Dar es Salaam. John Ulanga is the Regional Director for East and Central Africa at TradeMark Africa. He is responsible for the overall portfolio of TradeMark Africa support in seven countries, namely, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DR Congo.

He has held different leadership positions and sits in more than 22 boards, one being that of Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL).

Mr Ulanga shares his life story and how he has managed to be where he is today, including his life-long support towards women in leadership agenda and beyond.

He says that he comes from a very humble beginning with parents who worked as public servants. Ulanga parsued his education in public schools.

His story is that of determination, wanting to succeed and waking up every day saying ‘I want to be a better version of myself’.

Ulanga studied his primary education and Ordinary level of secondary education in Dar es Salaam before joining Mazengo Secondary School in Dodoma for his A-level education. Later he joined the University of Dar es Salaam where he did his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce.

Upon joining the country’s labour force, Ulanga worked for private and public sectors.

According to him, all these successes up to that level were mostly inspired by parents, particularly, as they kept challenging him to achieve a higher goal. He would go home proudly to hand over a report that said he ranked 2 or 3 in his exams. However, his father would always look at the school report and ask: ‘Why did you score 65 and not 95?’ He would question him for being number 2 or 3, insisting that it was not good enough.

Ulanga says such a challenge pushed him to learn to fight to change the environment he was in and the view of his perception gave him a lot of energy to push and become a better version of himself.

On the question on whether he ever knew what he wanted to be, he says, he learned from Dr Sherry Turkey when in primary school who always asked them about their dreams.

He still recalls what Dr Turkey told him: “He said, a bad soldier is the one who does not aspire to become a general. But if you join the army you should always aspire to be in the top ranks in the army which is the general. So, always I have been asking myself if I am the general.”

Commenting on society and how it prepares a girl child in achieving her dreams, Ulanga said: “From a personal perspective when growing up in my family, there was no significance difference and it helped both of us”.

The management guru says he always appreciated the roles played by women, and he even learned how to cook from his mother. It reached a point that he could prepare the family meal, during the days he was still in his secondary level.

He is of the view that being able to handle kitchen issues gives one a chance to learn that some roles done by women are not anywhere connected to them physically and emotionally but rather how the community perceives them.

“Studies have shown that countries which are more gender equal perform better in GDP per capital.

“There is an economic case for that. From business perspective, a study by Harvard University shows companies with gender equality are 27 percent more likely to outperform other companies in terms of profit,” he says Ulanga.

He adds that the conversation he wants people to have is that gender equality is not about taking power from men but ensuring the country becomes more likely increase the GDP per capital from a company level and other areas to get profits.

He says, “As a country, we need to improve on cross gender conversations on what can be done collectively to support growth of more and more women”.

Ulanga challenges the idea of using the International Women’s Day to hear more about women stories and make it collective conversation among men and women on how the gender equality agenda can be pushed together.

He gives an example of UN agencies and how women have been holding top positions, and asks ‘who have been the best supporter of these women?’

He says it is crucial for society to have a strategy as a country, say a five-year strategy dedicated to human investment to increase a number of women who are eligible to become CEOs and similar positions. “I know the Association of Tanzania Employers has the Female Future Programme. It is a good programme but we need more programmes like these to prepare women become CEOs, Board chairs, heads of organisations, etc,’’ adds Ulanga.

He argues that it is time that all cultures graduate and come to reality and appreciate roles of women so as to let them be the best they can be and this is a long term investment.

Asked on the likely dangers society may face for its failure to bring along men or boys in the women empowerment journey, Ulanga observes that cross gender conversation as suggested earlier would help bring the boy children along as society empowers girls.

He recalls figures that indicate that populationwise, number of women was higher compared to that of men. But looking at the same data, one finds that for children aged 15 and below, there were more boys than girls.

He notes that if the trend continues as it is in the next 20 to 30 years, Tanzania will have more men than women. This could end up being disempowering to women.

Ulanga argues that it is important to prepare the next generation in a way that numbers won’t matter but ensuring that every person contributes the best they can. He says he has always benefitted from working with women, some of them were extremely powerful. “Looking at their success now, I remember seeing the urge to succeed in them since then. And the environment to support them to get the best out of them was also available. Once the environment is conducive women can always be number 1 or 2,” he says.

“Looking at my journey into the corporate world, I would not have gone into the sector had it not been for women. One of these women and to whom I will forever be grateful was Zuhura Muro,” says Ulanga.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.