Ahn-Kumi Naidoo

Kumi Naidoo (Co-Chair) is secretary general and CEO of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, in Johannesburg, South Africa and in Washington, DC, USA. CIVICUS is dedicated to strengthening citizen participation and civil society worldwide. Prior to this position, he served in several leadership positions in the adult education sector in South Africa. He has also worked as a researcher, journalist, university lecturer and youth counselor. Dr. Naidoo was previously the founding director of the South African NGO Coalition during which time he served on the task team to draft new NGO legislation. He has also worked extensively in adult education and social and economic justice work in South Africa. An activist with the ANC since a very young age, he was expelled from school at age 15 for his anti-apartheid activities, and subsequently went into exile for a number of years, returning to South Africa in the early nineties where he was centrally involved in the first democratic elections in 1994. Dr. Naidoo holds a doctorate in political science from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar.