Byanyima shortlisted for UNAIDS job

Jun 22, 2019

The search for Sidibe’s replacement started in December and will be concluded in July when the list of the names will be sent to the UN Secretary-General to make the appointment.

BYANYIMA       UNAIDS      MBARARA

The Oxfam International executive director and former MP for Mbarara municipality has been shortlisted for the top UNAIDS job.

Byanyima was listed among the top five contenders of the organisation, whose head Michel Sidibé, who led the organization since 2009 left in May.

If she emerges winner, she will replace Gunilla Carlsson, who was appointed to the position in May, following the resignation of Sidibé. Sidibe is now health minister in Mali.

The search for Sidibe's replacement started in December and will be concluded in July when the list of the names will be sent to the UN Secretary-General to make the appointment.

In the advert for the job, women were encouraged to apply as well as people from geographical diversity. People living with HIV/AIDS and PWDs were also encouraged to apply.

Who is Winnie Byanyima
Winifred Byanyima was on January 13, 1959, in Mbarara, western Uganda. She attended Mount Saint Mary's College Namagunga in Mukono District before pursuing a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester.

She was 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.

Upon completion of her training as an aeronautical engineer, Byanyima worked as a flight engineer for Uganda Airlines. She later left to join the rebels led by Yoweri Museveni and when they took over power, she joined politics.

She represented Mbarara municipality in the constituent assembly before representing it again in the sixth and seventh Parliament.

She left Ugandan politics in 2004 when she was appointed the 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 as director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at UNDP in November 2006.

In January 2013, Byanyima was announced as the next executive director of Oxfam International, replacing Jeremy Hobbs.

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