to promote accountability.

Driving the programme's youth strategy

• Lead the development, management and oversight of the programme's youth engagement and accountability strategy
• Cultivate meaningful alliances with other youth movement-building organisations and initiatives with similar goals in the region to build momentum for the programme's goal.
• Identify opportunities for regional cross-learning between the programme partnership, documentation and sharing of successes and lessons learned.
• Support and coordinate the programme stakeholders to develop and execute online campaigns to promote youth engagement, participation and empowerment initiatives.
• Support the development and implementation of youth engagement, participation, and empowerment strategies by building communities and connecting networks to ensure advocacy efforts reach wider and more diverse audiences.

Partnership, Networking, and Collaboration

• Oversee the establishment of strategic partnerships and alliances with other youth movements and groups, and build relationships at the national, regional, and city levels
• Establish, link and strengthen youth coordination platforms in the programme implementation countries and regionally in close collaboration with the programme partners
• Establish, cultivate, and maintain relationships with the youth ecosystem of programme stakeholders, including the public sector, private sector, civil society, community-based organizations, and local governments to advocate and influence meaningful youth engagement.
• At the request of the programme director, represent the programme in collaborative platforms with diverse audiences such as ministries of health, UN agencies, civil society organizations, NGOs and private companies for programme visibility.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Minimum of a Master's degree in communications, social sciences, public health, public policy, international development or other related fields from a recognized college or university;
• Minimum of 5 years of experience implementing youth development activities, e.g., economic empowerment, basic and higher education, health etc.).

Skills and Competencies:

• Experience in youth or adolescent programme management, particularly in youth mobilization and meaningful youth engagement skills. Working knowledge of youth civic engagement, economic and health issues, including global and government priorities, is a plus;
• Experience cultivating relationships and collaborating with diverse stakeholders, youth, government ministries, the private sector, and youth networks.
• Experience working in consortiums and providing technical assistance to diverse stakeholders
• Experience working collaboratively with teams from diverse backgrounds
• Strong presentation, reporting, and communication skills
• Spoken and written fluency in English. French is an added advantage
• Ability to travel up to 40% of the time.

Additional Information

Please include a cover letter that highlights why you believe you are an ideal candidate for this role, along with your CV showcasing your relevant skills and experience. The application deadline is
Friday, 3rd October 2025.

Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an

address.

Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy.