Intern - Clean Cooking and Agroforestry (C2A) Project

APHRC’s Clean Cooking and Agroforestry project needs an intern to dive into climate mitigation and health outcomes. You’ll do lit reviews, policy analysis, and help shape real-world change. If you have a background in public health, environmental science, or a related field and are passionate about policy, we want you. Gain hands-on experience, sharpen your skills, and contribute to a vital initiative.

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a premier research-to-policy institution, generating evidence, strengthening research and related capacity in the African research and development ecosystem, and engaging policy to inform action on health and development.

The Center, through its Research and Related Capacity Strengthening (RRCS) Division, seeks to strengthen individual and institutional research capacity to enable African researchers to fully participate in defining and implementing priority population and health programs on   the continent. As part of individual capacity strengthening efforts, APHRC has, over the years, been running a demand-driven research internship program whose objective seeks to nurture talented young Africans to become future scholars and research leaders.

For the 2026 period, the Research and Related Capacity Strengthening (RRCS) Division has opened internship opportunities in the following projects for 3-6 months, starting May 2026.

Project 16 – Wellcome – Clean Cooking and Agroforestry (C2A) – (1 intern)

Project Description

The Clean Cooking and Agroforestry (C2A) project is a 48-month Wellcome-funded initiative implemented in Laikipia and Kiambu counties. The project evaluates the synergistic effects of clean cooking technologies and agroforestry interventions on climate mitigation, health outcomes, and community wellbeing. Using a cluster-randomized design, the study integrates household air pollution assessment, nutrition and food systems analysis, gender dynamics, ecosystem services valuation, public and policy engagement.

The project is implemented in collaboration with Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Loughborough University, and other partners, with strong emphasis on community co-design, systems thinking, and translation of evidence into policy and practice.

Internship Activities

• Conduct structured literature reviews.
• Support policy mapping and analysis of climate, health, and food systems frameworks.
• Assist in drafting policy briefs and stakeholder reports.
• Organize and synthesize qualitative data.
• Contribute to coding and thematic analysis.
• Support documentation of public and community engagement activities.

The intern will gain practical experience in translating interdisciplinary research into policy-relevant outputs and strengthening climate-health governance processes at county and national levels.

Preferred background and skills

• Bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in public health, Environmental Health, Climate Change, Environmental Science, Nutrition, Development Studies or related fields.
• Coursework or demonstrated interest in climate change, food systems and health.
• Strong interest in policy analysis, climate governance, and research translation.
• Familiarity with literature review methods and qualitative analysis tools (e.g., NVivo) is an added advantage.
• Strong analytical writing and communication skills.