Skip to content

About

The work is making the global health and health security functions survive beyond the donor funded project.

Eighteen years of strategic and technical leadership spanning national, regional and global assignments across Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Central and Southern Asia.

Doris Bota, global health systems specialist

Doris Bota, MSc, MA, BSc

Nairobi, KenyaGlobally mobileRemote-capable

Doris Bota is a global health specialist supporting governments to build resilient, equitable health systems at the intersection of health security, governance, and partnerships, with expertise in integrating Infection Prevention and Control, laboratory systems and biosafety, and WASH into sustainable health system reforms.

Across her work with governments, UNICEF, Save the Children, MSH, FHI 360 and other global health partners, Doris has seen what separates a successful project from a lasting health-system function. Her work is grounded in a simple principle: sustainability begins when a priority has an owner inside government, a budget line, an institutional standard, and a reporting and accountability cycle that continues long after external funding ends.

Over eighteen years she has led that translation across Kenya, South Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and India, and provided regional and global technical assistance across Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Central and Southern Asia. The work has ranged from leading technical assistance to the ministry of health in establishing East Africa’s first structured national biosafety governance system, to supporting the development and implementation of national IPC, biosafety and occupational health and safety policy, guidelines and training curriculums, to the facility-level work of IPC, biosafety, laboratory quality management systems and WASH FIT assessments and improvement planning.

The Integrated Health Systems Transformation Framework™ is the original methodology that came out of that experience — a three-pillar methodology that connects integration, systems strengthening, and policy influence to deliver sustainable, government-led health systems change. The Integration Architecture™ is how it is delivered: as a diagnostic, a time-bound transformation engagement, or embedded advisory support that stays until the institution owns the work.

The IPC/WASH Health Systems Fragmentation Diagnostics is part of The Integrated Health Systems Transformation Framework™. It helps governments, UN agencies, and donor programmes assess the degree to which WASH and infection prevention and control are integrated into the health system, or remain fragmented across donor-driven, siloed programmes. It evaluates ten defined dimensions of WASH, IPC, and health system integration and produces a personalised gap analysis with prioritised recommendations, completed by a user in five to ten minutes.

Doris is also the originator of The WASH and IPC Health Systems Wheel™, which helps embed IPC and WASH health priorities into the governance structures, policies, institutions, financing mechanisms, and accountability systems that endure beyond projects and funding cycles.

From policy to practice. From projects to institutions.

Qualifications and professional credentials

Academic qualifications and professional certification.

Academic

MSc

Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Prevention & Control

2026

MA

Project Planning and Management

BSc

Medical Laboratory Sciences

Professional certification

  • Professional Certification in Biorisk Management and Biosecurity

    International Federation for Biosafety Associations (IFBA)

    IFBA Certified Professional mark
  • Certification in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Health Care Facilities

    WASH in HCF

  • Professional Certification in Project Management

    PMD Pro

Recognition and evidence

Published and recognised

The method is documented, peer-reviewed where it can be, and independently recognised.

2016

Award

Biosafety Hero Award

International Federation for Biosafety Associations (IFBA)

International recognition for leadership in strengthening biosafety practice and governance.

Read the source

2022

Peer-reviewed paper

Strengthening medical laboratory systems in Kenya: an innovative biosafety training model

Applied Biosafety

Evidence on a training model designed to build biosafety capacity within laboratory systems rather than alongside them, and what it took to embed the model in national curricula.

Read the source

See all insights and publications

Where the work has been done

Scope

Directly implemented programmes in Kenya, South Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and India, while providing regional and global remote technical assistance across Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Central and Southern Asia through roles with UNICEF, Save the Children, MSH, FHI 360, University of Maryland, Arkangelo Ali Association, and independent consultancy engagements. This includes support to Christian Health Associations across 32 African countries.

Programmes implemented directly

  • Kenya
  • South Sudan
  • Ghana
  • Nigeria
  • Malawi
  • India

Organisations worked with

  • Management Sciences for Health
  • Arkangelo Ali Association
  • UNICEF
  • University of Maryland
  • Save the Children
  • FHI 360

Organisations Doris has worked with or through, in staff, secondment and consultancy roles. Their marks are shown to indicate the institutional settings the work has been done in.

Systems transformation in practice

Two engagements, set out in full.

National biosafety governance and laboratory systems strengthening in Kenya, and WASH–IPC integration within USAID MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership — context, challenge, approach, results, and what each taught about making a technical function last.

“She is one of the most dependable, knowledgeable and forward-thinking IPC specialists I have worked with.”

Dr. Collins Jaguga

Management Sciences for Health · USAID MTaPS, Kenya

Read what colleagues and partners say

Availability

Available for assignment, roster, TOR and RFP processes.

Available for assignments with governments, UN agencies, embassies, development partners, consultancy firms, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, academia and research institutions, foundations, faith-based and implementing organisations. Registered on UNGM and available for roster, TOR, and RFP processes.

For multidisciplinary or larger-scale assignments, Doris works with a trusted network of specialist associates, bringing together complementary expertise according to the needs of each engagement.

The button opens a prepared email in your mail app. Sent by return, usually within two working days.

The method

The Integrated Health Systems Transformation Framework™

A strategic focus, a transformation outcome, and a strategic enabler — delivered as a diagnostic, a transformation engagement, or embedded advisory support.

How engagements are structured