Ms Lungi Morrison is a humanitarian by nature, a social development strategist and communications executive whose depth of experience and skills amassed over the years renders her best place to traverse both commercial and social/public service/development landscapes. Her academic qualifications including a Masters degree in Anthropology & Sociology from the University of Auckland – New Zealand, informs her extensive involvement in development as well as, cause related marketing/advocacy and communications initiatives in both local and global contexts.
Ms Morrison has lived, studied and worked in a number of different countries, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Brazil, the UK, New Zealand and parts of the United States. As such, Lungi’s ability to adapt to different life contexts means she is not multi-lingual but also, predisposed to adapting by applying her innate appreciation of diverse socio-economic and cultural market forces as 21st Century unfolds. In 2014 Lungi participated in executive development summer program at Harvard University graduate school, in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Emerging markets (BRICS).
Lungi has played a pivotal role in social development and policy implementation of South Africa’s post democracy anti-HIV/AIDS initiatives. Returning home from exile in 1998, Lungi worked with the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation (which also meant later engaging The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID & PEPFAR as support donors) to develop innovative youth-responsive initiative called loveLife. Through qualitative & quantitative research, branding, media & communications, a youth HIV/AIDS campaigns and intervention programmes – loveLife was born. Appreciating the importance of working with local government, via loveLife, Lungi also engaged South Africa’s Medical Research Council to support the Government’s Khomanani campaign. Ms Morrison later worked as an independent consultant for South African office of the New York based reproductive health agency – MSCI (Margaret Sanger Centre International) and the Reproductive Health Research Unit – RHRU (located at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital).
Aiming to diversify her research base, Lungi went on to project manage in-depth qualitative and quantitative research projects that focused on labour markets and trade union activities in neighbouring emerging markets like, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia working with FAFO (Norwegian Institute for Applied Social Science).
Commercially, she has been able to extend her brand strategy, marketing & communications capabilities, in a lead qualitative and quantitative role as consumer insight specialist with global brand Nestle. Informing several brand managers, Lungi designed and managed research processes to unearth key consumer insights, integral to Nestle ability entrench its brand proposition, connecting and communicating with key emergent target audiences, following South Africa’s transition to a democratic government.
As head of PR & Communications at Gauteng Tourism Authority Lungi was tasked with managing Public Relations and a strategic communications framework positioning the GTA as leader of tourism in the province. This involved among other things, creating & executing communications programmes that provided platforms for a range of stakeholders on the tourism value chain (the tourism sector & agencies, regional tourism organizations, the trade, local & international media, SMME’s, artists/ artisans, public & private sector) to engage with the destination in order to increase numbers of visitors (local & international), length of stay, with the vision to impact economic growth (job creation) and development (including sustainable growth of the sector).
In 2010 Lungi served as consultant with the global African sponsor of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. In this role, Ms. Morrison dealt with multiple stakeholders, liaising with South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Coordination (DIRCO) – Foreign Affairs. She interacted directly with Ambassadors and ministers in markets where MTN has footprint; Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana as well as, working with the Local Organizing Committee. Leading up to during and post the soccer world cup, Lungi also informed strategic outputs on MTN’s CSR Legacy projects – 1Goal, United Against Malaria (FIFA World Cup Education Legacy Campaign – engaging local and global campaign ambassadors including artist Kelly Rowland). Lungi also facilitated partnerships between MTN and African Leadership Academy (located in Johannesburg).
Towards the end of 2008, early 2009, Lungi was among a few young South Africans invited by former President, Thabo Mbeki and later Graca Machel, to engage and convene strategic think tanks on such issues as;
1). Legacy programmes & initiatives including a resurgence of principles of UBUNTU & the African Renaissance
2). Addressing approaching to creating an enabling values based culture of citizenship across South Africa as enshrined in its National Constitution (making this more palatable to ordinary citizens, policy makers and the media)
3). ‘New Faces New Voices’: a multi-sector women’s body convened by Graca Machel to advance input and expertise of women across Africa in the private and public sector addressing key challenges such as; education, HIV/AIDS & Stigma, poverty alleviation, democracy, leadership & mentorship for women & young people.
A passionate African philanthropist Ms Morrison remains committed to contributing to development in key areas; education, health, gender violence, the rights of children, youth development and environmental sustainability. She has chaired and sat on a number of boards including; SACAR – South African Chapter on African Renaissance; the JCPES – Joint Centre for Political and Economic Studies and served as board member of IKAGENG ITRELENG a Soweto based children’s Aids Ministry.
Between 2011-2013 Lungi lived in London, serving as strategic advisor with the UK Tutudesk Campaign (www.tutudesk.org). We provide portable school desks, Tutudesks, to children in Sub Saharan Africa, where over 95 million school children don’t have the benefit of a classroom desk. The lack of a desk, a writing surface, affects handwriting, concentration and overall academic performance. To date over 1 million desks have been distributed. The Tutudesk Campaign aims to provide 20 million desks to 20 million children by 2020.
Lungi is a consortium member of the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment G.E.T www.getafrica.org an organization established to be African’s first response mechanism to health and other crises across Africa (like the devastation of Ebola in West Africa in 2014/15).
In 2016, Lungi established an e-commerce business Onibespoke (www.onibespoke.com). A contemporary lifestyle brand, onibespoke curates African designs specifically; interior décor, accessories and art. A passionate Pan-Africanist, Lungi believes in the role of the arts as latent driver of Africa’s ‘new economy’. Onibespoke seeks to promote the provenance of African heritage, indigenous knowledge systems, narrative, legacy and ingenuity, proudly marketed through a range of hand made designs.
A global citizen, Lungi is a centred-spirit who keenly applies her development, enterprise, communications and brand strategy skills, to make a difference throughout the African Continent and world.
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