Winnie Byanyima: ‘It’s powerful to be different. I don’t hesitate to be alone ‘

Many leaders have faced challenges in surviving and growing in their organizations, but few have met the challenges that Winnie Byanyima has won.

As a Ugandan, he went through the turmoil of his home after the colonists to find a place at a successful university. But he and his family soon became refugees in the UK via Kenya when they were forced to flee persecution. He also resumed his studies at the University of Manchester, a graduate in the male-dominated field of technical and natural sciences. He later turned down an offer in the US to return to Uganda and get involved in politics.

“I’m a wanderer,” he says. “I’ve gone astray in various ways as a curious person and a lover of justice.”

As a politician and regional activist, when Milton Obote’s regime violently infiltrated his successor, Idi Amin, Byanyima joined a Ugandan terrorist group to help oust Yoweri Museveni.

After serving as Uganda’s foreign ambassador and working on international women’s rights organizations, she was elected head of Oxfam International in 2013. those in Kenya.

He also helped control his response to the stigma, before being appointed two years ago to lead the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / Aids (UNAids). His anti-retroviral thinking had begun again anxiety internal harassment.

Byanyima recalls growing up angry and scared under Amin’s oppressive rule. “I saw my classmates being taken to school and coming back a week after shaving – a sign that they are mourning the death of their father and they were not able to bury him,” he said.

“A woman doesn’t know what to do. Any soldier can take you off the road, marry your parents and don’t dare say anything. ”

His mother, his teachers, and his father, the opposition politicians, promoted the belief that “social justice is something you stand for, enjoy, do for yourself and others, pay for and prosper.” He criticized the government and his schoolmates, while living “in fear that fathers might die, and then I would be afraid”.

As a student in England, she remembers dealing with racism, as well as the time her professor called her after earning high grades. “I’m always amazed at how well I can do it – it’s assumed because you were African and a woman, you can’t be good.”

He took part in political debates, but was disappointed by his interest in the UK. “When Greenham Common opponents were busy with [US] Nuclear weapons, we are being killed in Uganda with less weapons, “she says.

Everything throws you something new, and you have to fall and get up quickly. I have fallen several times

Upon their return to Uganda, they worked hard to eradicate corruption and harassment. He stood up as an anti-ministerial candidate for his party who felt he was not working enough for his constituents. He said: “The elected men were holding large rallies on the platform.” “I go into escapees, people’s kitchens and talk to women.” He won convincingly.

Along with his principles, he considers other skills needed for leadership. “To understand people and how to work with them. You need to know what you can offer, what you want from others and what they want from you. ”

Another essential quality is endurance. He says: “You have to be flexible. “Everything throws you something new, and you have to fall and get up quickly. I’ve fallen several times.”

While at Oxfam International, he encouraged the transition from humanitarian organization to military service, and gave a strong voice to branches in developing countries. “We were very impressed with the work we did to help the communities stand up. But that was not enough. Most of the poor people were in middle-income countries. The story was the same.”

In an effort to bring about change, he worked to bring the world’s most influential people to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Swiss Alps, with many credentials and reasons. This arouses the curiosity of another leadership that they believe is important: credibility.

“I walk into a room with 30 to 40 men in black and gray suits and a few working women in black suits,” he said. “In my country we wear green, yellow, and red. The inconsistency is the connection and the slightest threat. But what about being different? I was able to overcome my fears and move on with my message all of a sudden. It’s powerful to be different. I do not hesitate to be alone. ”

Towards the end of his tenure at Oxfam he was overshadowed by allegations of rape and torture by his predecessors, including the Haitian earthquake – although he was supervised at his UK office and long before he took office.

Defendants were reprimanded for responding slowly to their claims. But Byanyima said he had forced his party to appoint an external committee to look into the shortcomings, make comments, share them publicly and establish them.

Then in 2019 he won the UNAids running competition, which was forced to change in response to allegations of harassment of workers. He highlighted his experience in overcoming management problems, as well as the need to focus on campaigning and working with community groups.

He also described his experience with HIV, which devastated Uganda. The disease has killed her brother, who is said to be dying from a lack of treatment but from stigma, which prevents him from going to the hospital.

Forty years since AIDS was first identified, and it continues to kill at least 1m a year, it has focused on local security to lead the response and urge governments to implement monitoring measures.

Some say that organizations like Oxfam and UNAids need robust programs to provide jobs and encourage community members to campaign. For Byanyima, based on his skills, the first is the latter.

Reflecting on his management style, Byanyima says: “You fight with people, monitor who owns them, build houses they share and voice is given to everyone.