Sives Govender is a Research Group Leader in Spatial Information Systems at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and the coordinator of Environmental Information System-Africa (EIS-Africa), a pan African nonprofit organization, promoting the utilization of Geospatial Science and Technology to support sustainable development in Africa. He also manages the biennial AfricaGIS conference.

For over two decades he has been involved in numerous global to national geospatial science, technology and Spatial Data Infrastructure related activities and projects.

Sives is a Geographer and has a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Social Policy with specialization in GIS, from the University of Durban-Westville (now UKZN) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Development from the University of Stellenbosch.