New York — The Africa-America Institute will bestow AAI African National Achievement Awards to the People of Kenya and Uganda at its 50th Anniversary Awards Gala: Celebrating Partnership and Progress at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 23, 2003 at the United Nations Delegates Dining Room in New York City.
These awards recognize the inspiring advances both countries are making towards a brighter future for the African continent. President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, and president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, will accept these awards at the gala on behalf of their people.
Thousands of dedicated Kenyans have worked tirelessly toward a peaceful democratic transition for their nation following 40 years of authoritarian rule. Its neighbor Uganda has, in one decade, cut the rate of AIDS infection from 15% to 5%, while also reducing poverty from 56% to 35%. Both Uganda and Kenya have recently made further progress with Tanzania, reforming the East Africa Community to speak with one voice to attract investment to their growing economies.
The event chairman of the awards is Henry McKinnell, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc. Mr. McKinnell was recently appointed by President Bush to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Representing Pfizer at the ceremony will be Karen Katen, President of the Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals Group.
Receiving AAI Distinguished Alumni awards are Dr. Fred Wabwire-Mangen, Director of the
Institute for Public Health at Makerere University in Uganda, and a leader in his country's battle against AIDS, and Dr. Miriam K. Were, one of the world's leading research scientists in public health, with internationally acclaimed expertise in prevention and control of HIV/AIDS.
For its 50th anniversary, AAI is launching the Education Partnership Campaign: 50,000 New Leaders in 5 years. This initiative will provide advanced training opportunities for citizens of African countries. A highly skilled workforce gives a nation the means to achieve lasting positive change. Since its founding in 1953, AAI has been the primary strategic partner of U.S. government agencies in administering the education and professional training programs that prepare Africans to build healthy societies. AAI has accelerated the ability of African nations to mold their own futures by helping 20,000 Africans complete college, graduate level and professional training. Eighty-five percent of African students educated away from home through AAI have returned trained and eager to make the difference their countries require. A multi-racial, multi-ethnic, non-profit organization, AAI has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. and a presence in 50 African nations. For more information on AAI, visit www.aaionline.org.
Reference bios
MWAI KIBAKI, PRESIDENT OF KENYA
Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's third president, took office in December 2002 after a massive victory over the party that had ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years.
Kibaki was born in 1931 into Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu. He began his education in Uganda and continued his studies at the London School of Economics. He returned to Uganda to become an economics lecturer at the prestigious Makerere University. When Kenya achieved independence from Britain, Kibaki returned home to become one of the Kanu party's founding fathers and a Member of Parliament.
For 13 years, Kibaki worked as finance minister for Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, whose son later became Kibaki's chief rival for the presidency. After President Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel Arap Moi ascended to the presidency and Kibaki spent a decade as Vice President. Ironically, he dismissed the push for multi-party democracy in the late 1980s.
Eventually, charges of corruption tainted Moi's presidency, but Kibaki was never personally implicated. When the ban on opposition parties was lifted in 1991, Kibaki formed the Democratic Party. In 1992 and 1997, he ran as the party's presidential candidate, but lost both times to the incumbent Moi.
After 24 years of rule, Moi retired and chose Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor, but Uhuru lost to Kibaki in an upset victory. It was the first election that defeated the governing party since independence from Britain in 1963.
The coalition backing Kibaki brought his victory. In September 2002, eleven parties from different ethnic groups formed an alliance called the National Rainbow Coalition. Kibaki drew their support with his status as elder statesman and emerged as their presidential candidate. An economic liberal and political progressive, Kibaki backs reforms to sustain democratic rule in Kenya, and strives to attract foreign investment.
YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI, PRESIDENT OF UGANDA
On January 26th, 1986, Yoweri Museveni took office as President of Uganda after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle against previous tyrannical regimes, including that of his predecessor, Milton Obote.
