Iris Nxumalo-De Smidt

Iris identifies as a ‘feminist systems innovator’, who leverages facilitation, research, strategic grant-making, story-telling and project management to support social justice and systems change.  

Located in Cape Town, South Africa, she is working as an Innovation Manager at the DG Murray Trust (DGMT). Her work seeks to advance the strategy to nurture an innovative and inclusive society, in part through co-facilitating the DGMT Fellowship for Organisational Innovation and managing the Sustainable Financing for Social Welfare Services initiatives.  

Prior to joining DGMT, Iris collectively spent six years advancing feminist development programming and movement-building in humanitarian and development contexts, Pan African youth advocacy, lecturing Political Sciences and conducting research, political and media analysis in South Africa, the UK, Kenya, Nigeria and the USA.   

She holds an MSc in African Studies from St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Peace and Security from the African Leadership Centre in King’s College London. She also holds a Bachelor of Political Sciences (BPOLSCI) in International Studies from University of Pretoria and a BA (Honours) degree in International Relations as a Mandela-Rhodes Scholar. 

Iris is passionate about the role that civil society plays in supporting systems change and seeks to position her emerging body of work at the intersection of feminist activism and social innovation.

https://www.linkedin.​com/in/iris-nxumalo-de-smidt-​03246a72/