Services

Technical Assistance

Our services span the spectrum from advice on program approach and strategy through to support for improving specific aspects of program implementation. We offer tailored assistance that helps programs to concretely improve their effectiveness. Our most common technical assistance services include:

  • Advice on program implementation including the choice, design and management of interventions to ensure they are relevant to the context and have significant potential for poverty reduction;

  • Design, operationalization and improvement of monitoring and results measurement systems that both help programs maximize their effectiveness and report credibly to their donors and stakeholders;

  • Backstopping programs in results measurement to help them address challenging issues in a practical and credible way;

  • Technical support to market assessments to ensure that they are effective in informing program design and implementation choices.

Advisory Services

We provide long term advisory services to programs, organizations and donors. Typically, this involves regular advice over a number of years on strategy development either at the organizational or program level, as well as advice on implementation issues jointly identified with the client.

BMZ funded Thai German Programme for Enterprise Competitiveness implemented by GIZ

Training

We offer tailored courses to donors and programs in our areas of expertise. We also offer a limited number of open subscription courses tackling challenging areas of results measurement. Each course helps participants to improve their conceptual understanding and practical skills in ways that can be immediately applied to improve program effectiveness. For more information, see our training page.

USAID funded SEEP Value Program; Mercy Corps in Indonesia

Capacity Building and Mentoring

We offer a variety of capacity building assistance beyond training, including on-the-job guidance and coaching, distance learning, referral to resources and connections to other practitioners and experts working in similar areas. We are innovators in building the capacity of other consultants and consulting firms to enrich and improve the quality and availability of services to donors, programs and organizations. We see our role as working our way out of a job, by ensuring that our clients have the capacity, resources and connections to handle future challenges confidently and effectively.

Knowledge Capture and Management

We provide clients with services in program analysis, identifying lessons learned and synthesizing best practices. Products include case studies, guides and reviews of the field. Our publications and internal documents for clients are known for being practical resources that offer insightful analysis and useful guidance that can be readily applied to a variety of program contexts. As part of our work in monitoring and results measurement, we also assist clients to develop systems and organizational cultures that support learning, evidence-based decision-making and continuous program improvement.

Design

We provide services in design both to donors and to programs and organizations. We ensure that design is based on a careful and thorough understanding of the context and draws on best practices from around the world. We see design as an interactive and iterative process that uses the knowledge and expertise of different stakeholders to arrive at a practical and workable project with the structure to promote coherence and the flexibility to respond to an evolving context.

Australian DFAT funded Cambodia Agricultural Value Chain Programme implemented by Cardno

Review

We offer a variety of review and evaluation services, with a preference for longer-term assignments that allow us to assist clients to use the analysis and lessons generated to improve programming. In addition to overall program reviews, we also provide clients aiming to comply with the DCED Standard for Results Measurement with pre-audit review services.

DCED Standard for Results Measurement Audit

As certified auditors for the DCED, we are available to provide audits of programs according to the DCED Standard for Results Measurement. Please see the DCED website for more information.