Since his student days at Ntare School, Western Mbarara, in southwest Uganda, Museveni was actively involved in politics. He studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, graduating in 1970 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Political Science.
For the past 17 years, Museveni's government has been associated with some outstanding achievements. The rate of AIDS infection in Uganda has been reduced from 15% to 5% in one decade, while poverty has been reduced from 56% to 35% in less than a decade.
Other accomplishments include democratic reforms such as regular and fair elections of leaders at all levels; freedom of speech and freedom of the press; and independence of the judiciary, parliament and executive branches of government.
In economics, private investment in Uganda has grown from 5.4% to 13% of GDP. Uganda's government now promotes regional trade and encourages imports and exports without interference from government. Uganda implements programs aiming to create more jobs and raise incomes.
Housing has improved as the percentage of iron-roofed homes increased from 33% in 1991 to 59% today. Mobile phones and private radio stations have enhanced communications. Agriculture has been modernized through better seeds for more productive crops and more efficient animal husbandry practices.
HENRY A. McKINNELL, Jr., Ph.D., GALA CHAIR
Henry A. McKinnell, Jr. is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc, the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company.
In 1971, McKinnell joined Pfizer in Tokyo. He has held positions of increasing responsibility for Pfizer subsidiaries around the world, including service as president of Pfizer Asia, based in Hong Kong, Pfizer's president and chief operating officer, and executive vice president, chief financial officer and president of Pfizer's Global Pharmaceuticals group.
McKinnell serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Pfizer Inc, Moody's Corporation, ExxonMobil Corporation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and the Business Roundtable (BRT). He is chairman-emeritus of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Business-Higher Education Forum (B-HEF). McKinnell was recently appointed by President Bush as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).
McKinnell is also a director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the Business Council, the Royal Shakespeare Company America and the Japan Society. He is a chairman of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Advisory Council and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He sits on the Boards of Trustees of the New York City Public Library, the New York City Police Foundation, Channel Thirteen/WNET, and the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
McKinnell holds a Bachelor's Degree in business from the University of British Columbia, and M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
KAREN KATEN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PFIZER INC
Karen Katen is President of the Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals Group, Executive Vice President, Pfizer Inc, and a member of Pfizer's governing management body, the Pfizer Leadership Team. As head of Pfizer's principal operating division, Katen leads the top organization in its industry with revenue of over $29 billion in 2002. With eight of the world's top 25 pharmaceutical products, the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group comprises more than 38,000 people throughout the world.
Katen is on the board of the General Motors Corporation, and the Harris Corporation. She also serves on the International Council of JPMorgan Chase.
Katen is a trustee for the University of Chicago, her alma mater, and a Council member of the school's Graduate School of Business. She also serves on the board of Catalyst and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. Katen sits on the national board of trustees for the American Cancer Society Research Foundation, RAND, and the Council for the United States and Italy. She is also a member of the American Diabetes Association Board of Corporate Advisors.
Her work and accomplishments have received notable recognition. In 2002, Fortune magazine named Katen one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for the fifth consecutive year. She has also been recognized as one of the "25 Top Executives" of the year by Business Week magazine.
DR. MIRIAM KHAMADI WERE, AAI DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA
Professor Miriam K. Were is one of the world's leading research scientists in public health. She chairs the African Medical & Research Foundation's Board of Directors.
Her expertise in prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, in promoting access to good quality reproductive health services, in public health development for communities, and in providing services during conflicts and emergencies, has been recognized with major humanitarian awards from UNICEF, from the U.S. National Council of International Health, and from organizations based in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Born in Lugala Village in Shinyalu, Kakamega district, in western Kenya in 1940, Dr. Were was the sixth child in a family of 10. She overcame the sharp disadvantage of attending a village school with no paper or books, where children had to practice writing in the dust. She went on to pass examinations that gained her admission to Nairobi's Royal Technical College, later renamed the University of Nairobi.
