Susan Kasedde
Susan Kasedde is UNAIDS Country Director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where she leads the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS supporting a team charged with guiding and supporting the DRC to respond effectively to an ongoing HIV epidemic in the context of continued conflict, large-scale displacement, multiple epidemics and health and social infrastructure development challenges, persistent gender inequality and political transition. Susan joined the United Nations in 2001 with UNICEF in Uganda and in her 20 years with the UN, has served in roles from Programme Officer to Acting Resident Coordinator.
Prior to her assignment in the DRC, Susan served as UNAIDS Country Director a.i. for Guyana and Suriname in 2020 and before that, as UNICEF Country Representative and Designated Official for United Nations Staff Safety and Security in Belize leading UNICEF’s programme to support results in social protection, education and lifelong learning, violence prevention and access to justice, and health aiming to strengthen systems and institutional capacities to achieve sustainable development and equity for children. From February to September 2019, Susan also served as UN Resident Coordinator a.i in Belize.
A Public Health Specialist and advocate, Susan is passionate about development, fairness and justice and has sought throughout her career to contribute to stronger guidance, technical support and advocacy particularly to enhance quality of health and development programmes serving adolescents, women and girls. As Senior Advisor on HIV and Global Team Lead on Adolescents and HIV at UNICEF Headquarters and as Regional Advisor, HIV and AIDS for UNAIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa, Susan had the privilege to work closely with government teams, national partners and UN interagency teams in an advisory capacity in every region of the world, contributing to multiple global guidance documents and articles in the fields of Gender, HIV and Adolescent Health.
A national of Uganda, Susan is married to Herbert Kasedde, has two children – Bunyaga and Namugenze and holds a Doctorate in Public Health and Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Masters in Public Health from Boston University, and Undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
