Service Portfolios

Our Service Portfolios

We offer consulting, ideation and execution services across 3 inter related domains:

1. Strategic Communication Services
2. Knowledge Production Services
3. Foresight and Innovations Services

Strategic Communication Portfolio

Our Approach to Strategic Communication Services

We approach Strategic Communication from an inquiry and empathy perspective. We are conscious of the rapidly shifting attention economy amidst explosion of information touch points. We support organisations to anchor their communications, messaging, public and stakeholder posture on evidence and insights that correctly captures their audiences/customers. We are bold and unhinged in unpacking internal culture and prevailing social political context that hamstrings strategic communication. Using both systematic research, field work and sentiment mining tools, we deep dive into the enabling and empowering aspects that enable our clients cut through the noise, competition and segmentation of audience attention.

We offer consulting, training and ideation services across:

Strategic Communications

1. Comprehensive services across communication strategy audits and assessments, brand visibility, PR, stakeholder engagement, media relations and marketing campaigns and initiatives.
2. Provision of campaign messaging frameworks and content calendars, tracking exposure to misinformation, coordinated harassment, data‑protection breaches and reputational harm across platforms.
3. Content performance analysis alongside sentiment, toxicity, narrative trends and incident patterns (e.g. brigading, doxxing attempts, impersonation), and generation actionable insights and dashboards that inform both marketing/advocacy decisions and risk‑mitigation strategies.
4. Innovating for clients mobile applications/ API integrations, gaming solutions for customer engagement, real-time updates to queries.
5. Vetting of influencers and creative concepts through a digital‑risk and reputational‑impact lens—screening for past harmful content, mis/disinformation, harassment patterns and privacy concerns—and provide clear conduct guidelines, monitoring and contingency plans for rapid response if digital crises emerge.
6. Continuous monitoring and reporting on brand visibility, PR, stakeholder engagement, media relations and marketing campaigns that integrates conventional metrics with early-warning indicators of digital harm.

Insight‑Led Narrative and Stakeholder Strategy

We turn stakeholder engagement from a compliance exercise into a strategy engine that shapes narrative, positioning and influence. We offer clients;

1. Stakeholder and power Analysis: We are skilled in identifying priority audiences, power players, gatekeepers and mapping their interests, influence, risk profiles and likely counter messaging responses.
2. Narrative and Messaging Design: We develop stakeholder-specific narratives, engagement plans and channel strategies rooted in lived realities and political-economy insights.
3. Deep listening and Ethnography: We have community panels and trained community interlocuters who are experts in facilitating consultations, focus groups, listening sessions that bring “periphery” perspectives into the centre of strategy.
4. Network and Influence Mapping: We curate networks of influence and nodes of concern affecting brands/projects to enable clear mapping of points of resistance and entry points for narrative take over.

Communications Effectiveness, Impact and Learning

We treat communication as an intervention that must be evidenced, tested and refined—not a one-off activity. We support clients with:

• Surveys, interviews, digital analytics and sentiment analysis to understand how messages land across different segments and platforms.
• Pre-campaign and mid-cycle assessments, including comparative benchmarking against peers, competitors and adversarial narratives.

Reputation, Risk and Resilience Communications

We help organisations manage their reputations as strategic assets in environments marked by polarisation, disinformation, regulatory scrutiny and security risks. We run a 24/7 cycle that;

• Monitors brand sentiment and narrative shifts across mainstream media, social media, activist spaces and policy circles.
• Designs playbooks and response protocols for online/offline flare-ups, coordinated attacks, hostile campaigns and sensitive organisational disclosures.
• Implements reputation-building strategies that explicitly consider risk, including how internal culture impacts on public trust.
• Conducts brand perception and reputation audits revealing narrative vulnerabilities and advising on repair and growth of reputational capital over time.

Some of Our Assignments Include:

1. Lake Turkana Wind Power 2026-2028 Communications Strategy
2. Public Private Partnership Directorate- National Treasury Public Relations Support
3. HELB Public Relations Support
4. KNEC Public Relations Support
5. Conservation Alliance Communications Strategy

Knowledge Production Portfolio

Our Approach to Knowledge Production Assignments

We understand African markets, audiences and communities through the various assignments we have undertaken across countries, demographics and unique population groups. Our data, knowledge and evidence-production capabilities provide a systematic, theory-informed and field-tested approach that generates insights and competitive intelligence to clients seeking to de-risk their strategic decisions.

Drawing on anthropology, ethnography, political economy and applied statistics, we design and deliver research assignments that inform strategic communications, organisational strategy, market sizing opportunities, and social impact inquiries. Our teams move fluently from advanced quantitative analysis to long-form qualitative inquiries enabling us to translate complex realities into clear recommendations, scenarios and pathways for change.

Key Offerings;

1. Integrated Primary & Secondary Insight Assignments: We offer end-to-end primary and secondary research programmes that blend ethnography, survey science and advanced desk research into a single coherent insight engine.

