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.
Regional Youth Engagement Advisor
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Full-time
- Opportunity Type: Current Opening
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.Â
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.
*Applicants must currently reside in Kenya
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.