Winnie Byanyima | |
---|---|
Born | Mbarara, Uganda | 13 January 1959
Nationality | Ugandan |
Citizenship | Uganda |
Alma mater | University of Manchester (Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering) Cranfield University (Master of Science in mechanical engineering) |
Occupation(s) | Engineer, politician, and diplomat |
Years active | 1981–present |
Political party | Forum for Democratic Change (since 2004) National Resistance Movement (until 2000) |
Spouse | Kizza Besigye |
Winifred Byanyima (born 13 January 1959[ citation needed ]), is a Ugandan aeronautical engineer, politician, human rights activist, feminist and diplomat. She is the executive director of UNAIDS, effective November 2019. [1]
From May 2013 until November 2019, she served as the executive director of Oxfam International. [2] She has served as the director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2006. [3]
Byanyima was born in Mbarara District in the Western Region of Uganda, a British protectorate at the time. Her parents are the late Boniface Byanyima, one-time national chairman of the Democratic Party in Uganda, and the late Gertrude Byanyima, a former schoolteacher who died in November 2008. [4] Winnie Byanyima attended Mount Saint Mary's College Namagunga in Mukono District. She went on to obtain a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester, becoming the first female Ugandan to become an aeronautical engineer. She later received a master's degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in energy conservation from Cranfield University. [5]
Following the completion of her training as an aeronautical engineer, Byanyima worked as a flight engineer for Uganda Airlines. When Yoweri Museveni started the 1981–1986 Ugandan Bush War, Byanyima left her job and joined the armed rebellion. Museveni and Byanyima had been raised together at the Byanyima household as children, with the Byanyima family paying for all Museveni's education and scholastic needs.
Museveni, Byanyima, and her husband Kizza Besigye were combatants in the National Resistance Army (NRA) during that war. Both Byanyima and her husband have since fallen out with the Ugandan president Museveni because of his repressive undemocratic rule despite his earlier stated convictions. [6]
After the NRA won that war, Byanyima served as Uganda's ambassador to France from 1989 until 1994. She then returned home and became an active participant in Ugandan politics. She served as a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Ugandan Constitution. She then served two consecutive terms as a member of parliament, representing Mbarara Municipality from 1994 until 2004. She was then appointed director of the Directorate of Women, Gender and Development at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She served in that capacity until she was appointed director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP in November 2006. [7]
In January 2013, Byanyima was announced as the next executive director of Oxfam International, [8] replacing Jeremy Hobbs. Byanyima began her five-year directorship at Oxfam on 1 May 2013. [9] In December 2017, she announced acceptance of an offer from Oxfam's Board of Supervisors to serve a second five-year term as Oxfam International's Executive Director. [10]
In January 2015, Byanyima co-chaired the World Economic Forum in Davos. She used the forum to press for action to narrow the gap between rich and poor. The charity's research claims that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1 percent of the world population had increased to nearly 50 percent in 2014, whereas 99 percent shares the other half. [11] [12] [13] Oxfam's figures are strongly contested by several economists. [14]
In November 2016, Byanyima was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, co-chaired by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, and Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana. [15]
Byanyima was appointed as the executive director of UNAIDS [1] in August 2019, by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, following a comprehensive selection process that involved a search committee constituted by members of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. In her new position she concurrently serves as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General. [16]
In addition to her role at UNAIDS, Byanyima also serves a two-year term as a member of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Advisory Council on Gender and Development. [17] Since 2022, she has been a member of the Commission for Universal Health convened by Chatham House and co-chaired by Helen Clark and Jakaya Kikwete. [18]
On 7 July 1999, Byanyima married Kizza Besigye in Nsambya, Kampala. [23] Besigye is the former chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party in Uganda. They are the parents of one son named Anselm. Byanyima is a member of the FDC, although she has significantly reduced her participation in partisan Ugandan politics since she became a Ugandan diplomat in 2004. [24] She has five siblings: Edith, Anthony, Martha, Abraham, and Olivia. [25]
The politics of Uganda occurs in an authoritarian context. Since assuming office in 1986 at the end of the Ugandan civil war, Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda as an autocrat. Political parties were banned from 1986 to 2006 in the wake of the 2005 Ugandan multi-party referendum which was won by pro-democracy forces. Since 2006, Museveni has used legal means, patronage, and violence to maintain power.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa is a Ugandan politician, military officer and revolutionary who is the ninth and current president of Uganda since 1986. His government is considered autocratic.
