Posted: 2026-06-24 18:20:16  Deadline: July 31, 2026   3 - 6 Months Internship   Salary: Confidential

The Africa Centre for Health Systems and Gender Justice (ACHGJ) is seeking a passionate and innovative NLP and AI Intern to support the FemDigiNomics Project, a women-centred data and intelligence platform designed to advance women's financial inclusion, livelihood resilience, and health-informed economic empowerment. The intern will contribute to the development of English and Swahili language resources and support the design of responsible AI and natural language processing (NLP) workflows grounded in community realities.

Location: Nairobi, with possible community engagement in informal settlements and partner sites
Duration: 3 to 6 Months
Type: Internship
Reports To: FemDigiNomics Project Lead

Key Responsibilities

Support the collection, cleaning, translation, and annotation of Swahili and mixed-language narratives.
Assist in developing language categories related to savings, debt, chama obligations, business risk, care work, health shocks, and lending readiness.
Help test NLP workflows for classifying women’s needs, barriers, and support pathways.
Support documentation of language resources, annotation protocols, model outputs, and testing results.
Contribute to discussions and learning activities on responsible AI, including bias mitigation, explainability, privacy, and ethical use of women's data.
Work closely with community and research teams to ensure language tools accurately reflect how women describe their economic realities and lived experiences.

Qualifications

Background in Computer Science, Data Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Information Systems, or a related field.
Demonstrated interest in African languages, particularly Swahili and Sheng.
Basic knowledge of Python, NLP libraries, machine learning, data annotation, or language data processing will be an added advantage.
Strong commitment to ethical, community-centred, and responsible AI practices.

Cross-Cutting Requirements

Strong interest in women’s economic opportunity, gender justice, financial inclusion, and health equity.
Respect for community knowledge, lived experience, and ethical data practices.
Ability to work with low-income women and grassroots partners with dignity, empathy, and sensitivity.
Strong writing, documentation, and communication skills.
Fluency in both English and Swahili.
Ability to work independently as well as within multidisciplinary teams.
Willingness to learn and contribute across research, programme implementation, technology, and community engagement activities.

What the Intern Will Gain

Practical experience in community-rooted AI and NLP for African languages.
Exposure to women's financial inclusion and lending readiness initiatives.
Hands-on experience in participatory research and community data collection.
Knowledge of responsible AI, data governance, and ethical community data management.
Experience supporting programmes implemented with grassroots women’s organizations.
Opportunities to translate research findings and data into practical tools that support low-income women.
Exposure to work at the intersection of gender justice, economic opportunity, health, and technology.

About FemDigiNomics

FemDigiNomics is a women-centred data and intelligence platform being developed by the Africa Centre for Health Systems and Gender Justice. Building on HerEconomics, the platform utilizes community-generated data, Swahili natural language processing (NLP), responsible AI, and participatory research to strengthen women's financial inclusion, livelihood resilience, and health-informed economic empowerment. The initiative seeks to transform women's lived experiences into practical tools such as financial inclusion scorecards, community insights, and decision-support systems that improve economic opportunities and wellbeing for low-income women.

Application Process

Interested applicants should submit the following:

A short cover letter indicating the internship role being applied for.
A current CV.
A short writing sample, data sample, coding sample, or portfolio (where relevant).
Availability and preferred internship duration.

Applications should be sent to: vacancies@healthsystemsgenderjustice.org and copied to: [info@healthsystemsgenderjustice.org.

Subject Line: FemDigiNomics Internship Application – NLP and AI Intern
Application Deadline: 31st July 2026

For more opportunities at The Africa Centre for Health Systems and Gender Justice (ACHGJ), visit: ACHGJ Careers and Opportunities Page

Download the official NLP and AI Internship description here:
Call for Interns – FemDigiNomics Project (PDF)