Dr. Jordan Naidoo

Dr. Jordan Naidoo is currently a visiting Lecturer and Technical expert at the Teacher Education Center at Shanghai Normal University. He is a former UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning Acting Director, and Director of the Kabul Office and UNESCO Country Representative to Afghanistan. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Director of the Division of Education 2030 Support and Coordination (based in Paris, HQ), leading UNESCO’s global coordination of the SDG4-Education 2030 Agenda. Prior to this, he was a Senior Education Advisor at UNICEF in New York, responsible for strategy and research on equity and innovation in education. He was also the Director for Basic Education for Save the Children USA from 2004 to 2009.

His early career included being a teacher and researcher in South Africa and a School Reform Design Associate in the US at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston. Having worked directly on programs in Indonesia, Nepal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and Haití, South Africa, and the US, among others. He has extensive experience and expertise in policy analysis, evaluation and monitoring, teaching and learning, decentralization, governance and democratization in education, peacebuilding, and education in fragile contexts and education reform.

Dr. Naidoo received his M.Ed. from the University of Natal, South Africa, and Doctor of Education (D. Ed.) from Harvard University. Among other publications, he was the editor of the Springer publication, Community Schools in Africa – Reaching the Unreached.