High Commissioner Prof. Joyce Kakuramatsi Kikafunda is a seasoned diplomat and academician with vast experience, having served as High Commissioner of the Republic of Uganda to the United Kingdom (2013-2017), Australia (2017-2022) and now India.

Prior to being appointed into diplomatic service, Amb. Kikafunda was a professor at Makerere University, one of Africa’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher learning. She is one of very few female professors in Uganda and is renowned for spearheading the establishment of the first ever Department of Food Science and Technology in Uganda in 1989, which she nurtured and headed for 12 years. This Department has been instrumental in capacity building for food security, value addition, food industrialization and human nutrition improvement in Uganda and the region, thus relieving the postharvest bottlenecks that have for a long time hampered agricultural development. Because of its fast growth and strategic importance to National Development, this Institution has now been transformed and upgraded and is now the School of Food Technology, Nutrition & Bio-engineering at Makerere University.

Prof. Kikafunda is an alumnus of Gayaza High School, Makerere University, University of Saskatchewan in Canada and University of Reading in the UK.

She is also a published researcher with over 40 articles in Internationally peer reviewed journals on the subjects of Food security, Nutrition security, Malnutrition and its consequences, Management and Leadership, Gender issues, Human Rights, Governance and Development.

Prof. Joyce Kakuramatsi Kikafunda is married to Dr. Joseph Kikafunda, Retired International Agricultural Researcher and they have six children.   She is also a mother and mentor to countless Ugandans who have passed through her nurturing hands in the fields of Academia, Administration and Diplomatic Service.