Nicholas Okapu Etyang
Policy Engagement Manager
Nicholas is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a member of the Law Society of Kenya. He has over 15 years of experience in democracy, governance, climate change, health systems, WASH, food systems and nutrition, human rights, gender, and GBV programming at the East and Southern Africa Region and AU level. As the current Policy Engagement Manager for APHRC’s Health and Wellbeing Programs, he is responsible for the development and implementation of strategic policy engagement actions, stakeholder management, policy-oriented partnerships, policy landscaping and mapping, addressing broader policy-relevant research questions, delivery of policy engagement capacity strengthening and facilitation of internal and external learning and knowledge sharing.
He has managed high-level relationships with regional economic blocs (EAC), regional parliaments (EALA), national governments, UN agencies, and CSOs across the ESA region, advancing access to sexual- and reproductive health and rights and reducing discrimination against sexual and gender minorities in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has also led policy engagement work on addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG) and harmful practices in Africa through working with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Gender is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC), regional and national CSOs, data and statistical institutions, the African Union Commission (AUC), and UN agencies. While at the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) (2013-2020), he worked on numerous advocacy and policy projects related to human rights, women’s rights and gender-based violence, access to justice, budget advocacy, social accountability and public participation, democratic elections, and civic education, parliamentary legislative liaison, climate change, WASH governance, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation.
He has a Bachelor of Laws Degree and a Master of Arts in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi, a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law, and an Advanced Certificate in Children’s Rights in Africa from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is a PhD candidate in Leadership and Governance at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
Nicholas is driven by the desire to contribute to a just, equitable, and peaceful world. He believes all people deserve basic living standards, fundamental rights, and respect.