Governance is at the heart of our work and cuts across all that we do. Good governance principles like participation, transparency and accountability, guide our work. 

‘Governance for empowerment’ is the concept we use to underscore the value we place on gender equity and social inclusion of poor and marginalised groups as the basis of sustainable development.

Governance is also essential in making the choices we make. When working on improvement of basic services our central focus on governance expresses itself in our capacity to work on effective relations between many actors, building accountability and micro-macro linkages.

Governance in production, income & employment is similarly cross-cutting. Here, we work on capacities of individual organisations and especially on multi-actor arrangements in the value chain, accountability, empowerment and broader governance aspects. Accountability is worked at both in direct relations – between producers and traders for example – and also through institutional arrangements (like tourism regulations). Empowerment of poor producers in the chain is a key objective. The ‘inclusive business’ angle is essential; we are in a chain not for the product but to help poor people increase production, employment and income.

Read more on how we help to strengthen local level service delivery and accountability: the case of Bukoba District Council, Tanzania.