We work with Government to support research, design, engagement and evaluation

Social and Economic Research

Better decisions start with better evidence. We are experts in surfacing evidence and translating it into practical insights, approaches or action.  

We provide robust evidence and analysis to inform complex decisions, combining deep human insight with economic rigour.

  • We assess how policies perform in practice, providing evidence on effectiveness, outcomes, and areas for improvement. 

  • We quantify the economic contribution of projects, programs, or investments, including jobs, value add, and flow-on effects for local and regional economies. 

  • We identify, estimate and compare the full costs and benefits of initiatives to inform investment decisions. 

  • We estimate the value of social and environmental outcomes not captured in markets, making intangible impacts visible and measurable. 

    • We assess how projects and activities affect people and communities, identifying risks, opportunities, and pathways to positive outcomes. 

    • SIAs are a structured process for identifying, analysing, and managing the social impacts of a project, both positive and negative. In Queensland, SIAs are guided by the Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017, providing a clear framework for scope and methodology. 

    • An SIA helps you understand community impacts, strengthen project design, meet regulatory obligations, and manage risk, while supporting meaningful engagement and long term, sustainable outcomes. 

  • We identify and assess actual and potential human rights risks across your operations and value chain, supporting informed action.

  • We evaluate how initiatives deliver value for communities, capturing both tangible and less visible social outcomes.

    • We help you understand and manage how your activities intersect with conflict dynamics, reducing risk and strengthening responsible business practice.  

    • Our Conflict Smart™ approach embeds conflict analysis into decision making, ensuring it goes beyond compliance to inform strategy and investment.

We help organisations understand performance, outcomes, and impact through rigorous evaluation and practical learning approaches.

From frameworks to full evaluations, we surface and interrogate evidence that informs decisions and improves what comes next. 

Evaluation and Learning

  • We support real-time learning in complex and evolving programs, helping you adapt and improve as you go. 

  • We design and deliver robust experimental approaches to test what works, generating high quality evidence on effectiveness. Description text goes here

  • We design MEL frameworks that track performance, support accountability, and enable continuous learning. 

  • We assess completed programs to understand outcomes, impact, and lessons for future design and investment. 

Stakeholder and Community Engagement

Engagement isn’t a tick-the-box activity. It’s about building trust and ownership, leading to better decisions shaped by the people most affected.  

We help you understand, engage, and work with stakeholders and communities in ways that are meaningful, inclusive, and effective. Our approach combines strategic clarity with deep human insight to build trust and inform better decisions. 

Our team is experienced in trauma-informed practice, holds current Blue Card accreditation, and operates to the highest standards of research ethics and safeguarding. 

  • We identify and prioritise stakeholders to ensure engagement is focused, strategic, and effective. 

  • We design and deliver engagement processes that are inclusive, transparent, and grounded in local context. Our experience spans diverse and marginalised communities globally, including Indigenous and remote communities, and we are skilled in engaging hard-to-reach and remote communities. Where appropriate, we apply trauma- informed approaches to ensure engagement is safe, respectful, and responsive.

    • We develop tailored approaches to reach and support vulnerable customers in ways that are accessible, respectful, and effective. 

    • Where relevant, we apply trauma informed practice to ensure engagement is safe, appropriate, and responsive to people’s experiences. 

  • We apply our ALIGN Framework™ to structure engagement that is purposeful, coordinated, and aligned with your objectives.

  • We design and deliver engagement programs that ensures customers can genuinely influence outcomes, with insights transparently captured, analysed, and reflected in decision‑making, in line with regulatory expectations. 

Program Design and Co-Design

Impact is designed, not assumed. We are passionate about helping you build programs and services that drive meaningful change by design. 

We work alongside you to co-design and improve programs, services, and interventions grounded in real human needs. Combining human centred design with strategic and analytical rigour, we translate insight into contextually relevant solutions that are embedded in the real world and owned by the communities they serve.

  • We have a wealth of experience designing donor-funded initiatives and programs. We are committed to designs that are evidence based, contextually grounded, and structured to deliver meaningful outcomes. 

  • Co-design is so much more than collaboration. Having lived in and/or worked with some of the most marginalised and hardest-to-reach communities in the world, we have a rich understanding of what it means to authentically engage communities in an end-to-end design process. We work alongside communities, stakeholders, and users to co-design solutions that are relevant, inclusive and can be ‘owned’ by the community far beyond the scope of our engagement. 

  • Strategic design starts with a clear intent, then using a creative, iterative process to shape something that adds strategic value. We apply design thinking and design-led approaches to complex challenges, helping you shape solutions that align with strategy and deliver impact. 

  • If it doesn’t work for people, it doesn’t work. We place people at the centre of the design process, using ethnographic research to uncover latent needs and iteratively co-design, build and test solutions that respond to real needs and behaviours.