Winnie Byanyima
| Winnie Byanyima | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
13 January 1959 Mbarara, Uganda |
| Residence | London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | Ugandan |
| Citizenship | Uganda |
| Alma mater |
University of Manchester (Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering) Cranfield University (Master of Science in mechanical engineering) |
| Occupation | Engineer, politician, and diplomat |
| Years active | 1981 – present |
| Known for | Politics |
| Home town | Mbarara |
| Spouse(s) | Kizza Besigye |
Winifred "Winnie" Byanyima (born 13 January 1959) is a Ugandan-born aeronautical engineer, politician, and diplomat. She is the executive director of Oxfam International, to which she was appointed in May 2013. Before that, she served as the director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2006.
She was born in Mbarara District in the Western Region of Uganda. Her parents are Boniface Byanyima, one-time national chairman of the Democratic Party in Uganda, and Gertrude Byanyima, a former schoolteacher who died in November 2008. 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.
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. Though both Byanyima and her husband have since fallen out with the Ugandan president because of his repressive undemocratic rule despite his earlier stated convictions.
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