UWEZO UGANDA
Established 2010
BACKGROUND
The foundations for conducting the first Citizen-led Assessment on the African continent were laid in 2008 during a visit of NGO leaders, education specialists and Ministry of Education officials from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to Pratham, India. As they learned more about the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the Uwezo initiative was conceived.
Uwezo is a not-for-profit organisation in Uganda that focuses on access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all children. From 2009 to 2012, Uwezo Uganda was hosted by the Uganda National NGO Forum (UNNGOF). From 2013 to 2019, Uwezo in Uganda merged with Twaweza East Africa, an initiative focused on facilitating large-scale change in East Africa through increased accountability and information sharing.
UWEZO AND TWAWEZA
Uwezo became a flagship programme of Twaweza ,which gained immense popularity and recognition by implementing a unique large-scale citizen-led learning assessment that generated independent data on children’s learning levels in basic literacy and numeracy. In January 2020, Uwezo Uganda registered as an autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation.
THE UWEZO SURVEY
The Uwezo survey has been conducted every year in every census district of East Africa since 2010. It is the only current source of national annual information on children’s ability to read and do basic arithmetic across East Africa. Uwezo is currently the only citizen-led assessment that operates both nationally and regionally, producing a comparative East Africa report annually and with a Regional Office secretariat. The Uwezo survey assesses all children between the ages of 6 and 16 in literacy and numeracy at grade 2 level.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SURVEY
Uwezo has three country offices in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Kampala (Uganda) and Nairobi (Kenya) that operate independently and oversee survey design and implementation, conduct data analysis, develop reports, and coordinate national and international dissemination. Across the three East African countries, Uwezo has approximately 360 partner organizations, with an appointed District Coordinator who is responsible for the training and assessment implementation in each census district.