The Forum for Democratic Change, founded on 16 December 2004, is the main opposition party in Uganda. The FDC was founded as an umbrella body called Reform Agenda, mostly for disenchanted former members and followers of President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM). Party president Kizza Besigye, formerly a close ally of Museveni, was a candidate in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 presidential elections. In November 2012, Mugisha Muntu was elected as President of the FDC until November 2017 when he was defeated by Patrick Oboi Amuriat the current party President until 2022.
Warren Kizza Besigye Kifefe, known as Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye, is a Ugandan physician, politician, and former military officer of the Uganda People's Defence Force. He served as the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party and was an unsuccessful candidate in Uganda's 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 presidential elections, losing all of them to the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda since 26 January 1986. The results of the 2006 elections were contested in court, and the court found massive rigging and disenfranchisement. Besigye allowed an early internal FDC election for a successor president, which took place on 24 November 2012.
Daniel Kalinaki is a Ugandan journalist working with the Nation Media Group as General Manager in Uganda in charge of Editorial. He was previously the Managing Editor, Regional Content. He is married with three children.
Speciosa Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe, is a Ugandan politician and first female vice president in Africa. She was the sixth vice president of Uganda from 1994 to 2003, making her the first woman in Africa to hold the position of vice-president of a sovereign nation. Dr. Speciosa Kazibwe is also a Ugandan surgeon. She is also referred to as "Nnalongo", because of her twins. In August 2013, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a non-profit organization with offices in Washington, D.C., United States, New Delhi, Ranchi, and Jamtara, India, Nairobi, Kenya, and Kampala, Uganda. ICRW works to promote gender equity, inclusion and shared prosperity within the field of international development.
Brigadier Nobel Mayombo, sometimes spelled Noble Mayombo, (1965–2007), was a Ugandan military officer, lawyer and legislator.
King’s College Budo is a mixed, residential, secondary school in Central Uganda (Buganda).
Syda Namirembe Bbumba is a Ugandan accountant, politician and banker. She served in the Cabinet of Uganda as Minister of Energy and Minerals from 2002 to 2006, Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development from 2006 to 2008, Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2011, and Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development again from 2011 to 2012. She was also the elected Member of Parliament for Nakaseke County North, Nakaseke District She was the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy and also Chairperson of the Parliamentary Islamic Banking Forum. She was Sub-Saharan Africa's representative to the OIC Women Advisory Panel.
Hope Ruhindi Mwesigye is a Ugandan lawyer and politician. She is the former Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries from 16 February 2009 until 27 May 2011. Prior to that, she served as the State Minister for Local Government, from June 2006 until February 2011. In the cabinet reshuffle of 27 May 2011, she was dropped from the cabinet and replaced by Tress Bucyanayandi.
Dr. Michel Sidibé is the African Union Special Envoy for the African Medicines Agency (AMA). He was the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali. Sidibé was the second Executive Director of UNAIDS, serving from January 2009 until May 2019. He held the rank of Under-Secretary-General.
Mt. St. Mary's College Namagunga is an all-girl boarding secondary school located in Mukono District in Uganda. The school is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lugazi.
Jennifer Semakula Musisi is a Ugandan lawyer and public administrator. She is the first City Leader in Residence at Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. She was appointed to this position in January 2019.
Beti Olive Namisango Kamya-Turomwe, also known as Betty Kamya and Beti Kamya, is a businesswoman and politician in Uganda, the third-largest economy in the East African Community. She is the Inspector General of Government in Uganda, since 16 July 2021.
General elections were held in Uganda on 18 February 2016 to elect the President and Parliament. Polling day was declared a national holiday.
Angelline Asio Osegge, also known as Angelina Osege is a Ugandan social worker and politician, who serves as the incumbent Member of Parliament representing the Soroti District Women Constituency in the 10th Ugandan Parliament. She is the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee for the Central Government. She belongs to Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Grace Tubwita Bagaya Bukenya, commonly known as Grace Tubwita, is a Ugandan female physical planner and politician. She is the Chairperson of the Uganda Institute of Physical Planners.
Thelma Awori is a Ugandan professor, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and feminist. She was born on March 25, 1943, in Monrovia, Liberia and came to Uganda in 1965. She is a former Uganda People's Congress diehard, who defected to the Movement. She is an individual African feminist who believes in justice for women and the validity of women’s perspectives. She has found an extremely high prevalence of internalized oppression due to religion and socialization.
{{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help){{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)