Though family responsibilities interrupted her studies at several points, she won scholarships or fellowships to study at William Penn College in Iowa, where she earned a bachelor's degree in natural sciences, and at Indiana University, where she studied medicine as a member of the second class of AAI AFGRAD fellows (African Graduate Fellowship Program). She attended the University of Nairobi to finish her medical studies and then earned a postgraduate degree in education at Makerere Univerity. On a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, she finished her master's degree in public health in 1976, and a doctorate in public health in 1981.
As country support team director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she was in charge of East, Central and Anglophone West Africa. In that role, she introduced a referral hospital system called "Rescuer" in Uganda, and introduced a three-wheeled bicycle for midwives to ferry complicated birth cases to hospital.
Prof. Were has published extensively in her field, and has also written four novels and several poems. She is married to Humphreys Were, also an AAI AFGRAD alumnus. The couple has four children.
PROFESSOR FRED WABWIRE-MANGEN, AAI DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS
Dr. Wabwire-Mangen deserves substantial credit for helping Uganda reduce its rate of AIDS infection from 15% to 5% of the national population in one decade.
As head of Makerere University's Institute of Public Health, he trains African professionals to design and manage programs that improve the ability of Ugandan communities to treat those with HIV or AIDS, and to conduct public health education programs that teach citizens how to prevent the spread of this infectious disease.
He is principal investigator in a collaborative research program to develop HIV vaccines between Makerere University and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is also a leader in such key initiatives as the Uganda-based Network of African Public Health Institutions; the Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network; a Public Health Collaboration between Makerere University, Tulane University, and the Rockefeller Foundation; and in the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa that is supported by Pfizer.
He is at the cutting edge of medical research on transmission of infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS and malaria. He and other researchers are examining how male circumcision, pregnancy, hormonal conceptive use, age difference between sexual partners, and cultural attitudes and behaviors may affect the spread of disease. Currently, Dr. Wabwire-Mangen is principal investigator or co-investigator on five major studies, and has recently completed work on seven other major studies.
His research has been published in the world's leading scientific journals - including Nature, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS, and Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
He was trained as a medical doctor in Makerere University, Kampala Uganda and later specialized in Tropical Medicine at Liverpool University in the UK, in 1985.
As an AAI Fellow, Dr. Wabwire-Mangen attended Johns Hopkins University and received a Masters Degree in Public Health in May 1987, specializing in Immunology and Infectious Diseases. He took additional training at Johns Hopkins University in Infectious Disease Epidemiology in 1994.
Dr. Wabwire-Mangen is married and has children.
MORA MCLEAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE AFRICA-AMERICA INSTITUTE
Mora McLean joined the Africa-America Institute as President and CEO in 1996 following ten years of experience at the Ford Foundation. McLean began her work at the Ford Foundation as a program officer in the human rights and social justice division, where she designed and implemented grant-making programs aimed at securing civil rights and equal opportunities for Native Americans, Latino Americans, and African-Americans.
After five years, McLean moved to the Ford Foundation's Lagos, Nigeria office. As Representative for West Africa, she oversaw the programs, administration and official relations of the Foundation's West Africa main offices in Lagos and sub-office in Dakar, Senegal. In 1994, she was promoted to Deputy Director for Africa and Middle East Programs and returned to the US. She joined AAI two years later.
A native of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, McLean received a Bachelor of Arts degree in African Studies at Wesleyan University before earning her Juris Doctor from the Columbia University School of Law. Her professional career began at a major law firm, but her interest in public policy led McLean to join the non-partisan legislative staff of the New Jersey State Legislature. Later, she moved to Capitol Hill to serve as Counsel to the Commerce Sub-Committee of the US House of Representatives concerned with insurance regulation, transportation and environmental protection issues.
McLean holds a license to practice law in New York and New Jersey. She serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace and was elected as a Wesleyan University trustee in 1997. McLean is also a member of the African Studies Association and Council on Foreign Relations.
