Walter Mwasaa is an accomplished development practitioner with more than 24 years of experience designing and leading large-scale humanitarian and development programs across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. As Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, he brings to CARE a proven record of driving transformation, building resilient programs, strengthening institutional partnerships, and delivering measurable outcomes for women, girls, and the communities CARE serves.
Walter most recently served as Country Director for CARE Zimbabwe, where he led the country office’s overall strategy, programming, and partnerships, and as Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Takunda Resilience Food Security Activity — a consortium-led program advancing food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and women’s empowerment. He has spent 14 years in Chief of Party roles on multi-million-dollar, multi-stakeholder programs with CARE and Save the Children, leading and supporting major food security, resilience, and emergency response programs in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe. He has also served as Acting Country Director for CARE Bangladesh.
Across these contexts — from fragile and conflict-affected settings in the Horn of Africa and West Africa to climate-vulnerable communities in Southern Africa and South Asia — Walter has been recognized as a thoughtful coalition builder and skilled facilitator, with deep relationships among donors, government counterparts, civil society, and private-sector partners. His leadership is defined by a relentless pursuit of solutions to the ever-evolving development challenges facing the communities CARE serves, and emphasizes locally led development, evidence-based programming, and investing in the next generation of humanitarian and development talent.
In his role as Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Walter oversees CARE’s portfolio across the region, working with country offices and partners to advance CARE’s mission of ending poverty — with a particular focus on equality women and girls, climate resilience, and locally led development.
A Kenyan national, Walter holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.