DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 6 -- AFTER years of mentoring and giving a voice to thousands of women leaders and entrepreneurs across East Africa, governance and leadership expert Veni Swai is not about to stop. Her mission is far from over; she wants more women at the policy table.

“The first time I got women in a room and asked them to pick a chairperson, they looked at me as if I was crazy,” recalls Ms Veni Swai, 55, Senior Programme Manager of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Tanzania.

“There was no man in the room, yet in their minds, they believed the chairperson had to be a man,” she said Veni told the women that one of them had to lead, someone to speak for them, to represent their collective voice. ...