Dr. Joy Kategekwa

Dr. Joy Kategekwa is a leading trade and investment specialist with over 16 years of
experience, including at leadership level, in shaping global and regional trade and
development policies. She is the Strategic Advisor at UNDP’s Regional Bureau for
Africa in New York, supporting strategy and delivery of a $1.2 billion development
programme, spanning 46 sub Saharan African countries. Prior to UNDP, she served as
Founding Head of the UNCTAD Regional Office for Africa in Addis Ababa, leading
advisory and programmatic teams that designed transformational continental and sub-
regional trade integration and productive capacity programmes, strategies and treaties
– including the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Previously, Dr.
Kategekwa worked with the World Trade Organization – leading the WTO African Group – managing relations with
Ambassadors and experts for effective participation and overseeing multilateral negotiations on special and differential
treatment in WTO Agreements. Before that, she served as Oxfam International`s Trade and Investment Advisor in the
Geneva Advocacy Office, leading relations with the UN, authoring key flagship publications on the economic justice
campaign, and designing responses to the 2008 global economic crisis. At the Geneva-based South Centre, she led the
work programme on Trade in Services, advising Africa, ACP and LDC negotiators on strategy and content in WTO and
EPA negotiations. She started her trade career as legal officer at Uganda’s Permanent Mission in Geneva where she,
inter alia, represented her country in WTO negotiations, quickly rising to LDC Focal Point on Trade in Services, Trade
Facilitation and Intellectual Property Rights, where led technical negotiation teams that designed the WTO services
waiver; the Special and Differential Treatment chapter of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement; and the amendment
of the TRIPS Agreement. She is the author of a series of peer-reviewed publications in world class legal journals and
her book “Opening Markets for Foreign Skills: How Can the WTO help?” is an acclaimed treatise on the subject. She is
a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.
She holds a Ph.D. in International Trade Law from the University of Berne’s prestigious World Trade Institute, a
Master of Laws in International Trade and Investment Law from the University of the Western Cape, and a Bachelor of
Laws from Makerere University. She has taught Masters and Ph.D. courses at leading international trade and
development law programmes. She is a trained vocalist, loves the piano and is a songwriter. She is married and is the
proud mother of four beautiful girls.