DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 19 -- IN the quiet, high-stakes halls of policy dialogue and the bustling heat of community schoolyards, one voice has become impossible to ignore. It is a voice that is both firm and empathetic, seasoned by 15 years of seeing the education systems greatest triumphs and its most heartbreaking gaps.

Martha Makalla, the National Coordinator of the Tanzania Education Network (TEN/MET), is not just a policy expert. To the thousands of girls who thought their dreams ended with a positive pregnancy test, and to the children in remote villages waiting for a desk to call their own, she is an architect of second chances.

As she steps into a boardroom filled with development partners and government officials, Martha carries mo...