Annual Meeting 2004
The 40th Annual Meeting of
The Association for International Agriculture 
and Rural Development

"Progress in International Agriculture and Rural Development"
Speakers and Panelists

Her Excellency, Edith Grace Ssempala
Ambassador of Uganda to the United States of America

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Ambassador Ssempala serves as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uganda to the United States of America and she is Uganda's Representative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from 1996 to date. She served for ten years as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uganda to Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, while based in Copenhagen, Denmark. During that time, she initiated and coordinated official and private visits by President Yoweri Museveni to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway from 1986 to 1996. Ambassador Ssempala was the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Copenhagen, Denmark from 1992 - 1996.

Ambassador Ssempala has been a leading promoter of passage of the Africa growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which was signed into law by President Clinton in May, 2000. The Ambassador initiated and participated in the planning and visit of President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton to Uganda in 1998, and Ambassador Ssempala initiated and coordinated the visit to Uganda of a Congressional delegation led by Congressman Jim Kolbe in 1997. In the same year, Ambassador Ssempala coordinated the visit of President and Mrs. Yoweri Museveni's visit to Washington,

 D.C. Other visits to Uganda initiated, coordinated, and participated in by Ambassador Ssempala include the "Presidential Delegation on Economic Cooperation to Africa" led by Congressman Charles Rangel and the visits of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and First Lady of the United States Hillary R. Clinton to Uganda in 1997.

Significant presentations of Ambassador Ssempala include testimony before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, a speech on opportunities for women in Africa, and a keynote speech, "Africa in the Next Decade-the Bad News and the Good News" at the United Nations Global Community Day in Washington, D.C. Other notable presentations of the Ambassador include a lecture on the "Uganda miracle" at the African Studies Department, Georgetown University, and a keynote speech at an observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday organized by Friends of Africa at the Boys and Girls Club of Washington, D.C. Ambassador Ssempala has also organized various seminars regarding democracy and human rights in Uganda.

Awards received by Ambassador Ssempala include the International Service Award to a Foreign Woman from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. in 2000 and the International Trends and Services Award from The Links, Inc., also in 2000. Mrs. Ssempala is married and has three children. She holds a Master's degree in Civil Engineering from Lumumba University, Moscow.