Our Heritage

Usawa Agenda came into being following a strategic review within Twaweza in 2018 that ushered in a three-phased transition process of separating Uwezo from Twaweza. The first phase was strategic separation, which happened at the beginning of 2019; the second phase, which entailed legal and fiduciary separation, happened at the beginning of 2020. We have a rich heritage from which we draw many lessons as we power into the future with a clearer purpose and precise focus: over 10 years of successful pioneering work on citizen-led assessments (CLAs) and learning in East Africa as Uwezo – a programme of Twaweza East Africa. We regularly assess the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of millions of children of school age (in and out of school), and engage education stakeholders (parents, teachers, local administrators, and policymakers) around the observed learning outcomes.

We assess school-level factors that affect learning outcomes in tens of thousands of primary and secondary schools across the country. We have embedded co-creation of evidence, involving both citizen volunteers and diverse public officials to enhance buy-in by the key stakeholders, and forged partnerships to further the objective of ensuring that children attend school and learn. We curate data into evidence and use it to engage targeted policy actors around the perceived worsening learning crisis with significant success.