SPECIOZA NAIGAGA WANDERA KAZIBWE

She was born on 1 July 1955 in the Iganga District in Eastern Uganda. A medical doctor by profession, she studied at Makerere University in Kampala.  She  is mother of four and has adopted several more from disadvantaged families in various parts of Uganda. Dr Kazibwe was elected Ugandan Vice-President in 1994, became the first and only woman in Africa to hold such a position. As Vice President, her dynamic presence was evident; she was an endless source of new ideas for government in terms of strategic decision-making.

She started her political career as a committed member of the Democratic Party (DP), serving both the youth and women's wings. During the Museveni regime, she was elected village leader under the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Her involvement at this level encouraged her to be more active politically and she was later elected Women's Representative for the Kampala District in the NRM Council when it was in power. She later became Chairperson of the Advisory Committee to President Museveni's successful election campaign. Subsequently, Dr. Kazibwe held a number of positions in the NRM government including serving as Deputy Minister for Industry from 1989 to 1991, as Minister for Gender and Community Development and in 1994, when she appointed Vice-President and Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.  She was extremely active in her position as Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, acting with vigour and vision.  Her message to all has been to look at agriculture as a business. In the same year, 1994, Dr Kazibwe was elected member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted Uganda's new constitution. In 1996, she was elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kigulu South in the Iganga District.

Dr Kazibwe has dedicated her life to "advancing women, reducing poverty and the high level of illiteracy, and promoting social justice." Since her election as Ugandan Vice-President in 1994 she focused her objectives on women's concerns, on reducing the high level of illiteracy and on promoting social justice in her country. A great deal of her time and energy goes into advocating for affirmative action for women and other marginalised groups, including the elderly and disabled. An educated woman herself, she feels that education is the key to the emancipation of women in Uganda. Her position in the government provided in her a role model to girls throughout the country. It also underlined the role of women in the overall development of society. Indeed her active campaigning for gender, peace and development issues contributed to the creation of the AWCPD, a committee jointly established by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), to which Committee Dr Kazibwe is currently chairperson. The Committee aims to bring women into the mainstream of efforts to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts, while ensuring their full and active participation in development initiatives at the highest decision-making level. Thus she  her statement; "My mission is to see the emancipation of rural women through functional skills development and access to micro-financing to ensure internally generated improvement."

Dr Kazibwe is an active member of a wide range of local organisations. She is Chairperson of the Senior Women's Advisory Group (SWAG) on the environment, and a member of both the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) and the Uganda Women Doctors Association. She is current Chairperson of the newly created African Women's Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD).

Her active involvement in all these fields is reflected through her nomination for many awards and the appreciation shown by people and organisations in Uganda and abroad. In 1994, Dr Kazibwe was named "Woman of the Year" by The Monitor. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) awarded her the "Ceres Medal" for her contribution to food security and poverty eradication in 1998. In the same year, she also was nominated "African Woman Entrepreneur". The CEDPA also crowned her with their Leadership Award.