Ambassador's Biography
His
Excellency Ombeni Y. Sefue
Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania
to the United States since June 15, 2007
Ambassador
Ombeni Y. Sefue began his work as Tanzania's Ambassador to the U.S.
on June 15, 2007. Before that, he served as his country's High
Commissioner (Ambassador) to Canada from October, 2005 to June, 2007.
A
career diplomat, Ambassador Sefue left the Foreign Service in 1993 to
work for over two years as Speechwriter and Personal Assistant to the
then President of Tanzania, His Excellency Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
Following
General Elections in 1995, the new President, His Excellency Benjamin
William Mkapa, retained Ambassador Sefue as his Speechwriter and Personal
Assistant with added responsibilities until 2005 when the President.s
term came to an end.
Ambassador
Sefue, among other things, worked closely with President Mkapa when
he served on the Commission for Africa (The Blair Commission) that produced
its report, Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa
in March 2005, and participated with him at the G8 Summit session that
discussed the report at Gleneagles in early July 2005.
He
also worked closely with President Mkapa when the President served as
Co-Chair of the ILO World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization
between 2002 and 2004, participating in the preparation of the Commission.s
report, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities For All,
issued in February 2004.
In
the close to 13 years that he worked for two presidents, Ambassador
Sefue was involved in the work of the United Nations, the Organization
of African Unity and later African Union, the Commonwealth, the Southern
African Development Community (SADC), and the East African Community
(EAC). He worked with President Mkapa on the peace process in
the Great Lakes Region, the World Economic Forum in Davos and in Cape
Town, the Sino-African Forum, as well as the TICAD process.
Within
the country, Ambassador Sefue helped President Mkapa, and worked with
Hernando de Soto.s Institute for Liberty and Democracy, to establish
a Property and Business Formalization Program for Tanzania. He
was also involved in working with the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS
Initiative to develop an HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Plan for Tanzania,
as well as the Mkapa National HIV/AIDS Fellows Program. He worked
with President Mkapa during a far-reaching and extensive political and
economic reform process in Tanzania that included significant improvements
in the macroeconomic framework and the business climate.
Prior
to joining the Presidency on secondment from the Foreign Service, Ambassador
Sefue had risen through the service ranks and served as Counselor at
the Embassy of Tanzania in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1987 to 1992.
The Embassy had multiple accreditation to Denmark, Norway, Finland and
Iceland.
Born
on August 26, 1954, in Same District, Tanzania, Ambassador Sefue studied
Public Policy and Administration at what is today Mzumbe University,
and later earned an M.A. (with distinction) in the same field at the
Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague, The Netherlands, in
1981. He also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in International Relations
and Diplomacy from the Tanzania-Mozambique Center for Foreign Relations
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has certificates in International
Negotiations, and in Economic and Social Problems of Developing Countries.
He
and his wife, Anita, have two children.a daughter (1989) and a son
(1990).
(Issued in
November, 2007)
| 
