Inside Career Of Kenyan Entrepreneur Working At WHO

Stephen Ogweno is a global health practitioner and innovator best known for his trailblazing contribution to advocacy, research, and impact in the local and global non-communicable diseases space.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are diseases that do not transfer from one person to another like cancer, diabetes, obesity and hypertension among others. These are the leading killer diseases globally and account for 55 per cent of current hospital admissions in Kenya.

Ogweno, who was himself born with a non-communicable disease, childhood obesity, has gone ahead to become one of the leading voices in NCDs advocacy and innovation in the country.

A photo of Stephen Ogweno holding a past award. /TWITTER

He is the founder and CEO of Stowelink Inc, a youth-led health-based organization that focuses on NCDs education, advocacy ad innovation.

He founded this organization in 2015 and implemented its first big project in 2016 dubbed Project Alpha on cancer awareness. Over the past seven years, Stowelink has been able to implement seven major projects in 10 countries in Africa creating an impact on over five million people in the region.

Besides his work at Stowelink, Ogweno has also been able to develop two health tech startups focused on using innovation to improve the state of health in the non-communicable diseases space including the NCD 365 app based in Kenya and Lifesten health based in Rwanda. 

Ogweno strongly believes that innovation is key for development and impact in the health sector. 

More than that, he also sits in various local boards including the national NCDs Intersectoral Coordinating Committee and the YHP Kenya committee where he advises on various ways of enhancing NCDs advocacy and policy in the country.

Internationally, Ogweno has been referred to, time and again, as the next generation of global health practitioners and is currently working with some of the biggest global health actors.

For starters, he works with the World Health Organization (WHO) where he was appointed as a member of the NCD labs initiative by the WHO Global Coordinating Mechanism. At the WHO, his role is to advise and highlight leading innovations in NCDs and the next generation.

He also sits in the advisory board for the global NCD Alliance under the Our Views Our Voices Initiative. 

Ogweno has been privileged to represent Kenya in local and global health summits and presentations. In 2020 he represented Kenya at the 5th Commonwealth Nurses And Midwives Conference in the United Kingdom where he made a presentation at the Royal College Of Physicians.

In 2022 he also represented Kenya at the World Heart Summit where he was part of the distinguished panel discussion sitting with the WHO COVID Lead amongst other distinguished panellists.

In terms of research publications, he is an established author having published seven scientific research publications and contributed to six policy briefs and opinion pieces. His contribution to scientific knowledge continues to set him apart from his peers in the space.

Ogweno strongly believes that innovation, advocacy, and research are much needed now more than ever, especially in the field of non-communicable diseases and that young people like him should pick up the mantle of transforming the continent's healthcare systems.

Dr Sylvia Vito and Stephen Ogweno getting ready for the Young Health Programme in 2021. /AMINA WAKO.TWITTER