Meekness Lunga-Ayidu is the South Africa Science and Higher Education Programme Manager at the British Council. In her role, she manages multiple collaborative programmes and partnerships between the South Africa and the UK Higher Education sectors. Additionally, she supports the delivery of British Council’s Innovation for African Universities (IAU) programme delivered across four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK.

Meekness is a member of the South Africa Senior Leadership Team at the British Council. She is passionate about youth development and has been actively engaged in the development sector, particularly in Higher Education for over 10 years. Prior to joining the British Council, Meekness was the Assistant Head of Programme at the Rural Education Access Programme (REAP). In this role, she was responsible for leading the delivery of a student support and development programme, working across 16 public universities in South Africa.

Meekness holds a Master of Philosophy (MPHil) degree in Programme Evaluation from the University of Cape Town.