NGO Sectors We Cover
Ten sector guides explaining how nonprofit work is organised across Eastern Africa, and how to find the right organisations in each.
Finding organisations by sector
Almost everyone looking for an organisation starts with a sector rather than a name. A company planning a maternal health programme searches for health organisations in the districts where it operates. A foundation reviewing climate commitments looks for environment and climate organisations with measurable results. A student looking for a placement looks for education or child protection work near where they live.
The directory is indexed by sector so those searches resolve quickly, both in the printed book and in the searchable electronic edition. Use the guides below to understand what each sector covers, the questions a partner should ask before choosing an organisation, and the terms other readers use when they search.
Once you know the sector, narrow the search by country using our NGOs by country pages, which record the districts, counties and provinces each organisation actually works in.
Ten sector guides
Health, education, water and sanitation, agriculture, environment, gender, children and youth, human rights, refugees and livelihoods.
Cross-listed entries
An organisation appears under every sector it genuinely works in, so a nutrition programme is found under health and food security.
Combined searches
The electronic edition searches by sector, country and district at the same time, which the printed index cannot do alone.
The sector index
- Sector guides
- 10
- Countries covered
- 8
- Publishing since
- 2005
- Formats
- Print + electronic
Organisations are grouped by the work they describe, not by legal form, so a search for a programme area finds the organisations that deliver it.
Health organisations
Clinical services, maternal and child health, disease prevention, community health outreach, mental health support and health systems strengthening.
Health is the most listable sector across the region. It covers clinics and hospitals run by faith-based and community organisations, maternal and child health programmes, immunisation and nutrition outreach, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria services, and networks of community health workers who reach households that facilities never see. Mental health and psychosocial support organisations have grown quickly and are now a significant part of the sector.
If you are looking for a health partner, decide first whether you need service delivery capacity, community mobilisation, data and research, or policy influence, because different organisations specialise in each. If you are a health organisation, state the services you deliver, the facilities or outreach points you run, the districts covered and whether you hold a service agreement with government.
Readers search for: health NGOs in Kenya · maternal health organisations Uganda · community health programmes Tanzania · HIV and TB support organisations · mental health NGOs East Africa
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Health NGOs in Kenya · Health NGOs in Uganda · Health NGOs in Tanzania · Health NGOs in Rwanda · Health NGOs in Burundi · Health NGOs in Somalia · Health NGOs in South Sudan · Health NGOs in DR Congo
Education organisations
School support, early childhood development, teacher training, vocational skills, scholarships, bursaries and adult literacy programmes.
Education organisations in the region work on access, quality and transition: getting children into school, keeping them there, improving what they learn, and helping them move into work or further study. That includes sponsorship and bursary schemes, school feeding, learning materials, teacher development, girls' education programmes, technical and vocational training, and adult literacy.
A partner selecting an education organisation usually needs to know the level taught, whether the programme runs in formal schools or community centres, how learning is measured, and whether the organisation works with government education offices. Stating those details in your directory entry makes you far easier to shortlist.
Readers search for: education NGOs in Kenya · organisations offering scholarships Africa · vocational training NGOs East Africa · school support programmes Uganda · girls education organisations Tanzania
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Education NGOs in Kenya · Education NGOs in Tanzania · Education NGOs in South Sudan
Water and Sanitation organisations
Water supply, boreholes and pipelines, sanitation and hygiene promotion, water quality testing and water resource management.
Water, sanitation and hygiene remains one of the most heavily funded areas of community work, particularly where drought, displacement or rapid urban growth have outrun infrastructure. Organisations in this sector drill and rehabilitate boreholes, build and manage pipelines and water points, construct latrines, run hygiene promotion campaigns and support community water committees.
The detail that matters most to a funder or partner here is technical: the type of infrastructure delivered, who maintains it after handover, whether water quality is tested, and how functionality is tracked over time. Organisations that can describe their maintenance model attract longer-term support than those that only count installations.
Readers search for: water NGOs in Kenya · borehole and water supply organisations · sanitation and hygiene programmes East Africa · WASH organisations Kenya and Uganda · water projects Tanzania
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Water and Sanitation NGOs in Kenya · Water and Sanitation Organisations in Burundi · Water and Sanitation Organisations in Somalia · Water and Sanitation Organisations in DR Congo
Agriculture and Food Security organisations
Smallholder farmer support, extension services, seed and input access, livestock, agribusiness value chains, nutrition and food assistance.
Agriculture employs the majority of the population across most of the region, and organisations in this sector are the bridge between smallholder farmers and markets, inputs, finance and climate information. Typical programmes include extension and training, farmer cooperatives and savings groups, seed and fertiliser access, livestock health, post-harvest handling and value addition for crops such as coffee, maize, dairy and horticulture.
Food security and nutrition organisations overlap closely with health, and increasingly with climate adaptation work. Partners assessing an agriculture organisation will ask about extension methodology, cooperative structures, market linkages and how farmer incomes are tracked over time.
Readers search for: agriculture NGOs in Kenya · food security organisations East Africa · farmer training and extension NGOs · livestock and dairy development organisations · smallholder farmer support Uganda
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Agriculture and Food Security Organisations in Uganda · Agriculture and Food Security Organisations in Rwanda · Agriculture and Food Security Organisations in Burundi · Food Security and Livelihoods Organisations in Somalia
Environment and Climate organisations
Conservation, wildlife and forestry protection, reforestation, climate resilience, waste management and renewable energy.
Environmental organisations in the region range from large conservation bodies managing protected areas with communities, to grassroots groups running tree nurseries, clean-up campaigns and climate-smart agriculture demonstrations. Waste management, plastics reduction, clean cookstoves, solar mini-grids and catchment protection are all fast-growing programme areas.
