The exchange between UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima and Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, over the latter’s call to the former to respect her UN workplace’s human resource regulations, has continued.
When the exchange started, Adonia Ayebare told Winnie Byanyima she could not eat her cake and have it as he urged her to be grateful to government’s support for her roles at UNDP and UNAIDS.
Winnie Byanyima, wife to opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, seemed to revel in the explanation offered by a one Wes Kambale who sought to shed light on how jobs like Winnie Byanyima’s are offered.
Allow me disabuse y’all of the idea that Winnie Byanyima was recommended by Museveni
Elective positions like the UN Secretary-General or the President of the UN General Assembly (as we saw with Sam Kutesa in 2014) are heavily lobbied for and require recommendations from one’s home country and another nation to second the nomination.
However, Under-Secretary-General positions, such as the one Winnie Byanyima holds, follow a different process. These roles are appointed by the Secretary-General but are preceded by a rigorous recruitment process.
For UNAIDS, the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) establishes a Search Committee to oversee the selection of the next Executive Director.
This committee publicly advertises the role, allowing any qualified individual to apply. the recruitment process includes interviews and assessments, and once a pool of suitable candidates (usually 3) is identified, their names are submitted to the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (CCO).
This committee includes partners like UNICEF, WHO, PEPFAR, the Global Fund, etc.
The CCO then forwards the shortlist to the Secretary-General, who makes the final appointment. Even if it were true that Winnie received a recommendation from M7, it would’ve been meaningless if she had failed the interview process.
This is a position that often draws over 200 applicants, all subject to the same merit-based evaluation. Winnie, as a Ugandan diplomat, politician and having served at UNDP and Oxfam International, definitely had a good CV. – Wes Kambale
In response, Adonia Ayebare has reminded Winnie Byanyima of the day she reportedly requested him to seek Museveni Government’s support for her UNAIDS job bid.
“I am reminding you that during the recruitment process you contacted me as Uganda’s permanent representative to the UN to ask for Uganda’s support which is your right and I got clearance from the highest levels of our Government to give a green light for your selection,” wrote Ayebare.
“The technical process stopped at the short[list] of three individuals that included you, the Secretary General them makes a political decision. The call from Kampala made the difference and you know the truth.”
You can read see the attacks and counter attacks between Winnie Byanyima and Adonia Ayebare in their ongoing war of words Here.
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