Winnie Byanyima

Winnie Byanyima "directs the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme. Prior to this, Ms. Byanyima served as the African Union Director for Women, Gender and Development where she managed a programme on gender and peace-building in Africa. Ms. Byanyima is the foundubg Chairperson of the Forum for Women in Democracy, an advocacy NGO in Uganda. She  has been elected three times to the Ugandan  parliament and is a founder of the parliament’s women’s caucus.  She participated in the writing of Uganda’s 1995 post-conflict constitution and has been involved in a number of initiatives in Africa to bring a gender perspective to peace processes and to strengthen women’s participation in post- conflict governance processes. Winnie was a member of UNIFEM’s Advisory Group on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and on Women’s Roles in Peace Building. More recently, she chaired an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by some members of the African Union forces in Darfur, Sudan. She has served on many international boards and committees including the UN Millennium Development Goals Task Force on Gender Equality and Education and the Board of the US-based International Centre for Research on Women."


 * Advisory Committee, AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative