Betty Bigombe has played a key role in conflict resolution in Africa. She led the peace and humanitarian efforts in northern Uganda, first in the 1990s as Minister of State for Northern Uganda and later in her private capacity as a chief mediator to the conflict in the mid-2000s. She has been a visiting scholar at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, distinguished African Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace consulting on the impact of war and violence. She has also served as a Commissioner for the Women’s Refugee Commission and led election observer missions in Zimbabwe and Rwanda. Her career has included a development focus in previous positions at the African Development Bank and at the World Bank where she was a Senior Social Scientist focusing on gender and conflict, disarmament and child soldiers. Bigombe holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Rural Economy from Makerere University in Uganda.

Betty Bigombe is a member of Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC), a network hosted by Conciliation Resources which connects women with a broad range of mediation knowledge and experience. 

In this film, Betty Bigombe talks to EPLO about her work as mediator: