Twaweza means “we can make it happen” in Swahili. Twaweza works on enabling citizens to exercise agency and governments to be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. We have programs, staff and offices across all three countries, and a world respected practice of learning, monitoring and evaluation. Our flagship programs include Sauti za Wananchi, Africa’s first nationally representative mobile phone survey. We undertake effective public and policy engagement, through powerful media partnerships and global leadership of initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership.
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ABOUT TWAWEZA
>Twaweza: putting citizens at the centre
WHAT'S NEW
Annual Plan 2023
The year 2023 marks the final year of our current third strategy. In 2022 we managed to intensify the pace…
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Twaweza Audited Financial Statements 2022
Twaweza’s financial statements are subjected to independent audits each year. Once approved by the Board, these are disclosed to the…
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Twaweza Annual Report 2022
“The Citizen Story is about the empowerment of us all to co-invent and nurture our own futures. The Citizenship of…
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We believe in an open society, built on the human impulse to make a difference; where information and ideas flow, citizens engage, and authorities are accountable to the people.
MISSION
- Demonstrating citizen agency and government responsiveness to build trust.
- Generating evidence for better decisions and actions by citizens and government.
- Strengthening civil society sector to enhance its legitimacy and impact.
OUR VALUES
Collaborative
We seek to work with and learn from others, to pursue common interests, knowing that most powerful things can only be achieved when we pull together our strengths.
Transparent
We seek to practice what we preach, foster a culture of deep transparency, disclose all by default (except a narrow aspect that is private and confidential), be honest about failures and success, and share widely.
Imaginative
We seek to think anew, reframe, wonder, imagine possibilities beyond traditional boundaries, and to spur unusual ideas, aspirations and action.
Strategic
We value big challenges; appreciate the need to think clearly through and make good judgement about scale, connection, implementation, impact and durability.
Rigorous
We seek quality - attention to detail, clarity and elegance - in everything that we do.
Curious
We are driven by a thirst for learning; to ask, know, understand, tinker and create.
Strategies: 2024 – 2027 | 2019 – 2023 | 2015 – 2018 | 2011 – 2014
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2019-23 STRATEGY
Our 2018-2023 goals were to empower citizens to articulate their problems, organize for change, and take civic actions. We trained and supported local change agents to address local issues and promote inclusive governance. We also worked to ensure government agencies considered and responded to citizen concerns. Additionally, we focused on protecting civic space by defending free expression, association, and assembly, amplifying citizen voices, mobilizing joint actions with civil society, and engaging in selective litigation against government rights violations.
Demonstrating Citizen Agency
During the 2019-2023 strategy, we held nearly 1,400 meetings in Uganda with close to 40,000 attendees, mostly women (19,534 out of 38,142). These meetings identified 186 community challenges to be addressed in 64 action plans. In Tanzania, 303 meetings with over 55,000 attendees, mostly men (30,852 out of 56,467), identified 212 priority actions leading to 66 action plans. In Tanzania, there are more statutory local government meetings, and part of the animators’ work is to ensure these are held quarterly as required, that income and expenditure are shared, and that community issues are discussed and feedback provided. Animators attend all village meetings held in their communities and are key participants, relied on by village chairs and community members.
In Uganda, legal requirements are for one annual planning meeting at the village level, which has no direct pathway or line of accountability to district or national planning processes. To work around this, we ensured that LCI Chairs from intervention communities were members of the citizen follow-up committees. With this direct intervention experience and government position, these LCI Chairs can work with the change agents to present community priorities in 122 public sector meetings at the sub-county and district levels. Despite the challenges and lack of obligation, 233 mandatory village-level meetings were held by village leaders. During these meetings, leaders received and provided feedback on the community priorities but also presented budget and expenditure reports.
Enabling Citizen Voices to Influence Decision-Making
Over the strategy period, we partnered with four government institutions in Kenya to collect data to inform their decisions, and in Uganda, we partnered with over ten. We engaged numerous officials in Tanzania regarding Sauti za Wananchi data but have not successfully established partnerships with them.
These engagements and other collaborations with civil society peers generated several policy and practice effects. The most effective partnerships were with the ministries of health in Kenya and Uganda, particularly around COVID-19. This successful collaboration reassures us of the effectiveness of our engagements.
We also contributed to the removal of mobile money levies in Tanzania, influenced reporting indicators in the water and sanitation sector in Uganda, supported evidence-based public education on tax issues, prompted the responsible ministry to commit to amending the access to information law in Uganda, shaped policies and plans in Makueni in Kenya, co-created the Kenya Bureau of Statistics’ guidelines on incorporating independent data into their reporting on Sustainable Development Goals, and generated hundreds of pieces of media coverage in all three countries. All of these successes reinforce the vital importance of independent data on key national issues, especially from the citizens’ perspective.
Protecting and Promoting Open Civic Space
We impacted 11 proposed laws or amendments, including the Political Parties Act, the Media Services Act, the Statistics Act, the Online Content Regulations, and key aspects of the criminal justice system. In all these, we worked in coalition with key partners and navigated the government’s intransigence on these issues.
