Esther Lwanga Walgwe

Esther Lwanga Walgwe is the business development and research utilization manager at the Population Council in Kenya.  She works closely with the teams in Kenya and regionally on business development initiatives to sustain a robust donor base of multi- and bilateral donors and foundations. In addition, Lwanga Walgwe provides technical, strategic, and operational support to two of the Council’s complex, multicountry, multiyear research programs facilitating the use of evidence in policy and practice: the FGM Data Hub and “Baobab”: Filling Gaps in Evidence to Enhance SRHR among Vulnerable Populations in Refugee Settings in the East and Horn of Africa Research Programme Consortium.

Before joining the Council, Lwanga Walgwe was a technical advisor at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) where she oversaw a global, multifaceted portfolio of health-related programs in sub-Saharan Africa and contributed to the design and management of a $100 million comprehensive health research portfolio. While at USAID, Lwanga Walgwe led the writing and dissemination of the Bureau of Global Health’s 2011–2015 Health Research Strategy and supported coordinated efforts for the global introduction of 7.1% chlorhexidine digluconate for cord cleansing in 15 countries.

Lwanga Walgwe has a master’s in global health from the Yale School of Public Health. Originally from Uganda, she is based in the Council’s office in Nairobi, Kenya.