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Governance & Leadership

The oversight architecture behind every commitment we make

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, AAHRED operates under an independent board with five standing committees. Governance is the reason partners can rely on our results — not a formality appended to them.

Governance principles

Three commitments that shape every decision

Separation of powers

The board sets strategy and holds management to account. Executive leadership delivers. No individual holds both mandates.

African-led, globally accountable

Governance bodies are majority African, with international members bringing donor, academic and audit perspectives.

Documented and disclosable

Terms of reference, committee mandates, register of interests and meeting cadence are published and available for due diligence.

Delegates seated around a large conference table at a high-level African policy roundtable
Annual governance and partners' assembly, convening board members, sovereign counterparts and institutional funders.

Organogram

Reporting relationships at a glance

Select any position to read its mandate. Committees marked as independent report to the board directly, bypassing the executive chain.

Interactive organisational chart

Administrative hierarchy

Executive leadership directory

Search the leadership register by name, role, committee, expertise or thematic area. Each entry opens a full dossier with biography, responsibilities, qualifications and linked programmes.

Executive leadership directory

Showing 3 of 3 leadership profiles.

JT

Tier 1 · Chief Executive

Justine Toroitich Kurui

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Role & core domain: Continental diplomacy, sovereign alliances, board governance and organisational vision.

  • Sovereign partnerships
  • Institutional strategy
  • Board governance
  • Health diplomacy
  • Development finance
OW

Tier 2 · Deputy Chief Executive

Onesmus W. Gichuru

Deputy Chief Executive Officer & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)

Role & core domain: Quantitative econometrics, spatial data intelligence (AAHRED-Atlas), enterprise architecture, capital acquisition and multilateral grant compliance (2 CFR 200).

  • Quantitative econometrics
  • Spatial data intelligence
  • Enterprise architecture
  • Grant compliance (2 CFR 200)
  • Cyber security
  • Capital acquisition
PK

Tier 3 · Executive Directorate

Peter Kariuki Mugo

Executive Director of Public Health, Environmental Governance & Biosecurity

Role & core domain: Frontline statutory enforcement, primary healthcare implementation, disease surveillance, environmental compliance and biosecurity command.

  • Public health law
  • Disease surveillance
  • Biosecurity
  • Environmental compliance
  • Primary healthcare delivery
  • WASH safety

Structure

Board and standing committees

Each body has a written mandate, a defined quorum and an annual effectiveness review. Committee chairs report to the full board and, where relevant, directly to external auditors.

Board of Directors

Sets institutional strategy, approves the annual budget and appoints the Executive Director. Meets quarterly with an independent non-executive majority.

  • Independent non-executive majority
  • Quarterly full-board sittings
  • Annual board effectiveness review

Audit & Risk Committee

Oversees the external audit, internal control environment, enterprise risk register and fraud response.

  • Chaired by an independent director
  • Direct line to external auditors
  • Reviews the risk register each quarter

Scientific & Ethics Review Board

Reviews research protocols, data governance and human-subject ethics before any study is authorised.

  • Institutional review board function
  • Independent ethicist and community representative
  • Protocol registration and pre-analysis plans

Safeguarding & Accountability Panel

Independent oversight of safeguarding cases, community complaints and the whistleblower channel.

  • Survivor-centred case handling
  • Independent investigation mandate
  • Annual public reporting

Programme Quality Committee

Assures technical standards, monitoring frameworks and evaluation independence across the portfolio.

  • Approves the results framework
  • Commissions external evaluations
  • Signs off adaptive management decisions

Investment & Partnerships Council

Guides resource mobilisation, blended finance structuring and strategic institutional partnerships.

  • Due-diligence oversight
  • Donor stewardship standards
  • Blended-finance instrument design

Institutional history

From a Nairobi research alliance to a multi-country institution

  1. 2016

    Founded in Nairobi

    Established as an African-led alliance linking health systems research with economic development practice.

  2. 2018

    First multi-country programme

    Regional WASH and health systems portfolio launched across three East African countries.

  3. 2020

    Emergency response capability

    Rapid-response architecture stood up during the pandemic, supporting national surveillance and continuity of essential services.

