For fifteen years, Uwezo Uganda has been at the forefront of conducting citizen-led assessments of foundational learning, gathering critical data on children’s learning outcomes in Uganda. To carry out these assessments, Uwezo partners with grassroots civil society organisations (CSOs) in each district. Various partner organisations at national and sub-national levels have utilised the Uwezo assessment methodology, data and findings to develop programs that enhance learning outcomes as well as evaluate interventions serving the same purpose.

From 7^th to 14^th April 2025, we were privileged to work with our partner in Oyam district—Foundation for Inclusive Community Help (FICH)—as they adapted Uwezo’s tools and methodology to conduct a school-based baseline assessment of learning in four districts: Oyam, Kole, Alebtong, and Arua. The baseline is part of FICH’s Equal Foundations, Empowered Futures project, which aims to enhance educational outcomes in rural communities, with a focus on gender-responsive pedagogy in northern Uganda. Uwezo collaborated closely with FICH to tailor its assessment tools to FICH’s needs, trained 115 assessors from the four districts to use the adapted tool, and closely monitored the assessment process to ensure the collection of high-quality data.

The baseline sample targeted 7,428 children across three classes (Primary 3 to Primary 5), assessing their basic literacy and numeracy skills using Uwezo tools. FICH's overarching goal over the next three years is to:

            1. Improve foundational literacy and numeracy skills for 24,000 children in the four districts

            2. Increase girls’ enrollment and retention in Primary 3 to 5 by 20%

            3. Train 288 teachers in gender-responsive pedagogy, and

            4. Establish 10 girl-friendly spaces.

For more information about Uwezo assessments visit https://uwezouganda.org/publications/reports to access our assessment reports and https://uwezouganda.org/publications/datasets to access our datasets.