Kumi Naidoo is Secretary General and CEO of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation since 2000. He was recently appointed by the UN Secretary General to the Eminent Persons Group on United Nations Civil Society Relations.
Born in South Africa, he was active in the anti-apartheid movement and has worked variously as a researcher, journalist, university lecturer, and youth counselor. He has degrees in politics and law and he is a Rhodes Scholar with a DPhil in Politics from Magdalen College, Oxford. Dr. Naidoo was been Executive Director of the South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) and the National Literacy Cooperation of South Africa, and Director of the Independent Electoral Commission and South African Committee for Higher Education Trust. He also holds a B.A. in Politics and Law from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa. He has published and spoken widely on issues relating to civil society, education and resistance to apartheid. Kumi has served as editor for the book "Civil Society at the Millennium" (Kumarian Press, 1999), and co-editor with Jane Foster of "Putting Young People at the Centre: Participation and Social Change" (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2001).
He has published and spoken widely on issues relating to civil society, education, and resistance to apartheid. In the nineties he has worked for the African National Congress on reform legislation. During the democratic elections 1994, he was the spokesperson of the Independent Electoral Commission and directed the training of all electoral staff in the country. He also organized the National Men's March Against Violence on Women and Children in 1997. Kumi Naidoo is recognized internationally as a forceful advocate for gender equity and against gender violence.
Given his deep knowledge and experience in civil society, Kumi was the first civil society leader to be invited to give the World Bank Presidential Fellows Lecture in 2003. Kumi was recently appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the eminent Persons Group on United Nations-Civil Society Relations chaired by former Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso.