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.