Mr. Martin Chungong is the Secretary General of the Inter Parliamentary Union. In 2014, he became the first non-European and first African to be elected Secretary General in the organization's 125 years. He was re-elected for a second term at the IPU Assembly in Dhaka in 2017.

Mr Chungong has worked at the National Assembly of Cameroon for 14 years, including as the Administrative Secretary for Cameroon’s representation to the IPU. He also taught linguistics, translation in the Universities of Buea and Yaoundé in Cameroon.

He joined the IPU in 1993, where he worked on parliamentary capacity building in countries in transition or emerging from conflict and served successively as Director for the Promotion of Democracy (2005-2011) and Director of the Division of Programs (2011-2014). He has also served as Secretary of the IPU Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights for eight years and as Deputy Secretary General of the IPU.

As chair of the Management Committee on Accountability of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Governance Network, he established governance benchmarks to strengthen democracy and developed programs to help parliaments become more transparent, effective and accountable.
Chungong is the Parliamentary Representative on the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, a multi-stakeholder platform to advance the effectiveness of development efforts and to deliver long-lasting results that contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
He is an International Gender Champion, a network of decision-makers working for gender parity. He is also on its Global Advisory Board. Mr. Chungong is one of the 29 global leaders appointed by then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to shape the efforts of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement in eliminating all forms of malnutrition.

He was made Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, awarded by the International Organization of La Francophonie to people who have distinguished themselves in the service of its ideals of cooperation and friendship. He also received the Friendship Order from the Viet Nam National Assembly, awarded to foreigners who contribute towards building and developing friendship between Viet Nam and other countries and institutes. In recognition of his contribution to international cooperation, the President of the Republic of Djibouti also awarded him the medal of Officer of the National Order of 27 June 1977.

Mr. Chungong attended the University of Yaounde, from where he has a post-graduate degree. He then went to the University of Ottawa where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma from the Polytechnic of Central London which is now known as the University of Westminster and he is fluent in English, French and Spanish.