"If rich countries continue to unlawfully obstruct poor countries’ ability to compete, no amount of trade-related assistance will be enough."

                       – Kumi Naidoo

 Since 1998, Kumi Naidoo has been the Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of CIVICUS. With a small staff of 35, but a membership of more than 500 organizations and individuals from 97 countries, CIVICUS is dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. He is a member of the steering committee of the World Economic Forum’s Global Governance Initiative. He grew up in Durbin, South Africa and was later a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, from which he holds a PhD.