The Hague – Development organisations Hivos and SNV have today agreed to join the Twaweza partnership. Twaweza, meaning “we can make it happen” in Swahili, is a ten year initiative aimed at strengthening citizens’ capacities to realise better access to basic services including education, health and water.

The partnership aims to increase access to information related to these basic services in three African countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. As a result, citizens will be better able to openly express to government institutions their views on basic services. Furthermore citizens will be enabled to monitor the quality of basic service delivery themselves.
The Twaweza initiative will target at least ten million ordinary citizens in these countries. Hivos will act as fund manager and will also stimulate innovative use of new media. Capacity builder SNV will strengthen the performance of local actors and ensure improvements in the accountability of public service providers to users.