Betty Oyella Bigombe, also known as Betty Atuku Bigombe (born October 21, 1952), served as the
Senior Director for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence at the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
from 2014 to 2017. She was appointed to that position in June 2014.
From May 2011 until June 2014, she was the
State Minister for Water Resources in the
Uganda Cabinet. She was appointed to that position on 27 May 2011. During the same timeframe, she concurrently served as the elected
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP), representing
Amuru District Women's Constituency.
She resigned both those positions on 1 June 2014.
Background and education
Betty Bigombe was born in
Amuru District
Amuru District is a Districts of Uganda, district in Northern Region, Uganda, Northern Uganda. Like most Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Amuru, Uganda, Amuru, where the district headquarters are located.
Location
Amuru Dist ...
on October 21, 1952, back when it was part of ''Acholi District''. She is one of eleven children by her father, who was a nurse. She is an ethnic
Acholi. Bigombe attended
Gayaza High School
Gayaza High School is the oldest all-girls boarding secondary school covering grades 8 to 13 (Secondary 1 to 6) in Uganda. The school is Church-founded, government-aided and accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports ...
for her O-Level studies, graduating in 1968 and
Trinity College Nabbingo
Trinity College Nabbingo (TRICONA), is an all-girls boarding school covering grades 8–13 in Central Uganda.
Location
The school is located on a hill in the village of Nabbingo, in Wakiso District, approximately , by road, south-west of Kampal ...
for her A-Level education, graduating in 1970. She entered
Makerere University
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...
, Uganda's oldest public university, graduating with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in Social Science, in 1974. Later she attended
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, Massachusetts in the United States. She graduated with the degree of
Master of Public Administration
The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...
. Her studies at Harvard were sponsored by a Fellowship from the
Harvard Institute for International Development
The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) was a think-tank dedicated to helping nations join the global economy, operating between 1974 and 2000. It was a center within Harvard University, United States.
Foundation and leadership ...
.
Career
From 1981 until 1984, she worked as the
Company Secretary of the ''Uganda Mining Corporation'', a government
parastatal company. From 1986 until 1996, she served in the Ugandan Parliament as a Member of Parliament. In 1988, she was appointed
State Minister for Northern Uganda, which required her to take up residence in
Gulu
Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District.
The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. The distance from Gulu to Kampala, Uganda's capital and large ...
, the largest city in the Uganda's Northern Region. She was tasked with convincing the
Lord's Resistance Army
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...
(LRA) guerilla rebels to lay down their arms, following the failure of military efforts to defeat the rebels. Bigombe initiated contact with the LRA leader
Joseph Kony
Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and various ...
in June 1993. In 1993, she was named Uganda's Woman of the Year for her efforts to end the violence. Despite meeting with Kony, the talks collapsed in February 1994.
Soon afterward, the insurgency intensified and no significant efforts towards peace would be made for the next decade.
Following a ten-year stint in the Uganda Parliament from 1986 until 1996, she failed to win the parliamentary seat for
Gulu Municipality in 1996 and left government service. In 2011, fifteen years later, she bounced back by winning the parliamentary seat of Amuru District Women's Constituency, on the
National Resistance Movement
The National Resistance Movement ( sw, Harakati za Upinzani za Kitaifa; abbr. NRM) has been the ruling party in Uganda since 1986.
History
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) was founded as a liberation movement that waged a guerrilla ...
party ticket.
In 1997, following her graduation from Harvard, she took up employment with the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, DC, as a Senior Social Scientist with the Post-Conflict Unit. Later, she served as a Consultant to the Bank's Social Protection and Human Development Unit. In 1999 and 2000, Bigombe provided technical support to the
Carter Center
The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidenti ...
in a successful mediation effort between the governments of Uganda and
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
.
Following the February 2004
Barlonyo massacre, Bigombe took a leave of absence from the World Bank and flew to Uganda to attempt to restart the peace process. From March 2004 to 2005, Bigombe was the chief mediator in a new peace initiative with the Lord's Resistance Army, personally financing much of the logistics of bringing Ugandan government ministers and rebel leaders together. The last meeting on 20 April 2005, fell through. However, the failure of the Bigombe mediation is seen as laying the groundwork for the
2006–2007 Juba talks, which were mediated by the government of
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
.
Those talks collapsed at the last minute when Joseph Kony refused to sign the peace agreement.
In 2006, she returned to the United States and served as a Senior Fellow at the
US Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individuals in diplomacy, mediation, and other peac ...
in Washington DC. Later, she was appointed a Distinguished African Scholar at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washi ...
, also in Washington, DC. In 2007, she received the Peacemakers in Action Award from th
Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
She was appointed the chairman of the National Information and Technology Authority in Uganda (NITAU) in 2009. In May 2011, she was appointed by
President Yoweri Museveni as State Minister for Water Resources, a position that she held until June 2014, when she resigned to take up her assignment at the World Bank.
Other considerations
Betty Bigombe was at one time married to then Uganda's ambassador to Japan.
She is the mother of two children; Pauline and Emmanuel.
In addition to
Acholi and English, she speaks
Swahili and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
.
See also
*
Acholiland
The Acholi people (also spelled Acoli) are a Nilotic ethnic group of Luo peoples (also spelled Lwo), found in Magwi County in South Sudan and Northern Uganda (an area commonly referred to as Acholiland), including the districts of Agago, Amuru, ...
*
Acholi sub-region
The Acholi people (also spelled Acoli) are a Nilotic ethnic group of Luo peoples (also spelled Lwo), found in Magwi County in South Sudan and Northern Uganda (an area commonly referred to as Acholiland), including the districts of Agago, Amuru, ...
*
Cabinet of Uganda
There are 32 Cabinet ministers and 50 Ministers of State in the Cabinet of Uganda (2021 to 2026).
According to Section 111 of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, as amended in 2005, "There shall be a Cabinet which shall consist of the President, t ...
*
Lord's Resistance Army Conflict
*
Robert Carmona-Borjas
References
External links
Feature on Betty Bigombeby the
International Museum of Women The International Museum of Women (IMOW), headquartered in San Francisco, California, is an online museum that covers women's issues worldwide. Since March 2014 it has been part of the Global Fund for Women.
Creation and expansion
I.M.O.W. was f ...
Arcadia FoundationBetty Bigombe is on the Board of Advisors of the International Peace and Security Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigombe, Betty Oyella
1952 births
Acholi people
Ugandan women diplomats
Government ministers of Uganda
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Living people
Makerere University alumni
National Resistance Movement politicians
People from Amuru District
Ugandan diplomats
World Bank people
Members of the Parliament of Uganda
Ugandan expatriates in the United States
Women government ministers of Uganda
21st-century Ugandan women politicians
21st-century Ugandan politicians
20th-century Ugandan women politicians
20th-century Ugandan politicians
Women members of the Parliament of Uganda
Ugandan officials of the United Nations
Harvard Institute for International Development
People educated at Trinity College Nabbingo
People educated at Gayaza High School