Winnie Byanyima is Executive Director of Oxfam
International. She is a leader on women’s rights, democratic governance and
peace building. She served eleven years in the Ugandan Parliament, and has
served at the African Union Commission and as Director of Gender and
Development at the United Nations Development Program. She co-founded the
60-member Global Gender and Climate Alliance and chaired a UN task force on
gender aspects of the Millennium Development Goals, and on climate change.
Born in Uganda, Ms. Byanyima was elected for three terms and
served eleven years in the Ugandan Parliament. She led Uganda's first
parliamentary women’s caucus, championing ground-breaking gender equality
provisions in the county's 1995 post-conflict constitution. A world recognized
expert on women's rights, she founded the still-thriving civil society
organization Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE). She has served at the
African Union Commission and as Director of Gender and Development at the
United Nations Development Program.
Ms. Byanyima is a signatory to her country’s 1985 peace
agreement and has helped to broker and support women’s participation in peace
processes in Rwanda, South Africa, Burundi, Sudan and other countries emerging
from conflict. She began a five-year term leading Oxfam International on May 1
2013.