Secretary General


The Secretary General manages the IPU Secretariat, the headquarters of the Organization. Elected by the Governing Council, the Secretary General manages the staff and budget in addition to implementing the decisions of the Governing Council and IPU Assembly.

The current Secretary General, Martin Chungong, assumed his post on 1 July 2014.

Biography

A Cameroonian national, Martin Chungong made double history by becoming the first-ever African and the first non-European to be elected as IPU Secretary General in the Organization’s 126-year history. 

With more than three decades of experience and knowledge of parliaments at national and international level, Mr Chungong has dedicated his professional life to promoting and building democracy world-wide.

Following a 14-year career span with the Cameroonian Parliament, Mr Chungong has already spent more than 20 distinguished years at IPU. Prior to being elected as the eighth IPU Secretary General, he was the Organization’s Deputy Secretary General and Director of Programmes.

Through his work on developing programmes to help parliaments become more transparent, accountable, representative and effective democratic institutions, he has become a leader in his field.

As Chair of the Management Committee on Accountability of the OECD Governance Network, Mr Chungong has further contributed to establishing governance benchmarks to strengthen democracy.

He has also built an impressive portfolio in the promotion of dialogue and conflict resolution, issues that remain at the heart of IPU’s global work. His focus on particularly helping countries emerge from conflict or in transition has been widely acknowledged by the IPU membership and partners globally.

Since 2012, Mr Chungong has made a push to strengthen parliamentary engagement on sustainable development and accountability through his role as Parliamentary Representative on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.

He is also leading IPU’s work to dramatically reduce maternal and child mortality rates through effective legislation and its implementation as well as ensuring governments’ accountability to international commitments in this area.

An awardee of the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, Ordre de la Francophonie, and a linguist by training, Mr Chungong holds degrees from both the University of Yaoundé and the University of Ottawa.

With mother-tongue English and French, he also speaks Spanish. He is married to Stella Chungong, a medical doctor. They have two children.

 

IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong ©IPU, 2014

 


Speeches



Lomé (Togo), 3 October 2017
Allocution at the opening ceremony of the second ordinary session of the Togolese National Assembly (PDF, French Only)
New York (USA), 22 September 2017
Address at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (PDF)
Palais des Nations (Geneva), 15 September 2017
Address on perspectives on the state of democracy for the International Day of Democracy (PDF)
Beijing, 5 September 2017
Speech at the second interregional seminar on parliamentary capacity-building and the further implementation of the SDGs (PDF)
New York, 20 July 2017
IPU Statement on the High Level Political Forum on sustainable development at the United Nations (PDF)
Luxembourg, 10 July 2017
Speech by the IPU Secretary General at the 43rd session of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (PDF)
Bucharest, 12 June 2017
Statement at the Regional Conference for Central and Eastern Europe on Making Laws Work to End Violence Against Women and Girls (PDF)
Geneva, 24 May 2017
Statement at the 70th World Health Assembly (PDF)
New-York, 14 February 2017
Speech on the occasion of the launch of the Roadmap for Substantive Equality: 2030 (PDF)
Aswan, 31 January 2017
Address on the occasion of the UNODC Regional Workshop for Parliamentarians (PDF)
Nairobi, 29 November 2016
Statement at the Parliamentary Forum at the Second High Level Meeting of the GPEDC (PDF)
Shanghai, 22 November 2016
Encouraging good governance for SDGs and health: The critical role of parliaments (PDF)
Porto Novo, 17 October 2016
Address delivered at the inaugural ceremony of the second ordinary session of the National Assembly (PDF)
Sharm El-Sheikh, 10 October 2016
Speech at the opening ceremony of the Joint Session of the Pan-African and Arab Parliaments (PDF)
Sharm El-Sheikh, 9 October 2016
Address on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of parliamentary life in Egypt (PDF)
Nay Pyi Taw, 30 September 2016
Address on the occasion of the 37th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly General Assembly (PDF)
New York, 20 July 2016
IPU Statement at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (PDF)
Valparaiso, 28 June 2016
The Secretary General’s opening remarks to the e-Parliament Conference (PDF)
Geneva, 22 June 2016
The Secretary General’s speech on the occasion of the Human Rights Council panel on the contribution of parliaments to the work of the Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review (PDF)
Geneva, 25 May 2016
69th World Health Assembly (PDF)
Geneva, 8 April 2016
Geneva Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism (PDF)
Luanda, 2 December 2015
Forum of Parliaments of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (PDF)
New york, 3 September 2015
Address to the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (PDF)
Wellington, 25 June 2015
Public Address by IPU Secretary in the New Zealand Parliament (PDF)
Santiago, 28 February 2015
"Women in power and decision-making: Building a different world" (PDF)
Monaco, 2 February 2015
9th PAM Plenary Session (PDF)
Bangkok, 3 December 2014
Seminar “On the Path to Reform” (PDF)
Dubai, 24 November 2014
The Parliamentary Media Forum 2014 (PDF)


Past Secretaries General of IPU

1998 - 2014 Anders B. JOHNSSON (Sweden)
1987 - 1998 Pierre CORNILLON (France)
1970 - 1986 Pio-Carlo TERENZIO (Italy)
1953 - 1970 André de BLONAY (Switzerland)
1933 - 1953 Leopold BOISSIER (Switzerland)
1909 - 1933 Christian LANGE (Norway)
1892 - 1909 Albert GOBAT (Switzerland)

 


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