later, she bounced back by winning the parliamentary seat of Amuru District Women's Constituency, on the National Resistance Movement party ticket. In 1997, following her graduation from Harvard, she took up employment with the World Bank in Washington, DC, as a Senior Social Scientist with the Post-Conflict Unit. Later, she served as a Consultant to the Bank's Social Protection and Human Development Unit. In 1999 and 2000, Bigombe provided technical support to the Carter Center in a successful mediation effort between the governments of Uganda and Sudan. Following the February 2004 Barlonyo massacre, Bigombe took a leave of absence from the World Bank and flew to Uganda to attempt to restart the peace process. From March 2004 to 2005, Bigombe was the chief mediator in a new peace initiative with the Lord's Resistance Army, personally financing much of the logistics of bringing Ugandan government ministers and rebel leaders together. The last meeting on 20 April 2005, fell through. However, the failure of the Bigombe mediation is seen as laying the groundwork for the 2006–2007 Juba talks, which were mediated by the government of South Sudan. Those talks collapsed at the last minute when Joseph Kony refused to sign the peace agreement. In 2006, she returned to the United States and served as a Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. Later, she was appointed a Distinguished African Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, also in Washington, D.C. In 2007, she received the Peacemakers in Action Award from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. She was appointed the chairman of the National Information and Technology Authority in Uganda (NITAU) in 2009. In May 2011, she was appointed by President Yoweri Museveni as State Minister for Water Resources, a position that she held until June 2014, when she resigned to take up her assignment at the World Bank. Other considerations Betty Bigombe was at one time married to then Uganda's ambassador to Japan. She is the mother of two children; Pauline and Emmanuel. In addition to Acholi and English, she speaks Swahili and Japanese. See also Acholiland Acholi sub-region Cabinet of Uganda Lord's Resistance Army Conflict Robert Carmona-Borjas References External links Feature on Betty Bigombe by the International Museum of Women Arcadia Foundation Betty Bigombe is on the Board of Advisors of the International Peace and Security Institute. 1952 births Acholi people Ugandan women diplomats