Cate Zziwa Nimanya has joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Uganda as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist from Water for People- Uganda where she has been the Country Director for Uganda Country Programme from 2012.
At Water for People Uganda, Cate is credited with supporting organizational capacity building in several Sanitation startups that are currently winning awards in Uganda and beyond and improving donor confidence in the Uganda Country Programme. Water for People impacted over 100,000 Ugandans directly and over 1 million indirectly through their programme.
Under her leadership, Water For People was nominated as a key expert in the development of international guidelines for sanitation for non-sewered systems, an ISO PC 30500 based on its multi-year performance
Cate has garnered 24 years of professional experience in rural and urban sanitation and Hygiene, Social entrepreneurship, groundwater resources and environmental management, and has directly been responsible for leading, planning and implementation, oversight and resource mobilization.
Prior to joining Water for People, she was the Programme Manager Network for Water and Sanitation Uganda, a position she held from 2006 to 2012.
Here, Cate grew organizational income from UGX 60 million to UGX 1.5 billion annually by attracting donors and strategic partnerships with organizations like the African Development Bank/AWF, SIMAVI, Catholic Relief Services, European Union, SNV, UNICEF, OXFAM, governments and other local CSOs
Before that, she was a Hydrogeologist/ Drilling Supervisor in the Rural Water and Sanitation Project (Eastern Uganda), a DANIDA-funded project.
She started off as a – Hydrogeologist/ Drilling Supervisor Trainee at the Directorate of Water Resources and Management Ministry of Water and Environment after serving as a Research Assistant in the Geology Department, Makerere University
Cate has also garnered donor and partner experience from the World Bank (World Bank Institute, Water and Sanitation Programme), European Commission – EU FP7, Africa Development Bank, Foundations (BMGF, Hilton and Stone Family Foundation) GIZ, UNICEF, SNV, DANIDA, national governments, District Local governments and the private sector
She also serves in different capacities in various organisations. She is the Vice-Chairperson to the National Committee of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP)-Ministry of education and Sports, UNESCO, Member of Uganda Country Water Partnership, Member of Geology Society of Uganda (GSU), Member of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), Member of Uganda Ground Water Network (UGN), Member of Board Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation and Member of ITC (Netherlands) Alumni
Cate holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Herriot Watt University-Edinburgh Business School, a Masters in Science (with Distinction) in Water Resources and Environmental Management from the Institute of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Enschede, The Netherlands as well as a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Geology and Chemistry from Makerere University Kampala, Uganda. Cate is also a Project Management Professional (PMP)