Practice
More than two decades inside institutions
Vongai's work has developed through sustained practice across organisations, the United Nations system, global networks, governance and institution-building.
These settings provided different vantage points on the same practical challenge: how ideas, frameworks and institutional choices behave when they meet real contexts.
2007
UN system
2012
VCN
2016
Leadership Awards
2017
Teach For All
2021
Global Schools Forum
2023
AFWAG
2025
Equinexus
- 2007UN system
- 2012VCN
- 2016Leadership Awards
- 2017Teach For All
- 2021Global Schools Forum
- 2023AFWAG
- 2025Equinexus
Formation through practice
2007–2017United Nations system
2007–2022Across a fifteen-year period, Vongai undertook a substantial body of work across the United Nations system.
Her assignments included leadership and management development, assessment centres, organisational capability-building, strategic alignment, Resident Coordinator-related work, Country Team facilitation and senior leadership retreats.
Her practice spanned African and international contexts, including work connected to Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti, Mauritius and Seychelles.
UNDP · WFP · ILO · UNOPS · UN Environment · UN Women · UN Country Teams
Selected UN Country Team engagements
Independent advisory practice
From April 2012
In April 2012, Vongai established VCN, an independent leadership and organisational advisory practice working across corporate, public-sector, multilateral and social-impact environments.
The practice continued during her later leadership at Teach For All.
This period provided sustained exposure to the practical question of why apparently sound leadership and organisational interventions can produce very different outcomes depending on context.
Archival record
Leadership Awards
Founded 2016
In 2016, Vongai founded the Leadership Awards in the UK, creating a cross-sector platform for recognising and convening leaders across business, public institutions, civil society and community leadership.
The inaugural awards were held in London in 2016.
Global leadership and stewardship
2017–2026Teach For All
2017–2023Vongai joined Teach For All as Head of Region–Africa and later also served as Chief Network Officer.
She worked within a global network seeking to combine shared purpose with locally led organisations operating across very different educational, political and social environments.
When she assumed responsibility for the African region, Teach For All had partners in three African countries. By the time she left, the ecosystem of existing and prospective partners extended across more than fifteen African countries.
- Roles
- Head of Region–Africa
Chief Network Officer - 3
- African partner countries at the beginning of her regional responsibility
- 15+
- African countries across the ecosystem of existing and prospective partners by departure
Global Schools Forum
Former Co-Chair and Trustee
- Trustee
- 2021–2026
- Co-Chair
- 2024–2026
Building institutions
2023 onwardFounder · 2023
Alliance for Women and Girls
Vongai established the Alliance for Women and Girls in January 2023.
AFWAG works with organisations across 23 African countries and was built around the importance of proximity, locally rooted leadership and greater authority for organisations closest to the realities they seek to change.
23
African countries
Founder & Managing Partner · 2025
Equinexus Partners
Equinexus Partners is the institutional practice through which Vongai's current work on leadership, organisational coherence, institutional judgement and context is translated into practice.
The organisation works through four connected areas:
- Diagnostics
- Advisory
- Depthwork Institute
- Nexus Exchange
Current practice
Vongai's current institutional work is carried primarily through Equinexus Partners, while Borrowed Mirrors develops the wider intellectual inquiry into frameworks, context, legitimacy and institutional judgement.