Dhesigen Naidoo is a leader, a scientist and activist for positive social change.

He is currently the Climate Adaptation Advisor to the South African Presidential Climate Commission; and Head of the African Climate Risk and Human Security Project at the Institute for Security Studies, Africa. He is Board member and former President of the global NGO, Human Right 2 Water, and a Member of the Water Policy Group. He is a member of the Integrated Partnership Board of the CGIAR and Board member of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). He is Vice Chair of the Technical Advisory Group on Water to the UAE, and on the International Advisory Panel of the Singapore Urban Sustainable Solutions initiative. Further, he is a member of the Advisory Board member of the University of Stellenbosch School of Climate Studies.

He was previously the CEO of the Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa’s dedicated national Water and Sanitation Innovation, Research and Development Agency for 10 years. He has previously served in senior positions in the South African national government and South African universities having begun his career as a medical scientist in a specialist children’s hospital. He was a Councillor of the South African National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). He counts his lovely wife and beautiful children as both his primary source of inspiration and the vanguard of his humility.