Biography 
Betty Bigombe has been involved in peace negotiations to end the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency since the early nineties. Since March 2004, Bigombe has been the chief mediator between the LRA and the government of Uganda, in an effort to end 20-years of conflict. Under President Yoweri Museveni’s government, Bigombe was appointed minister to the parliament in 1986. In 1988 she was selected Minister of State for Pacification of north and northeastern Uganda, within the office of the Prime Minister resident in the north, and tasked with seeking a peaceful means to end the war. Following the failure of numerous military interventions, Bigombe initiated contact with rebel leader Joseph Kony in May 1992; this initiative gave birth to the “Bigombe talks.” In 1994 she was named “Uganda's Woman of the Year” for her efforts to end the violence. She also provided technical support to the Carter Center to foster peace between the governments of Uganda and Sudan. Bigombe left government service in 1996 and obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She was also a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development in Public Policy. She joined the World Bank in 1997 as a senior social scientist at the newly created Post-Conflict Unit and also worked with the Social Protection and Human Development Units. She has co-authored several articles on post-conflict peace building and the impact of conflict on women and children. She is currently a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. (11.2006)