We carefully selected key sectors of civil society to work with, especially those that are often excluded or considered secondary to NGO advocacy, including political parties, artists, and religious leaders. An important illustrative story of the value of this work comes with the lifting of Tanzania’s ban on political party rallies in 2022. Although Twaweza engaged in no direct advocacy on this issue beyond collecting and publicly releasing data in 2018, our organisational strengthening support for the Tanzania Centre for Democracy, the only independent non-partisan forum for political parties, enabled them to push this agenda through.
In 2020, given our challenges in directly engaging the government, we introduced a new strand of work supporting key strategic partners from across the spectrum of civil society to strengthen their organisations and approaches. Over this period, we supported Equality for Growth, The Chanzo, the Creative Industry Network Tanzania, the Tanzania Centre for Democracy, the Tanzania Editors Forum, and the Uganda Radio Network. Each of these organisations is stronger for engaging with Twaweza and has achieved significant policy, regulatory, or practice changes in their sectors.
We have continued to play a supportive role in the media sector more broadly through capacity sessions, connections to sources, and advocacy support. Despite the lack of new content in the form of data, we continue to be viewed as an allied partner for media. We have also expanded and extended our role in civil society advocacy more broadly. An important contribution came from our rapid study of the direct financial contribution of 16 major national NGOs to the Tanzanian economy in response to government officials’ dismissive remarks about the value of the sector. In the last two years, the government, via the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women, and Special Groups, annually reports on the value of this contribution to all the NGOs for which they have data.
Our strategic litigation strand of work was much less successful. We focused too much on laws that affect our space to operate but have little direct influence on citizens’ lives. Ultimately, we dropped this strand of work when laws were changed to prohibit any public interest litigation in Tanzania and when it became clear that the government was increasingly unwilling to engage with organisations taking them to court. Although this mission area was designed for Tanzania alone, as we implemented work in Uganda, an opportunity emerged around access to information. Community change agents and partners were reporting this as a challenge, which our data validated. The ministry responsible for these issues at the national level was very open to our feedback, so we expanded our work in this area to include training, legislative advocacy, and a guide for civil servants to use the law. Although the law has not yet been amended since the ongoing process, we raised awareness of the challenges at the ministry level. We increased knowledge about the law and how to actualise it at the local level.
Full Annual Reports: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010
KEY ACTIVITIES IN 2024
Demonstrating citizen agency and government responsiveness
to build trust
- In Kigoma, given the refreshed implementation following a two-year pause, we will reintroduce the approach and share the priority action plans developed in 2023.
- We are supporting district engagement dialogues in Mbogwe, Mtama, Pangani, and Maswa to strengthen relations between citizens and their governments.
- We will conduct a midline evaluation in Mtama, Rubanda and Kyenjojo Districts and an endline assessment in Pangani, Maswa (Tanzania), Namutumba, Kamuli and Moyo (Uganda) districts.
- We will also support our animation implementation partners in disseminating the animation experience beyond their locations, including through public screenings of successes and lessons from animation. In our efforts to spread the adoption of this approach, we will convene CSO actors to introduce PAR/animation.
- We will engage local and national media to promote the ideas and values behind animation further.
- We will finalise documentation of Open Government Partnership (OGP) success stories that we started in 2023 and share them in civil society convenings and via social media.
- During the OGP week in May 2024, we will host or co-host a virtual event to further reflect and strategise.
Generating evidence to inform better decisions and actions
Kenya
- Three call rounds and corresponding launches to share the findings.
- Through media partnerships with Kenya Community Radio Network and a local radio station in Makueni, we will engage stakeholders in five counties on Sauti za Wananchi and qualitative data.
- We will continue with social media engagement, especially by producing and circulating videos and citizen vox-pops.
Tanzania
- One national call round and corresponding launch events
- Support and participate in the annual media stakeholder forum, including sharing Sauti za Waandishi poll data.
- Support to Tanzania Association of Government Communications Officers (TAGCO); the draft national communications policy extensively references Sauti za Wananchi data on access to information.
Uganda
- Two call rounds, two national and one sub-national launch events
- Continue with successful models of media engagement through field grants for national journalists, local radio talk shows and press conferences on key national days
Strengthening civil society to enhance legitimacy and impact
Kenya
- On-demand or proactive communication to engage partners around our data and evidence, research capacity
- Joint advocacy on critical issues for the sector in coalition
Tanzania
- We will provide deep support to selected civil society organisations, advocate for a more enabling environment for independent data collection, and continue to promote the animation approach.
- Collaboration with dLab and the National Bureau of Statistics on the generation of guidelines for incorporating independent data
- Civil Society Organisations Week 2024
- Capacity building sessions for sub-national and national civil society.