Corporate and international partners are increasingly interested in this sector because of climate commitments and nature-related reporting. Organisations that can show measurable outcomes, such as hectares restored, trees surviving after planting, tonnes of waste diverted or households using clean energy, are the easiest to fund.
Readers search for: environmental NGOs in Kenya · conservation organisations Tanzania · climate resilience NGOs East Africa · reforestation and tree planting organisations · waste management and recycling NGOs
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Environmental and Conservation Organisations in Tanzania
Women and Gender Equality organisations
Women's empowerment, gender-based violence response and prevention, economic inclusion, leadership, legal aid and girls' rights programmes.
Organisations working on gender equality deliver some of the most demanded services in the sector: shelters and safe houses, legal aid, psychosocial support, prevention work in schools and communities, women's savings and enterprise groups, and leadership and civic participation programmes. Many combine service delivery with advocacy on laws, policies and budgets.
This sector requires careful attention to safeguarding, confidentiality and referral pathways, and partners will ask how those are managed. Describing your referral partners, your safeguarding policy and the outcomes you track for survivors makes your organisation credible to institutional funders.
Readers search for: women empowerment NGOs in Kenya · gender based violence support organisations · womens rights organisations Uganda · girls empowerment programmes East Africa · womens economic empowerment NGOs
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Children and Youth organisations
Child protection, support for orphans and vulnerable children, early childhood development, youth employment, mentorship and adolescent health.
Children and youth organisations cover early childhood development, child protection and case management, support for orphans and vulnerable children and street-connected children, adolescent health, youth employment and skills, mentorship and sports for development. Many are community-based and work closely with schools, child protection units and county or district social services.
Because this work involves contact with minors, safeguarding and child protection policies are essential and are checked by every serious funder. Organisations that document their safeguarding procedures, case referral pathways and staff vetting are significantly easier to partner with.
Readers search for: child protection organisations Kenya · orphan support NGOs East Africa · youth empowerment programmes Kenya · early childhood development organisations · youth employment NGOs Uganda
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Human Rights and Governance organisations
Legal aid, civic education, community advocacy, accountability work, land rights, disability rights and access to justice.
Rights and governance organisations provide legal aid and paralegal support, civic education, budget tracking, community advocacy on service delivery, and work on land, disability, minority and access-to-justice issues. They are often the organisations that hold local authorities to account for the services communities are entitled to receive.
Partners in this sector look for evidence of community legitimacy, documentation of cases or advocacy wins, and a clear understanding of the legal and political context in which the organisation operates. Ongoing protection and risk management arrangements are also central to institutional funding decisions.
Readers search for: human rights organisations Kenya · legal aid NGOs East Africa · civic education and governance organisations · disability rights organisations Kenya · accountability and transparency NGOs
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Refugees and Displacement organisations
Refugee and internally displaced persons support, settlement services, protection, integration and host community programmes.
Displacement is a defining feature of the region, from the large settlements in Uganda and Kenya to internally displaced populations in Somalia, South Sudan and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Organisations in this sector deliver health, education, water, shelter, protection, cash assistance and livelihood support, often alongside UN agencies and international NGOs.
What distinguishes strong partners here is demonstrated ability to operate in constrained environments: acceptance with both displaced and host communities, experience with donor compliance and reporting, and the capacity to meet protection and safeguarding standards. Local and refugee-led organisations bring access that larger agencies cannot match, and documented profiles help make them visible.
Readers search for: refugee support organisations Uganda · IDP programmes Somalia · refugee settlement NGOs Kenya · displacement and protection organisations · host community development programmes
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Refugee and Displacement Organisations in Uganda · Displacement and Protection Organisations in South Sudan · Displacement and Protection Organisations in DR Congo
Livelihoods and Enterprise organisations
Vocational skills, savings groups, micro-enterprise support, financial inclusion, market access and job creation programmes.
Livelihoods organisations help households earn a living: vocational and business skills training, savings and loan groups, startup grants and asset transfers, market linkages, cooperatives and social enterprise development. Financial inclusion work, including mobile money literacy and access to formal credit, is an increasingly common programme component.
Partners will want to know how you measure income change and business survival, not only how many people completed training. Organisations that follow up participants months after a programme and can report on business survival rates are best placed to win repeat funding.
Readers search for: livelihoods programmes Kenya · vocational skills training NGOs · micro-enterprise support organisations · financial inclusion NGOs East Africa · social enterprise and job creation programmes
Find these organisations in: Kenya · Uganda · Tanzania · Rwanda · Burundi · Somalia · South Sudan · DR Congo
Country guides: Livelihoods and Enterprise Organisations in Rwanda
Questions about sector listings
How organisations are grouped by sector, and how to search across more than one.
How does the directory decide which sector an organisation belongs to?
Organisations are listed under every sector they genuinely work in, based on the programmes they describe and the locations where those programmes run. A health organisation running a nutrition programme appears under both health and agriculture or food security.
Can I search the directory by more than one sector at a time?
Yes. The electronic edition supports combined searches, so you can look for organisations working in, for example, water and sanitation within a specific district.
What if my organisation works across several sectors?
That is common, particularly for community-based organisations. Your entry records each sector you work in, so partners looking for any one of them will still find you.
Continue exploring the directory
Browse verified NGO profiles by country, see how we support organisations and businesses, or read the guides that answer the questions we are asked most often.
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Find organisations country by country.
What we do
Services for NGOs, businesses and donors.
Guides and answers
Sector guides, common questions and next steps.