United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced, on February 24, the appointment of Valentine Rugwabiza of Rwanda as his new Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
Valentine Rugwabiza succeeds Mankeur Ndiaye of Senegal, who has led the Mission since 2019.
With more than 30 years of experience in Africa development and security issues in both the public and corporate sectors, Valentine Rugwabiza has been a government member, a senior diplomat accredited to several countries and organizations, and a senior leader in national, regional and multilateral entities.
Since 2016, Valentine Rugwabiza has been her country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and non-resident Ambassador to Colombia and Jamaica. Between 2014 and 2016, she served as Minister for East African Community Affairs and Member of the East African Legislative Assembly. From 2013 to 2014, she was Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board and a Member of Cabinet.
From 2005 until 2013, Valentine Rugwabiza served as the Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. She was the first and only ever female appointed to serve as Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization. In this role, which she took up in October 2005, Valentine Rugwabiza’s responsibility covered development issues and policies generally; trade policy review; trade facilitation; and training and technical cooperation. She was also responsible for the WTO work programme on Aid for Trade.
Before that, she was Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and United Nations specialized agencies, as well as Ambassador to Switzerland, from 2002 to 2005. During her tenure as an Ambassador, she was the Coordinator of the African Group of Ambassadors in the WTO and was one of the two Ambassadors representing the LDCs in the Integrated Framework Working Group. She initiated the Integrated Framework in Rwanda.
Prior to this assignment she was adviser at the Council of Economic and Social Affairs in the Office of the Rwandan President in Kigali.
Valentine Rugwabiza managed her own company which she had established upon her return to Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. Previously she had worked as a senior manager with a major Swiss multinational company, first as head of its commercial development and marketing operations for Central Africa, based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and then as its regional manager for Central and West Africa, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Valentine Rugwabiza is a founding member of the Rwanda Private Sector Federation, the Rwanda Women Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Rwandese Women Leaders’ Caucus. She speaks English, French, Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda.
