About Brenda Mkwesha

Brenda began her development career working with girls and women in Maa communities in Narok, Kenya, on sexual and reproductive health, early marriage and HIV prevention. She went on to lead the Kenya Girl Guides Association, where she won a five year USAID award for marginalised girls.

Over the next decade she managed grants and programmes for regional organisations across Eastern and Southern Africa. She wrote gender, equal treatment, child protection and Do No Harm policies, trained more than 100 partner organisations, and won major proposals for the European Union and the Royal Swedish Embassy.

As Regional Director for the IOGT NTO Movement she led five country operations in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. She later served as Kenya Country Lead for Vital Strategies, Chief Executive of Baobabpad in Namibia, and Regional Programme Manager for Youth Challenge International across Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda, where she was also the safeguarding focal point.

She founded Tese Consulting to bring that experience to organisations directly. Tese means "all of us" in Shona, and the name reflects the thread running through her work: safety, equality and inclusion for everyone. She delivers every session herself, so quality and confidentiality never depend on a trainer you have not met.

Brenda holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and a BBA in Accounting, cum laude, from Austin Peay State University in the USA. She has trained in mediation, results based management, monitoring and evaluation, and the logical framework approach.

She served on the board of Movendi International from 2014 to 2018, planned and ran the East Africa Alcohol Conference in Arusha in 2012, and is the author of a research based book on alcohol in East and Southern Africa.