Alumni of the Month

Nesia Satoki Mahenge, the present Country Director of CBM International,  is an alumna of the Unversity of Dar es Salaam of the graduating class of 2004. She was born on 2^nd February in Dar es Salaam, to parents (Prof. Satoki Mahenge and Gloria Sanga) who were, at that time, actually employees of the University of Dar es Salaam at the Faculty of Education (Father) and Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (Mother)  hailing from Iringa region. Nesia had her primary education at Mlimani Primary School (1987-1993) before proceeding to secondary education at Jangwani Girls Secondary School, Science Subjects (1994-1997) for ‘O-level’ (form I-IV) and at Tambaza High School, Science-Physics, Chemistry and Biology (1998-2000) for the ‘A-levels’ (Form V-VI). With remarkable high school examination results, Nesia was admitted to the University of Dar es Salaam’s Business School in 2001 to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in Finance and Banking. She graduated, with Honours (Hons), in 2004.

Upon graduation from UDSM, Nesia was nominated by the British Council to attend a one-year ‘Pan-African Leadership Development Initiative’ training course held in Ghana (Accra), Kenya (Nairobi) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), intended to promote interactive leadership skills for youth across all countries on the continent. It was aimed at building and buttressing leadership skills in the young generation for service and functionality within the public and civil service sectors in readiness for innovative business ventures and social change in their nations. The course, dubbed the ‘InterAction’ programme, lasted a year, until 2005. From 2005 up to 2007, Nesia was formally employed by a private-sector institution, Toyota Tanzania Limited in Dar es Salaam, as a Marketing Executive: a position the company had created in order to push hard its marketing strategy. In 2007, she left Toyota and joined a programme “Sickle Cell” inaugurated at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). She was engaged there as a Project Manager responsible for managing the programme’s grants, finances and human resources within the Department of Hematology. At the Sickle Cell Programme site, Nesia introduced a management system for the project, particularly internal controls for programme management, human resources (HR), financial flows and procurement procedures. In 2009, following a Fellowship award from the Netherlands Government, she secured a two-year leave for an MBA degree study in Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Upon return from the Netherlands in 2010, well up to 2013, Nesia was employed by Population Services International (PSI)¾in the area concerning Maternal and Child health at various levels, from Marketing Manager, Senior Programme Manager, to Acting Director. From 2014 to 2017, Nesia Mahenge was employed by the British Council Office in Tanzania, taking up positions of trust as Director of Programmes and Business Development including that of Acting Country Director as from 2016 to 2017 as the first Tanzanian to act on that position.

Currently, since 2018, Nesia Mahenge works as the Country Director for CBM International, a Tanzanian “offshoot” of the German Christoffel-Blindenmission e.V. [CBM]¾an international development organisation that was founded in 1908 by a German Pastor Ernst J. Christoffel focusing on the disability inclusive development to support persons with disabilities worldwide. What, overall, is her brief in connection with her organisation’s mission? Among other things, she guides CBM Tanzania in addressing poverty as a cause and a consequence of disability. She ensures that the organization works in partnership in order to create an inclusive space “for all” in the community, prioritising the provision of resources to strengthen local organizations to provide services and support to persons with disabilities through collaboration with the Government and other stakeholders. She directs service delivery to the fields of healthcare, education, rehabilitation, livelihood, community-based inclusive development and humanitarian action as well as makes continuous consultations with like-minded organisations in the country and outside in order to chart out strategies of inclusiveness that bolster the efficiency of service delivery, as well as consistency and sustainability in approaches towards holistic development for people with disabilities.

Over and above these various learning-cum-demonstrative areas of action, Ms Nesia has been active in a myriad of other roles demonstrative of her professional abilities and commitment. They include providing technical advice on the Advisory Board of the MUHAS’s Sickle Cell Programme (from 2007 to date); serving as. President of the Netherlands Alumni Association of Tanzania (NAAT) from (2013-2015); Chairperson and Founding member of the Tanzania Chapter of the Young African Leaders Initiative (2015–2017); Vice-President of the Tanzania-USA Alumni Association (2016-2020), National Chapter Member - UN Women – Africa Women Leaders Network (2020 – to-date) and Vice-Chairperson and Board Director of the Foundation for Civil Society (2016–2022). The University of Dar es Salaam does recognise Nesia’s varied contributions to the community and to society in general. It congratulates her so heartily. She also established the Youth African Leaders Initiative Alumni Chapter in Tanzania representing the Regional Leadership Centre for Youth Leadership Programme (the pilot Chapter for 14 East Africa Countries) 

Nesia also served in a number of international committees; UN Commission of Life Saving Commodities: Technical Advisory Committee Member, (UNICEF, 2013: New York, USA); USAID and National Science Foundation: Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research, (Tanzania. 2014); UNICEF, WHO and Tanzania, Scale-up Strategy Development, Essential Medicines for Child Health. (2013: Washington DC, USA); Mentor for Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Foundation (Coaching and Mentorship: 2017-2020); Obama Leadership Initiative (YALI Programme), Young African Leadership Initiative, East Africa, Civic Leadership, (July - October 2015); Chatham House, London. UK (September 2016) and as the International Panel Moderator for the Science Series on Sickle in Africa Sessions during the UN General Assembly (UNGA), New York and U.S – Africa Leaders Summit, Washington D.C.

Nesia received a number of awards as part of recognition for her remarkable work; Global Women Achiever Award by World Women Leadership Congress (2022); Swedish Institute Leadership, Management and Sustainability Diploma Award (2022); Award recognition as top East Africa’s Women Leaders (2020); Award recognition as the Top 50 Women in Management in Africa (2019); Honorary Diploma, New Leaders for Tomorrow: Public and Corporate Governance, Crans Montana: Brussels, Belgium (2016)