Regional Health Specialist - East African Regional Division

**Contract Duration:** 1 Year (Fixed Term)

**Location:** Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia.

**Closing date for applications:** 6th August 2026
**Expected Start Date:** September 2026

***"This vacancy has been reopened under local contract terms. Previous applicants who remain interested are welcome to re-apply. Thank you for your understanding."***

**THE ORGANIZATION**

HI is an independent an independent and impartial aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.

Humanity & Inclusion values organizational diversity and actively implements a structured disability policy to promote workplace integration. **Candidates who require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process are encouraged to request them, starting from the initial interview stage.** For more information about the organization official website [www.hi.org](http://www.hi.org)

**JOB CONTEXT:**

The East Africa region faces overlapping humanitarian and development crises, including armed conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks, food insecurity, and climate shocks. The area hosts 3.8 million refugees roughly 10% of the global total while severe crises in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia overwhelm fragile national health systems.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these intersecting emergencies disproportionately harm marginalized groups and persons with disabilities. These populations face greater medical needs yet encounter severe barriers to accessing quality, equitable healthcare. In response, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) operates across the humanitarian-development nexus to build resilient, inclusive health systems that ensure sustainable care for individuals facing systemic discrimination.

HI’s integrated health programming brings together multiple, interrelated domains:

**Equitable Health Systems and Services (EHSS):** Strengthening inclusive, quality and resilient health systems aligned with Universal Health Coverage and primary health care, including in humanitarian emergencies. This includes advancing disability-inclusive health systems in line with the WHO **Guide for Action on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities**, with a focus on governance, service delivery, workforce capacity, financing, access to essential products, and health information systems.

**Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR):** Sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa face significant challenges, including high adolescent pregnancy rates, limited access to modern contraception, and rising levels of gender-based violence. While regional frameworks such as the East African Community SRH Bill (2021) aim to address these issues, substantial gaps persist between policy and implementation due to sociocultural barriers, weak health systems, inadequate financing, and the compounding impacts of climate change, which further exacerbate existing inequalities.

**Early Childhood Development (ECD):** Many children are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential due to poverty, malnutrition, disability and limited access to services. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank

**Nurturing Care Framework** underscores the importance of integrated interventions across health, nutrition, responsive caregiving and early learning.

**Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS):** Conflict, displacement and crisis exposure are driving significant mental health needs across the region, with populations affected by emergencies at increased risk of mental health conditions. HI supports MHPSS across diverse contexts—including emergency responses in countries such as Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda, and more structured approaches in Rwanda—through social, rights-based and community-based models that strengthen local capacities and integrate MHPSS within broader health and community systems.

**Climate and Health (Planetary Health)**: Climate change is intensifying health risks across the regions through rising heat stress, flooding, drought, and extreme rainfall, which increase illness and mortality and disrupt already fragile health systems. These changes are expanding the transmission of vector- and water-borne diseases—including malaria, dengue, chikungunya, and Rift Valley fever, including in previously unaffected areas—and contributing to malnutrition and conflict over scarce resources, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and World Health Organization identify Sub-Saharan Africa as highly vulnerable to climate-sensitive health impacts. In response, HI is strengthening evidence and programming on climate and health, including research on the impacts of climate change on the health of women with disabilities, and translating these insights into inclusive, climate-resilient health system approaches.

HI promotes integrated, person-centred approaches that strengthen primary health care systems, ensure continuity of care, and responds to both immediate humanitarians needs and public health emergencies, as well as longer-term system strengthening priorities.

HI’s approach is grounded in human rights, community participation, and a twin-track strategy, combining the mainstreaming of disability inclusion across health systems with targeted actions to address specific barriers faced by persons with disabilities, including through engagement with organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs).

With approximately 350–400 staff and an annual budget of around €20 million, HI operates in a dynamic regional context. Ongoing regionalisation efforts aim to strengthen integration, harmonisation, and proximity to affected populations, enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions.

The East, Central and Southern Africa Regional Division currently comprises countries in East Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia/Somaliland, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan). Madagascar, Mozambique and the DRC will join the regional division by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

**YOUR MISSION:**

Under the hierarchical supervision of the Technical Head of Programmes (THOP) and in close collaboration with Global Technical Specialists, the Regional Health Specialist provides strategic and technical leadership for HI’s health programming across the East, Central and Southern Africa division.

The role leads the development and implementation of regional health strategy, supports country programmes, and strengthens HI’s positioning as a key actor in inclusive, equitable and resilient health systems across the humanitarian-development nexus. The Regional Health Specialist ensures the design, quality, and scaling of high

The role contributes to advancing disability-inclusive health equity by strengthening technical quality, supporting programme development, delivering technical assistance, building strategic partnerships, and promoting learning and innovation, in line with HI global Health STRATECHs and the regional operational strategy (StratOp, under development).

The position works closely with regional and country teams, other technical specialists, and external stakeholders including Ministries of Health, UN agencies, NGOs, research institutions, and regional bodies.

The Regional Health Specialist will have 3 main responsibilities:

**Responsibility 1: TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP, STRATEGY & QUALITY**

**1.1 Lead sector strategy in the region and contributes to global strategic thinking**

- Provides technical input to the regional operational strategy (StratOp) in line with the global technical strategy (StraTech) and sub-sector guidance
- Leads the development and monitoring of