Allen Sophia Asiimwe

Executive Director

AVID Development

Biography

Ms. Asiimwe is a Ugandan advocate and policy leader with over 20 years’ experience as a development advisor and practitioner. She is passionate about governance, trade, regional integration and development issues in Africa and shaping our continent’s narrative. She has designed and managed programmes for government agencies, private sector, civil society and donors across the African region (including in all East African Countries, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and DRC). Allen is the founder and CEO of AVID Development, a regional consulting firm working on key issues of trade, development and governance in Africa.

Allen holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (Edward Mason Fellow, 2017) and a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Manchester, UK (1998).

Until December 2017, she worked as a Consultant (attached to the Managing Director) at the African Export Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) in Cairo, Egypt supporting the implementation of the Intra Africa Trade Initiative- aimed at increasing trade among African countries from US $170bn currently to US $250bn by 2021.

Prior to this, Ms. Asiimwe was the Country Director of TradeMark East Africa, Uganda where she oversaw a portfolio of USD$100m aimed at improving the ease of doing business (cost and time reduction) through regional infrastructure (including roads and One Stop Border Posts); trade facilitation (including standards testing, reporting of Non-Tariff Barriers and use of ICT solutions like Electronic Cargo Tracking and Single Window Systems); and business environment programmes.

She has also served as a Bank Manager, Standard Chartered Bank Uganda and had stints in Zimbabwe and Ghana, worked in law firms and also worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University.

Ms. Asiimwe is passionate about women’s rights and has a strong community service record. She has served on a number of Boards e.g. Chaired the Board of FIDA Uganda (Association of Uganda Women Lawyers) the largest legal aid service provider in Uganda; Board of Trustees of FEMNET (The African Women Development and Communication Network) – an African wide organization based in Nairobi, Kenya aimed at raising awareness around women’s rights; and currently serves on the Center for Justice Studies and Innovations (CJSI) and the Governance Policy and Research Center (GPRC). She co- founded the Girls4Girls Global Mentoring Initiative aimed at empowering young girls/ women aged 15-25 on leadership in public service.
She lives in Kampala with her two teenage children and two dogs.