Who is Lucy Afandi Esipila: The Kenyan humanitarian leader taking Africa's voice to the Vatican

When Lucy Afandi Esipila began working with Caritas in northern Kenya, her focus was close to the ground: helping communities deal with food insecurity, livelihoods and the pressures facing pastoralist families.

More than a decade later, that experience has taken her into some of the world's biggest conversations on poverty, climate change, humanitarian assistance and social justice.

The Kenyan humanitarian professional is now Regional Executive Secretary of Caritas Africa, the Catholic Church's humanitarian and development network on the continent.

She made history in 2023 when she became the first woman elected to lead Caritas Africa at regional level.

Her career has taken her from community projects in Samburu to national advocacy in Kenya and eventually to international policy spaces involving the African Union, European Union, United Nations and global climate negotiations.

It is a journey that has increasingly placed African communities — particularly people facing poverty, displacement, climate shocks and other vulnerabilities — at the centre of her work.

From Samburu communities to regional leadership

Esipila's professional journey with Caritas began at the Catholic Diocese of Maralal in Samburu County.

In an interview with CAFOD's Voices of Change podcast, she said she started as an assistant livelihoods programme officer, working with local communities on food security.

She spent about six years in the diocese and eventually became a regional manager.

That period gave her first-hand experience of the pressures facing pastoralist communities.

She worked with communities dealing with climate change and competition over resources such as water and pasture.

“It was a community where there are pastoralists,” Esipila recalled, explaining that the experience exposed her to the practical challenges of climate change and resource sharing.

The work would later shape many of the issues she championed at national and international level.

Her next step was Caritas Kenya

After her time in Samburu, Esipila moved to Caritas Kenya, where she worked as a research, communications and advocacy officer.

The role broadened her understanding of how local challenges could be taken into national policy discussions.

It also gave her a route into international advocacy.

In her own account of her career, Esipila said the position helped her understand national-level advocacy while giving her greater exposure to the international development space.

She later joined the regional office of Caritas Africa in Nairobi as a Policy and Advocacy Officer.

By then, her work had expanded beyond individual projects to include international cooperation and engagement with major institutions.

Caritas Africa says her responsibilities included strengthening the organisation's contribution to integral human development across Africa. At the time, she already had nine years of experience working at different levels of Caritas.

The move into international advocacy

As Policy and Advocacy Officer, Esipila became involved in discussions involving the African Union, European Union and United Nations.

Climate change also became a major part of her international work.

She represented Caritas Africa at COP27 in Egypt in 2022, where the organisation highlighted the effects of climate change on vulnerable African communities.

Her involvement continued into COP28.

In a 2023 CAFOD interview, she discussed Africa's climate priorities and argued that the continent's experience of climate change needed to be heard more clearly in global negotiations.

For Esipila, climate change is not an abstract environmental issue.

Her early work with pastoralist communities had already shown her how changes in rainfall, access to pasture and water can affect food security and livelihoods.

That connection between international policy and life at community level has remained a recurring theme in her work.

Breaking a leadership barrier at Caritas Africa

In 2023, Esipila took another significant step.

She was elected Regional Coordinator of Caritas Africa, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

Caritas Africa's records identify her as Regional Executive Secretary/Coordinator, while other Catholic organisations have described her as the first female Regional Coordinator.

Her appointment was not simply a symbolic milestone.

It put her at the helm of a regional network working through Catholic organisations across Africa on humanitarian response, development, disaster preparedness, social protection and advocacy.

In that role, she has continued to focus on building communities that can withstand crises rather than simply responding after disasters happen.

During a disaster-risk reduction training in Rwanda, Esipila stressed the importance of strengthening communities before disasters strike.

“We believe that if communities are resilient, then the impact of disasters can be minimized,” she said.

A strong voice on climate justice

Climate justice has become one of Esipila's defining areas of advocacy.

Her position is rooted in the experience of communities that have contributed relatively little to global emissions but are often among the first to feel the effects of droughts, floods and changing weather patterns.

That perspective has featured in her work around international climate negotiations.

She has argued for greater attention to the needs of vulnerable communities and for climate action to be linked to questions of poverty, livelihoods and human dignity.

Her leadership at Caritas Africa has also involved emergency and development programmes across the continent.

In Zimbabwe, for example, she joined a 2025 Caritas Africa and Caritas Internationalis monitoring visit to a school-feeding programme supporting hundreds of thousands of learners affected by food insecurity.

Beyond climate: debt, poverty and inequality

Esipila's advocacy has also moved into another major challenge facing African countries: debt.

She has participated in international faith-based campaigns calling for changes to the global financial system and debt relief for heavily indebted countries.

A 2025 statement from Caritas Africa, signed by Esipila, argued that debt burdens can undermine efforts to tackle inequality and improve the lives of women and vulnerable communities.

She was also listed among faith leaders involved in international calls for renewed debt relief, alongside representatives of Christian and Muslim organisations from across Africa and other parts of the world.

Her approach reflects a wider Catholic social teaching tradition that connects humanitarian work with questions of justice, dignity and the structures that shape poverty.

A woman breaking new ground

Esipila's rise has also carried significance for women in leadership.

Her election as the first female regional coordinator of Caritas Africa came at a time when women were taking on increasingly visible leadership roles within Catholic humanitarian and development structures.

In interviews, she has spoken about the importance of women participating in decision-making and advocacy.

Her work has also included gender issues alongside climate, communications, development and humanitarian response.

Caritas Africa's 2025 International Women's Day statement, signed by Esipila, linked women's economic empowerment with broader reforms around debt, social protection and inequality.

Her leadership philosophy

Esipila's career has largely followed a bottom-up path.

She began with communities.

She moved into national advocacy.

Then came regional leadership and international policy work.

That progression has shaped the way she talks about development.

Her experience suggests that international policies only matter when they eventually make a difference to people dealing with drought, food insecurity, poverty or disaster at community level.

Her faith is also an important part of that outlook.

In her CAFOD interview, Esipila spoke about the connection between her work, her Catholic faith and the Church's mission to serve vulnerable people.

Now, her work reaches the Vatican

Esipila's growing international profile comes as her experience places her increasingly close to global Catholic policy discussions.

Her background is particularly relevant to the Church's work on integral human development because it combines humanitarian response with advocacy on climate, poverty, debt and social justice.

Her story is therefore bigger than a rise through the ranks of a Catholic organisation.

It is the story of a Kenyan professional whose career began among pastoralist communities in northern Kenya and expanded into international rooms where decisions affecting vulnerable communities are debated.

And throughout that journey, one thread has remained constant: the belief that development must ultimately be measured by what happens to people on the ground.

At a glance

Name: Lucy Afandi Esipila
Nationality: Kenyan
Current role: Regional Executive Secretary/Coordinator, Caritas Africa
Leadership milestone: First woman elected Regional Coordinator of Caritas Africa
Professional background: Humanitarian and development work, policy, advocacy, communications and community development
Early Caritas work: Catholic Diocese of Maralal, Samburu
Previous national role: Research, Communications and Advocacy Officer, Caritas Kenya
Previous regional role: Policy and Advocacy Officer, Caritas Africa
Key areas of work: Climate justice, humanitarian response, food security, disaster-risk reduction, poverty, gender and social justice
International engagement: African Union, European Union, United Nations and UN climate negotiations

About the Author

Maureen Onyango is a journalist passionate about storytelling, life coaching and spiritual lessons. She studied at the Kenya Institute of Management and enjoys telling stories that inform, inspire and empower communities.