France’s new look at Uganda

After clearing her baccalaureate in Maths and Physics, Rivoal took preparatory classes for business studies and later enrolled at France’s second best business school—ESSEC Business School—where she studied finance and marketing. When Rivoal cleared her bachelor’s degree, she got hired by Goldman Sachs in London.

“I was very ambitious. I wanted to have a career. I wanted to make a lot of money and to have a lot of power—that was my mindset,” she says.

But in 1994, there was a small banking crisis and banks, including her employer, Goldman Sachs fired 15% of the workforce. She was part of the employees who lost their jobs. But she was not too shocked at her job loss.

“I was a bit of a revolutionary and I was not obeying the rules.”

Still, she says that was not part of her plans considering that she had a good degree and everyone had told her that she was so brilliant.

“When you lose a job, you feel you are worth nothing,” she says, “That was a big blow in my life.”

“I thought about what I wanted to do with my life and I though, alright, if I go back there, it would not be for my whole life; it would be for a period.”

So she got back into banking again when she was hired this time by CALFP Bank, first, and later JP Morgan where she stayed on for about 10 years up to 2003. This was the time she looked at her watch and thought it was time to move on. But also many things happened in her life at the time. She got a divorce and her mother had a cancer [she recovered]. Her mother’s condition made her think about the meaning of life.

“That is when I thought, ok, it’s been 10 years, my life is falling apart, what do I do now?”

“I need to give meaning to my life; I need to make myself useful,” she says.

“This is when I thought; I am leaving this kind of life to do something that I really like; something that brings meaning to my life and also joy.”

Banking to humanitarian work

Rivoal packed her bags and ended up in Darfur joining the international non-profit—Action against Hunger. In Darfur, Rivoal became a photographer and writer working on social projects about children, people in detention, people who are handicapped and the elderly.

“I decided to dedicate my life and skills to people who are more vulnerable and the needy.”

But after three years, she left for Lebanon where she spent time on various missions. There was a war going on between Israel and Lebanon but she stayed before returning to the headquarters in Paris. Rivoal says she was ready to found a family. She got married a second time and had three beautiful children; two six year old twins and a big boy of nine.

From Action against Hunger, she ended up at the French foreign affairs ministry and before she knew it, she was being lined for diplomatic work.

She says unlike her switch from banking to humanitarian work which was quite the opposite, her latter switch from humanitarian work to diplomacy was more of a natural course. She says her business and humanitarian skills led her to venture into the world of diplomacy, thanks to a women’s empowerment scheme promoted by the French government.

“I wanted to do something useful which has an impact on the people around the world.”

“I came to think that politics is what is going to solve the humanitarian issues,” she says, “You can distribute food, you can help the children and women but if you don’t stop the conflict, if you don’t improve the economy, if you don’t bring peace, then it is useless.”

“You just continuously put band aid on the crisis and you don’t solve the issue. This is why I wanted to do diplomacy; to go to the roots of the issue.”

Rivoal’s stay so far

Rivoal says she has particularly fallen in love with the Ugandan climate.

“I think it is beautiful here. You have no idea what the weather is like in France at the moment; it is very cold and raining.”

Still, her only frustration at the moment is that she needs to meet so many people in order to understand everything about the country so she can have an informed view.

Rivoal says she finds the frankness of the discussions here quite good while access to the authorities is excellent. She also thinks discussions around political stability, democracy and the election process need to continue.

“I know Western countries tend to be seen as domineering but I am here more to learn than to teach.”

So, this being Rivoal’s first diplomatic posting, what will she consider as her biggest achievement when her term ends in three years time, I ask.

“I am not here as the all-powerful ambassador in charge of everything,” she says, “This will never be my own achievement; I don’t see it that way.”

“This is going to be a strategy of the French Embassy and not the strategy of Stephanie Rivoal. I am here at the service of my country and together with my team we will achieve.”

At the press conference, she is flanked on her immediate right by Lt. Col. Fabien Miclot, the Defence Attaché and Virginie Leroy, the French Development Agency’s country representative while on her left are Lionel Vignacq, the First Counsellor and Thierry Loussakoueno, the Economic Counsellor.

“We are already working on a strategy to make us succeed. This is a team effort,” she says as she glances either side of her team.

Rivoal is determined to see France and Uganda build more economic ties. She would also like to see 20 more companies come into the country.

“Whether they will come during her tenure or much later is irrelevant,” she says.

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editor@independent.co.ug