Where our technical depth sits
Eight sectors, each with field experience in the districts and institutions our clients work with. Sector teams are assembled per assignment from our senior specialists and associate pool.
Health and nutrition
Service delivery, community health and access for dispersed populations.
Our health work concentrates on the populations that routine systems miss: island and lakeside settlements, mountain districts, and communities where the nearest facility is a day's travel away. We assess coverage, referral and continuity of care, not just attendance figures.
- Mobile and outreach service delivery assessment
- Community health systems and referral pathways
- Maternal and child health programming
- One Health and disease surveillance reporting
- Health access for dispersed and remote populations
WASH and public infrastructure
Water, sanitation and hygiene programming and small-scale public works.
Assessment and verification of water supply, sanitation and hygiene interventions, and of the small-scale public works (roads, bridges, school repairs) that determine whether services can be reached at all.
- WASH needs assessment and verification
- Hygiene promotion and behaviour change review
- Small-scale infrastructure audit and cost review
- Post-flood and post-disaster WASH recovery
Education and skills
Access, retention and learning quality, including safe return to school.
We examine what actually changes in the classroom (teacher practice, engagement and learning outcomes) alongside the enrolment and retention figures that programmes are usually measured on.
- Access, enrolment and retention studies
- Learning outcome and teacher practice review
- Digital and tablet-supported learning evaluation
- Safe return to school after disruption
- Accelerated learning for out-of-school children
Humanitarian response and recovery
Assessment, targeting and recovery in displacement and disaster contexts.
Rapid assessment where the timeline is short and the data is incomplete, and recovery planning where the caseload is contested. We document the basis for targeting decisions so they can be defended afterwards.
- Rapid and multi-sector needs assessment
- Targeting methodology and beneficiary verification
- Shelter and emergency response review
- Recovery and transition planning
- Displacement and returnee studies
DRR, climate resilience and anticipatory action
Risk analysis, preparedness planning and anticipatory approaches.
- Hazard and vulnerability analysis
- Preparedness and contingency planning
- Anticipatory action trigger design
- Climate resilience programming review
Governance and institutions
Accountability mechanisms and community oversight of services.
- Community score cards and social audit
- Accountability and feedback mechanisms
- Institutional capacity assessment
- Local government service delivery review
Social protection and community development
Targeting and delivery of assistance, including women-centred approaches.
- Targeting and eligibility assessment
- Cash and in-kind assistance review
- Women-centred community development
- Livelihoods and market systems studies
Mental health and psychosocial support
Assessment of psychosocial wellbeing, and evaluation of MHPSS interventions.
A substantial and growing part of our practice: more than 1,200 people have been assessed through MHPSS-related evaluations. We measure wellbeing, distress and protection needs using instruments matched to the population, and report what the evidence supports about whether an intervention worked.
The work is ongoing and delivered remotely, which lets us assemble the right clinical expertise for a case regardless of where the client or the population sits. A multidisciplinary team of psychologists and physicians, led by a senior clinical psychologist and researcher, currently carries out evaluations for organisations in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Case material is confidential and is never used for illustration. That is why this section carries no photography.
- Psychosocial wellbeing and distress assessment
- Independent evaluation of MHPSS interventions
- Instrument selection, translation and adaptation
- Protection and safeguarding needs assessment
- Training and technical support for delivery teams
Assess
Understand needs and context with the population concerned, before any instrument is chosen.
Measure
Collect data using validated instruments, translated and adapted for the context and language.
Analyse
Test findings against the data with a second specialist, and state the limits of what the measures support.
Act
Translate findings into programme decisions, with the recommendation naming who should act on what.
The sector team is built for your assignment
We do not hold a fixed bench and fit your question to it.
Each assignment gets a team assembled from our senior specialists and associate pool, matched to the sector, the country and the language of enumeration. Specialists work on the same assignment concurrently rather than in sequence, so design, fieldwork and analysis stay connected.
Sector specialist
Technical lead for the sector in question.
Methods lead
Design, sampling and analytical integrity.
Field coordinator
Access, logistics, enumerator supervision.
Second reviewer
Independent check on findings before release.
Which sector is your question in?
Tell us the decision you face and we will propose a team and a proportionate method.