We characterize our work as rigorous, honest and, for that reason, controversial. We're many economists, researchers and development practitioners who have worked with clients and agencies and understand the politics of MEAL and development. We think there is space to do good but to do that, one needs to unlearn. We offer a collective experience of having measured, created methodologies, written books, and more for over three hundred development interventions worldwide.
Ask as many questions as you want. We offer unlimited mentoring during all our courses. All our assignments, reading lists and exercises are refreshed and originally re-researched and updated every week. We offer new 'papers' once a week. If you hate your classes, we offer you an unconditional refund immediately. We don't promise better jobs, grades, or outcomes; however, we promise better understanding and a new and informed worldview.
We will teach you history, sociology, law, economics, policy, statistics and art to help you understand the complexities of global development "wholly". We do not limit our subjects to silos and pretend that social problems are simple to solve. We'll teach you to represent your ideas and refine your understanding of the world. We will also teach you to question everything, apply evidence and how to not jump to conclusions.
critical thinking
A new vision
SERVICE PROTOYPING
The best interventions are those that have evidence at the centre. We can teach you how to evaluate the evidence, understand what evidence is sufficient, and prototype service and prep for success.
DESIGN FOR IMPACT
Testing your assumptions, documenting evidence clearly and making sure that impact pathways are explicit are central to designing for maximal impact. It is absolutely vital to understand the social context in which development interventions operate to do any of these. We can show you how.
Testing for scale
Piloting and testing-an-idea are different from operating a welfare programme at scale. What we love more than creating is learning, and in the global development space, scaling is the opportunity to learn. We're always open to new collaborations and exploring new ways and techniques to create and document impact.
All our students are collaborators, for real.
Our Values
Integrity
The vast majority of development programmes lack rigour and impact. We want to teach development organisations how to create broad-based and effective programmes. We are willing to do what it takes to help measure impact, and we can teach you how to benchmark your costs.
We are committed to seeking the truth in development work.
Collaboration
True success in development, like with any complex system, can only come from collaboration. There is no one-size-fits-all solution in development, and we care deeply about right-sizing for impact and cost-effectiveness.
Collaboration and knowledge-sharing is the way we do things.
Complexity
While simple answers are often desirable, they are often wrong. At the centre of what we do is "digging deep".
We believe in embracing complexity, and that learning can only happen outside a comfort zone.