From Board decisions to accountable work.

2 August 2025

Managing the Board meeting process

At Mo Dewji Foundation, I managed the preparation of Board packs and coordinated the meeting process with the Executive Director. This included the agenda, previous minutes, programme updates, supporting documents and contributions from Board members.

For the meeting held on 2 August 2025 at Golden Jubilee Towers in Dar es Salaam, I served as meeting secretary. The Board reviewed programme performance, financial statements, auditor engagement, constitutional amendments and partnership strategy.

I prepared the minutes, circulated them for review, incorporated amendments and coordinated the Chair’s approval. My responsibility was to produce a record that management could act on and that the Board could return to at its next meeting.

August 2025 onward

Turning Board instructions into accountable work

I developed a follow-up framework that recorded each Board request, the responsible person, deadline, progress and evidence of completion. I incorporated deadlines into the Executive Director’s calendar and coordinated the departmental inputs needed for his review.

A concrete example appears in the August 2025 minutes: the Board requested an evaluation of the Foundation’s 21 higher education institution partnerships, considering quality, career opportunities and alignment with its strategy. The minutes assigned responsibility to the MDF team and Executive Director, with reporting due at the next Board meeting.

My role in following up Board requests was to identify the required inputs, assign and pursue departmental contributions, resolve obstacles and bring a complete response to the Director for review. In the work I managed, Board deadlines were met because follow-up continued until the required response was ready.

24 January 2026

Maintaining clarity around financial decisions

The January 2026 Board meeting demonstrated why precise governance records matter. The Board discussed the proposed budget but did not approve it. It requested a comparative presentation showing prior-year actual expenditure, the previous approved budget and the proposed forward budget, with explanations of variances.

As part of my continuing Board support responsibilities, I documented the distinction between discussion, approval and further work required. This made the next step clear: management needed to prepare the comparative information and return it to the Board for approval.

The value of this work was a clear decision record. A budget discussed at a meeting could not be treated as an approved spending authority.

June 2025–June 2026

Establishing written operating standards

During my year as Institutional Development Specialist, I worked on SOPs for the Foundation’s health and scholarship programmes and contributed to developing its whistleblower policy.

I focused on making responsibilities, procedures and reporting expectations clearer across departments. Alongside this, I coordinated supporting documents and follow-up for audit and compliance work, including obtaining missing information and keeping the process moving.

The improvement I can stand behind is that the Foundation became more structured and its work easier to explain and review. Written procedures and clearer records strengthened its readiness for external scrutiny and donor engagement.

June 2025–June 2026

Coordinating partnership commitments

I co-designed and coordinated the Kerry Group scholarship and fellowship programme for 40 graduates, managing recruitment, academic coordination and MOUs with SUA and UDSM.

My responsibility extended to working with lawyers and programme teams to turn partnership requirements into completed agreements. I coordinated discussions, clarified the operational requirements and followed through on the documents needed for delivery.

This experience taught me to manage partnerships through clear commitments, agreed responsibilities and consistent follow-up. It is directly relevant to governance work where management must demonstrate what partners have agreed to do and whether those commitments are being fulfilled.