Jonas William Njelango
National President, South Africa, Global University for Lifelong Learning
Dr Jonas Njelango is President, Tanzania, Global University for Lifelong Learning, based in Dodoma, Tanzania.
Jonas recently returned to Tanzania after many years of working outside the country with a number of international organizations. He has worked with World Vision in Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Oxfam in Somaliland; Tearfund in Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan; and Across Africa in South Sudan. The senior positions he has held include: Country director for World Vision in Tanzania, Liberia and DRC; Programme manager for Oxfam UK, and Country representative for Tearfund in Sudan and South Sudan. Until April 2018, he was managing a large community engagement project for Across Africa funded by the World Bank. Since June 2018, he has been lecturing at St John’s University of Tanzania on a part-time basis and has joined a professional team that supports and advises the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Diocese of Central Tanganyika on management and development.
In Sudan and South Sudan with Tearfund, he was instrumental in facilitating the developing of a church and community mobilization process (CCMP) in the Counties of Yei, Boma, Kajokeji and Mundri, South Sudan. In 2012, Jonas completed his Doctor of Professional Studies degree by designing and implementing a return on investment tracking system for CCMP based on data gathered in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and South Sudan. This innovative project, partly facilitated by the Global University for Lifelong Learning, involved an action learning approach to aggregating the evidence of individual change and impact at community level. Prior to this, there had been no comprehensive information system about CCMP’s impact. Moreover, CCMP practitioners had been using different monitoring systems and so aggregation and analysis by region and country could not be accomplished.
Reflecting on the outcomes of his action learning journey with GULL, Jonas observes: ‘I have learnt that I am able to learn on my own with the support of coaches, peers and others without necessarily going to a four-walled learning facility. GULL learning has also taught me the importance of perseverance and persistence and this has contributed to the high performance of the doctoral team.’
