Susan Muwanse Kasedde, Director, Regional Support Team for West and Central Africa
Susan Muwanse Kasedde is the Regional Director for Western and Central Africa at UNAIDS. She has nearly thirty years of experience in international public health, development, and United Nations system coordination. From 2020 to 2025, she served as UNAIDS Country Director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS to operate in complex humanitarian and development contexts. She led the Joint Team to work and strengthen political and technical partnerships with the Government, civil society, private sector and partners to ensure enhanced national leadership and multisectoral action at national and decentralized level, notably supporting the Head of State in launching the Presidential Initiative to End AIDS in Children in 2025 — a significant effort towards political engagement and domestic resource mobilization — engaging all 26 provincial Governors. She also led advocacy and mobilization of the Joint Programme and humanitarian partners to strengthen integration of HIV services into humanitarian response and supported the establishment of a civil-society coordination platform now operational at the national level and in all 26 provinces, to enhance efficiency and sustainability of community engagement and accountability.
Prior to her work in the DRC, Ms Kasedde served as UNAIDS Country Director a.i. for Guyana and Suriname in the Caribbean, and earlier as UNICEF Country Representative and Designated Official for Staff Safety and Security in Belize from 2016 to 2020, where she led support to national programmes on social protection, education, justice, and health systems strengthening. From 2009 to 2016 she served as Senior Advisor on HIV and Global Team Lead on Adolescents and HIV at UNICEF Headquarters serving as co-lead for the UN Interagency Task Team on HIV in Young People and contributing to global guidance and technical support on gender, HIV, and adolescent health in countries across multiple regions. From 2007 to 2009, she served as Regional Advisor, HIV and AIDS for UNAIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa working closely with government teams, national partners and UN teams particularly on epidemic analysis, strategic planning, gender and research. She has contributed extensively to public health and science through publications in adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, health policy and molecular biology.
Ms Kasedde holds a Doctorate in Public Health and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University, undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and certificates in Executive Leadership from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Judge Business School at Cambridge University.
A national of Uganda, she is fluent in English, French, Luganda, and Lusoga.