Attie S. van Niekerk studied Theology at the University of Pretoria. He was a minister of the (black) Dutch Reformed Church in Africa in Venda from 1978 to 1984 and professor for the church's theological training at the University of the North from 1984 to 1993 and rector of the Theological School Stofberg from 1988 to February 1993. His book on four poets from Soweto and Alexandra in the seventies, Dominee, Are You Listening to the Drums?, was co-winner of the Sunday Times Literary Award for Political Writing in 1984. He has published several books and more than 50 academic articles. In 1994, he became a founding member of the NOVA Institute, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to enable poverty-stricken communities to improve their quality of life. NOVA makes use of scientific methods, including surveys, academic debates and trans-disciplinary research, in which researchers from a diversity of backgrounds, together with a number of low-income families, are engaged in a process to design, and evaluate in practice, household products and processes that are effective, sustainable, affordable for low-income households, desirable, replicable and socially beneficial.



Sytse Strijbos is a founder of the International Institute for Development and Ethics that has been established in 2004 as an independent legal entity with a branch in South Africa and Europe. Currently, he is the chairperson of the International Institute for Development and Ethics (IIDE) in Europe. Previously, he taught at the Philosophy Faculty of Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and as a special professor at North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), South Africa.