Jay is the Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a global foundation headquartered in Geneva that is committed to addressing malnutrition facing two billion people in the world. He will be giving the plenary talk introducing the Open Development and Sustainability programme at OKCon 2013 on Wednesday 18 September.
GAIN is a public–private partnership that brings together United Nations (UN) agencies, private businesses, philanthropic organizations, governments and civil societies around practical programmes in some 30 countries worldwide.
Jay is the co-founder an investment and management company in South Africa, the J&J Group. In 2007 he set up the J&J Development Trust and dedicates himself full-time today to voluntary work and social activism on a global scale.
He serves in an advisory capacity for a number of international organizations including the Broadband Commission of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Lead Committee of the UNSG on Nutrition. He also serves on the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation which focuses on Governance in Africa.
Jay Naidoo is currently the Patron of the Scatterlings of Africa, which is a science education initiative that celebrates Africa’s status as humankind’s ancestral home.
He served as the Chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, a major infrastructure financing development institution, headquartered in SA, from 2000-2010. From 1994 to 1999, Jay was the Minister responsible for South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and Communications Minister in Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet. He was the founding General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the largest labour movement in SA, where he served three terms (1985 to 1993).
Jay was the recipient of the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour), one of France’s highest decorations and many other awards. He publishes a blog at jaynaidoo.org and wrote his autobiography, Fighting for Justice.