- Joint engagements with other CSOs on specific issues, including access to information, civil society governance, media freedom and commemoration
- Partnership with Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on designing and implementing a year-long leadership training program for young leaders from political parties, media and CSOs
Influencing institutions to embody accountability and inclusion
Kenya
- Introductory meetings and sharing of Sauti za Wananchi findings on devolution with key stakeholders, including the State Department for Devolution, Council of Governors, County Assemblies Forum and Council of Ward Administrators
- Developing a joint policy brief in collaboration with the State Department for Devolution and other CSOs
- Technical support to the State Department for Devolution to develop their annual assessment of the state of devolution
- CSO and media roundtable on Sauti za Wananchi
- Analysis and advocacy around the proposed public participation bill
- Active participation in the People’s Dialogue Festival
- Supporting the Okoa Uchumi Coalition
Tanzania
- We will engage extensively with the ministry responsible for local government and begin to develop a supportive cohort of government allies.
- Regular engagements with, field travel, small-scale studies for and joint events with the Ministry
- Regular engagements with the Parliamentary Secretariat and MPs
- Exploratory engagements with the associations of local government workers and community development officers
- Validation, scripts and presentation for the Tanzania Scenarios 2050 stories
- We will continue to deepen our partnerships for joint advocacy with key national peers, including Legal and Human Rights Centre, Foundation for Civil Society, Centre for Strategic
- Litigation, Centre for Strategic Litigation
Uganda
- An opening roundtable engagement with the ministries of local government and gender, the Uganda Local Government Association, and the Office of the Prime Minister, regular updates, feedback and follow-up engagements
- Sub-national engagements around Sauti za Wananchi data
- Legislative advocacy for a private member’s bill for the Access to Information Act
- Engagements emerging from the Sauti za Wananchi data on emergency medical services to convene a multistakeholder forum to address drug stockouts and for the enactment of a Good Samaritan Act
Strategy and Learning
Kenya
- An explorative study on the roles, motivations and functions of the State Department for Devolution, Council of Governors and County Assemblies Forum in encouraging citizen participation at national and county level
- Finalising study of civil servants’ perspectives on access to information and citizen participation
- Joint study with Busara Centre on how to assess dignity, self-efficacy and respect
Tanzania
- Civil servants’ perspectives and experiences in citizen participation, access to information, inclusion and accountability
- An explorative study on the structure and processes of local governments incorporating review of government documents and learning-in-action through our planned engagements
Uganda:
- Qualitative evaluation of the Parish Development Model (PDM) to understand potential overlaps and entry points for our work
All three countries:
- Assessment of the state of civil society through review of available literature and some key informant interviews
- Understanding and enhancing inclusion, transparency and accountability among local government authorities
- Collecting citizens’ views and experiences on civil society and local government
Full Annual Plans: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010
OUR OWN TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Value for money is at the heart of our procurement processes, ensuring that funds entrusted to the organization are spent in a manner that is responsible and smart. Twaweza has developed a procurement system which gives equal opportunity and fair treatment to all prospective suppliers, contractors or consultants. Proper tendering processes, where quotations are sought from several suppliers or bids invited through advertisement are in place for all procurement exceeding certain amounts. Furthermore, Twaweza has developed a system where all its contracts with suppliers, contractors, or consultants are paid based on outputs delivered. Payments are only made after an output analysis has been performed and an assessment on the value of the deliverables. Outputs required for each contract are carefully analysed and reflected into contracts to ensure agreement and clarity on both sides. All these ensure that Twaweza receives the greatest value for money in terms of price, quality and time of delivery at all times.
In addition, and to ensure transparency around financial reporting, Twaweza has implemented a web-based accounting package which is accessible for viewing by all staff across the three countries, with the right to edit/ modify accounting information restricted to finance staff. Access to view the financial information is also granted to key partners such as donors, external auditors and internal audit consultants. The purpose of this is to allow for greater transparency across the organization and enabling staff to become more organizationally aware. In most organizations, finance aspects are the responsibility of a single unit and the rest of the team are not aware of, or involved in, understanding the organization’s expenditure from an overview perspective. Giving viewing rights to all staff in Twaweza means that they can monitor their expenditure, extract key reports on their own, and develop greater awareness of the budgetary and financial aspects of the work that they do.
Twaweza prepares general purpose annual financial statements in accordance with the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The audited financial reports are audited by an internationally reputable firm appointed by the board. Issues arising are addressed and once satisfied the documents are authorized for issue. At this point, the financial statements are shared with donors and other key partners and published on the Twaweza website.
Since 2014 wherever and whenever possible, all financial transactions are handled in a manner that is electronic. The key objective of this is to minimize risk to the organization. Wherever there is cash to be handled, there also exists a potential risk of theft and fraud. However, where strong financial controls are coupled with trust in secure systems, this risk is curtailed. We are working towards having this also be the way in which our partners work with us, and have expanded the use of bank account payments, minimized the use of petty cash payments, and further implemented the use of mobile money.
Audited Accounts: 2022 | 2021 | 2020| 2019| 2018| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010
Policies: Governance and Management | Financial and Administration Regulations | Human Resource Manual | Procurement Policy | Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy | Program Policies