Joachim Osur

Prof. Joachim Osur is a Kenya-based reproductive and sexual health expert and a reproductive rights advocate. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of Amref International University, a pan-African university specialized in health training. The university is a subsidiary of Amref Health Africa, a non-profit health development organization operating in over 35 African countries. Prof. Osur joined Amref in 2013, as the technical director for reproductive and child health and rose to become the organization’s corporate technical Director before transitioning to the university. Prior to joining Amref he was the director of the African Alliance Programs at Ipas, where he was responsible for advocating for, setting up and building the capacity of reproductive health services in 14 African countries. Prof. Osur has significant experience advocating for reproductive rights. He led advocates in Kenya to ensure that Kenya’s new constitution was among the best in the African continent on reproductive rights. He has testified before US Congress on the adverse effect of US policies on reproductive health and family planning services in Africa. He has also presented a shadow letter and lobbied the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to include the reproductive rights of the girl child in their agenda. Starting in 2007, Prof. Osur served two terms on the Attorney General’s Task Force for the Implementation of Sexual Offences Act in Kenya. A dedicated medical doctor and a fellow of the European Committee on Sexual Medicine, Prof. Osur spends his free time attending to patients with sexual health problems. He also provides sexuality education through a sexual health column in the Daily Nation, the widest read Kenyan newspaper. (Kenya)