  4. 2022

    Data & digital architecture

    Interoperable health information exchange and geospatial analytics platform deployed with ministry partners.

  5. 2023

    Economic empowerment at scale

    Youth incubation and women's financial access programmes surpassed 3,000 enterprises supported.

  6. 2025

    Strategic Framework 2025–2030

    New institutional strategy adopted, integrating health resilience and economic prosperity under one results architecture.

Ask the governance desk

Questions about our leadership or oversight?

Ask in your own words. Answers are generated only from AAHRED's published leadership profiles, committee mandates and governance policies — nothing else.

Ask about AAHRED governance

Common questions

Answers appear here, drawn from the governance principles, committee mandates and executive profiles published on this page.

Conducting due diligence on AAHRED?

The secretariat maintains a standing due-diligence pack covering registration certificates, audited statements, governance charters, insurance, safeguarding records and donor references. It is released under NDA within five working days.

Transparency centre Request the pack

Tripartite operating model

Think tank, implementation partner and governance/MEL advisory in one institution

Evidence generation translates into execution and delivery, which is in turn evaluated and governed — closing the loop between research, policy design, operations and accountability. Each arm is independently staffed and independently reported, so evaluation is never marked by the team that delivered the work.

  • Pillar 1

    Think Tank & Applied Research Arm

    Evidence generation, policy analytics and horizon scanning

    • Translational policy research turning epidemiological, macroeconomic and spatial data into legislative roadmaps and ministerial briefs.
    • Econometric and micro-simulation modelling: cost-benefit analysis, UHC fiscal space assessment and predictive shock modelling.
    • Policy harmonisation with AU Agenda 2063, the Abuja Declaration, the Maputo Plan of Action and Africa CDC frameworks.
    • Ethics, bioethics and data sovereignty protocols safeguarding indigenous health data, genomic assets and vulnerable population registries.
    Core outputs
    Ministerial briefs, costed policy options, national investment cases, peer-reviewed papers and open data dictionaries.
    Methods & instruments
    Micro-simulation, spatial econometrics, cost-benefit and fiscal-space modelling, horizon scanning and political-economy analysis.
    Delivery capacity
    42 researchers, economists and modellers across epidemiology, health financing, GIS and bioethics.
  • Pillar 2

    Implementation & Programme Delivery Arm

    Technical assistance, direct execution and capacity building

    • Direct programme rollout and pilot scalability across maternal-child health, cross-border surveillance, nutrition hubs and safety nets.
    • Embedded technical assistance seconding senior advisors, health economists and data architects into line ministries and RECs.
    • SOP development codifying clinical pathways, MISP emergency response and multi-agency coordination manuals.
    • Institutional capacity building for decentralised civil servants, local councils and community health networks.
    Core outputs
    Programme designs, SOP libraries, service-delivery pilots, supply and referral pathways, trained frontline cadres.
    Methods & instruments
    Embedded technical assistance, results-based grant execution, MISP emergency response, sub-award management and procurement support.
    Delivery capacity
    Field teams across 14 countries with surge deployment inside 72 hours for outbreak and displacement events.
  • Pillar 3

    MEL & Governance Advisory

    Accountability, systems strengthening and oversight

    • Third-party monitoring and independent verification of multilateral programmes in high-risk and cross-border corridors.
    • Impact evaluation using RCTs, difference-in-differences and mixed-method process evaluation to measure attribution and ROI.
    • Digital MEL infrastructure: mobile-first pipelines, geospatial dashboards and automated anomaly detection against data falsification.
    • Public financial management and governance audits covering procurement integrity and expenditure tracking.
    Core outputs
    Independent verification reports, impact evaluations, governance and PFM audits, live MEL dashboards.
    Methods & instruments
    RCTs, difference-in-differences, mixed-method process evaluation, third-party monitoring and anomaly detection analytics.
    Delivery capacity
    Evaluation unit operating to OECD-DAC criteria with a firewalled reporting line to the Board Audit Committee.

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    Burden, equity and fiscal-space diagnostics using national datasets, geospatial layers and community consultation.

  2. 02

    Design

    Costed intervention design with theory of change, indicator framework and explicit assumptions on attribution.

