Biography

Thami Ngwenya is a Senior Research Manager with the National Development Agency (NDA); an organization legislated by an act of parliament to eradicate poverty in the country (South Africa). His responsibilities are primarily around Strategic Stakeholder Relations, Networks and the Policy unit of the research directorate of the NDA. This position is highly strategic in informing the NDA as an organization in terms of charting its course and funding program for each financial year. He has after returning to the country headed the Knowledge Management Program within the National Productivity Institute and assisted the Gender commission in setting up its research agenda. He is a Swazi native that was born in Durban. Who has been strongly involved in the struggle for liberation of the African people in his native country, South Africa. He has extensive international experience in the research, social development and educational spheres. He has traveled the world broadly and has lived in the USA, Latin America and the Oceanic rim. He has recently returned to South Africa from living and working abroad as an Associate Professor and Research Associate in the Centre for Youth Affairs Research and Development with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) where he lectured in approaches to research and research methodologies for a Masters class in Leadership and Management in the Faculty of Education Language and Community Services (FELCS). He also held a position of Research Manager with the Centre for Social Development, Swinburne University Melbourne. Thami is also a Kellogg International Leadership Programme Fellow and a Graduate and Intern-Fellow of the Gamaliel and Kettering Foundations in the USA. He holds a Masters in Education (Leadership and Management) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and is reading for his PhD in Education Policy (which he has currently suspended since returning, until such time that he can concentrate on it fully). His PhD thesis is on The Victoria Government’s Schools Drug Education Policy. He has a passion for Community and Youth Development Work including Social Research. He has worked broadly with the Aboriginal community in Melbourne and has researched and written on Aboriginal Homelessness, Government Policy on Illicit Drugs and School’s Drug Education Policy. He served on Premier Steve Brack’s committee on Drugs and Alcohol abuse in Melbourne and Vice President Al Gore’s Keeping them of the Streets program for young people in Detroit Michigan with Metropolitan Organizing Strategy for Enabling Strength (MOSES).