International Development Jobs in Uganda: Who's Hiring and How to Apply

International Development Jobs in Uganda: Who's Hiring and How to Apply

Uganda is one of sub-Saharan Africa's most active international development markets. It hosts the world's largest refugee settlement (Bidi Bidi), a large UNHCR and humanitarian operation, and a broad portfolio of long-term development programmes across health, education, agriculture, and governance. Kampala is a regional hub for organisations covering East Africa, and a good base for professionals targeting the region.

Why Uganda Matters in Development

• Refugee hosting: Uganda is one of the world's most generous refugee-hosting countries, with over 1.5 million refugees from South Sudan, DRC, Somalia, and Burundi. This generates a large UNHCR presence, alongside implementing partners including NRC, IRC, and UNHCR's NGO partners.
• Health systems: Uganda's health sector receives substantial PEPFAR, Global Fund, and USAID investment. The country has been a major site for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal health programmes for decades.
• Agriculture and food security: Uganda's large smallholder farming sector attracts FAO, WFP, and IFAD programmes alongside USAID-funded agricultural development work.
• Good governance: USAID, FCDO, and EU all fund governance, accountability, and civil society programmes.

Major Employers in Uganda

UN Agencies

UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, UNDP, FAO, UNFPA, and OCHA all maintain country offices in Kampala with varying levels of field presence.

International NGOs

NRC, IRC, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, World Vision, CARE International, Action Against Hunger (ACF), and MSF all operate significant programmes, particularly in northern Uganda and the refugee settlements.

Bilateral Donors and Implementing Partners

USAID Uganda is a large mission; implementing partners including Palladium, RTI International, Chemonics, and John Snow Inc. (JSI) employ substantial numbers of staff for USAID-funded health and agriculture programmes. FCDO, GIZ, and the EU Delegation also fund programmes.

Types of Roles in Uganda

• Protection and refugee response: protection officers, community-based protection officers, registration and document officers
• Health: health programme managers, PEPFAR programme officers, community health specialists
• Nutrition: nutrition officers and managers — particularly in humanitarian response
• WASH: WASH engineers and officers across both humanitarian and development contexts
• MEL: monitoring and evaluation specialists across all sectors
• Livelihoods and food security: particularly in refugee response and agricultural programmes

How to Find Uganda Roles

• DevProcure: comprehensive coverage of Uganda across all opportunity types — UN, NGO, bilateral
• ReliefWeb: strong for humanitarian and NGO roles
• UNHCR Uganda: directly for refugee response positions
• LinkedIn: useful for senior INGO and implementing partner roles

Set up a free DevProcure alert filtered to Uganda and your sector to receive new opportunities by email.