  3. 03

    Pilot

    Controlled implementation with embedded measurement to test feasibility, unit economics and delivery risk.

  4. 04

    Scale

    Government-owned scale-up with SOPs, workforce training, procurement pathways and digital reporting rails.

  5. 05

    Evaluate

    Independent evaluation, public financial audit and open publication of results — including null findings.

Engagement matrix

Multi-level institutional engagement

Who AAHRED works with at each level of governance, what it delivers there, the legal instruments used and the cadence of reporting back to partners.

Institutional clients, service offerings, engagement instruments and reporting cadence at each level of governance.
Governance levelCore institutional clientsKey service offeringsEngagement instrumentsReporting cadence
Continental & MultilateralAfrican Union, Africa CDC, UNECA, WHO AFRO, World Bank, Global FundStrategic framework development, regional public goods governance, cross-border treaty alignment and macro-level grant evaluation.Framework agreements, technical secretariats, joint working groupsMulti-year (3–5 yrs)
Regional Economic CommunitiesEAC, IGAD, ECOWAS, SADCSurveillance harmonisation, cross-border migration protocols and trade-related biosecurity standards.Protocol harmonisation compacts, corridor surveillance MOUsAnnual review cycles
National GovernmentsMinistries of Health, Finance, Gender/Social Protection and AgriculturePolicy formulation, UHC benefit package design, fiscal space analysis and embedded ministerial technical assistance.Embedded advisory placements, costed national plans, MoUsBudget-cycle aligned
Sub-National & Local GovernanceCounty and district health directorates, municipalities, local councilsDecentralised planning, budget execution tracking, frontline worker training and community engagement architecture.County work plans, community compacts, frontline training grantsQuarterly

  • Closing the policy-to-execution gap

    Unlike academic think tanks producing non-operational papers, or NGOs executing without rigorous evaluation, AAHRED unifies theoretical rigour with frontline delivery.

  • End-to-end programmatic lifecycle

    Empirical research → policy drafting → pilot implementation → nationwide scale-up → independent impact evaluation.

  • South-led contextualisation

    Endogenous African data models accounting for informal economies, pastoralist mobility and customary governance systems overlooked by external consultancies.

Evaluation standards
OECD-DAC criteria
Financial reporting
IFRS + 2 CFR 200
Data protection
GDPR / national DPAs
Safeguarding
PSEAH policy, independent channel

How does AAHRED avoid marking its own homework?
The MEL and Governance Advisory arm is staffed separately from delivery teams and reports directly to the Board Audit Committee. Where a programme exceeds USD 2 million in value, evaluation is contracted to an external firm under OECD-DAC criteria and published in full, including null and negative findings.
Who owns the data and intellectual property generated?
Primary data collected in-country is co-owned with the relevant national authority and stored under that country's data-protection regime. Anonymised, aggregated indicators are released as open data under CC-BY 4.0 with a published data dictionary; genomic and vulnerable-population registries are governed by a separate sovereignty protocol requiring ministerial consent for any secondary use.
How quickly can AAHRED mobilise for an emergency?
Surge teams deploy inside 72 hours for outbreak, flood and displacement events in the 14 countries of operation, using the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) and pre-positioned framework contracts for procurement and logistics.
What financial and procurement standards apply?
Accounts are prepared under IFRS and audited annually by an international firm. Grant administration follows 2 CFR 200 for US-sourced funds and EU PRAG-equivalent procedures for European funds. Sub-awards are subject to pre-award capacity assessment, quarterly financial verification and spot audits.
How are safeguarding and misconduct concerns handled?
A PSEAH policy applies to every staff member, consultant and sub-grantee. Reports can be made through an independent channel that bypasses line management, are triaged within 48 hours and investigated by an external panel where a conflict of interest exists.
Can governments contract AAHRED directly?
Yes. Engagements are structured as framework agreements, embedded advisory placements or results-based delivery contracts, aligned to the national budget cycle so that costed plans arrive before the medium-term expenditure framework is fixed.
How is value for money demonstrated?
Every investment case carries a benefit-cost ratio, cost per DALY averted and a fiscal-space assessment. Delivery is tracked against unit-cost benchmarks, and variance above 15 percent triggers a formal review by the Programme Committee.