Primary research:

• National and multi-country surveys (baselines, midlines, endlines).
• Deep ethnographic immersions, participant observation, diaries and longitudinal storytelling with communities in informal settlements, ASALs, borderlands, refugee settings and other fragile contexts.
• Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and long-term research panels with communities, customers, regulators, activists, investors and frontline staff.
• Semiotic analysis of symbols, slogans, memes and hybrid sound and text messaging to understand how messages are encoded and decoded in different sub-cultures.

Secondary / desk research:

• Structured literature and evidence reviews that synthesise academic, policy and grey literature.
• Competitive and comparator landscape reviews, including cross-country benchmarking and meta-analysis of existing evaluations, monitoring data and regulatory records.

2. Market Feasibility & Opportunity Sizing Studies: We offer market feasibility and opportunity assessments that combine behavioural insight, anthropology and financial realism, with a strong foresight and scenario-planning component. These include;

Feasibility Diagnostics:

• Detailed market sizing and segmentation grounded in both formal and informal economies.
• Ethnographic mapping of usage patterns, informal networks and shadow markets that often determine real uptake in African contexts.
• Price sensitivity, value perception and switching-cost analysis rooted in lived realities rather than notional willingness-to-pay.

Market Evolution Projections:

• Horizon scanning of technological, regulatory, political and cultural shifts likely to reshape markets over a 5–10 year horizon.
• Scenario and “war-gaming” workshops that help teams stress-test strategies under different regulatory, political and information-disorder futures.

4. Customer, Citizen & Stakeholder Experience Measurement: We offer agile Customer and Citizen Experience (CX) measurement frameworks that treat interactions as lived narratives rather than isolated transactions. This allows our design of customer satisfaction, mystery shopping, Net Promoter Score surveys to be different, insightful and functional to client needs. Our proprietary Fluid Design™ CX model;

• Integrates internal performance metrics (service standards, resolution times, escalation logs) with external experience measures (surveys, digital sentiment, ethnographic diaries, mystery shopping) to provide a clear picture of customer experience performance in the organisation.
• Captures “first contact” experiences across physical and digital channels, and reveals missed moments that would have built customer trust, complaint behaviour, advocacy and reduced churn.
• Combines open-text analysis, emotion and sentiment tracking to enrich voice of Customer surveys and map complex customer journeys—e.g. justice users, patients, students, beneficiaries, investors based on anthropological observation and depth interviews.

5. Political Economy, Conflict & Power Analysis Practice: We combine a deep understanding of macro and micro trends to unpack how power, incentives, institutions and narratives shape reform, markets and social outcomes—especially in fragile and contested environments. Our approach to PEA assignments connect policies, economic processes and social outcomes, tailored to various sectors and ecosystems. At the same time, we map formal and informal institutions, identifying gatekeepers, veto players, brokers and potential champions of change.

Key Offerings

Dynamic Power and Incentives Mapping:

• Tracking how relationships, incentives, alliances and risks evolve over time, including feedback loops between state actors, communities, private sector and external partners.
• Updated “realities maps” that show interests, alliances and behaviours of host communities and other actors, and what these shifts imply for beneficiary agency and autonomy.
• Analysis of how other agencies are intervening in the same space and where crowding, duplication or synergy is emerging.

Change Dynamics and Stakeholder Sense-making:

• Monthly or quarterly field-grounded briefings that surface shocks, adaptations, resistance and unintended effects across key stakeholder groups.
• Structured sense-making with staff, partners and community representatives to validate what is changing, what remains stable and why.
• Clear implications and response options, enabling programme, legal and communication teams to adapt strategy, messaging and partnerships in real time.

Past Assignments include:

Foresight & Innovations Portfolio

OUR APPROACH TO FORESIGHT AND INNOVATIONS PORTFOLIO

We support organisations across the Global South to move from reactive project cycles to future-ready, innovation-driven strategies that are resilient to political, economic and climate shocks. Drawing on strategic foresight, systems thinking and outcome harvesting, we help clients see emerging shifts early, test new responses safely, and learn in real time what works, why it works, and how to scale or pivot under shrinking funding envelopes.

Our portfolio blends classic development consulting (programme design, MEL, CSR, partnerships, advocacy) with a distinct Foresight and Innovations lens and responsible AI adoption, enabling governments, NGOs, social enterprises and corporates to align today’s decisions with tomorrow’s opportunities.

Foresight and Innovation Services

1. Strategic Planning and Organisation Futures Ready Blueprints

We help organisations systematically scan their environment, explore plausible futures, and translate insights into actionable choices. From here, organisations can reposition their strategic plans from static documents to living, future-aware roadmaps built on foresight and learning.

Key offerings:

• Foresight-infused strategic plan development and refinement, integrating horizon scanning results, scenario implications and adaptive pathways.
• Strategy stress-testing against multiple futures, including funding contractions, regulatory shifts, political transitions and climate shocks typical to Global South contexts.
• Horizon scanning and trend sensing with a focus on realities across African countries and broader local dynamics, fragile contexts and power dynamics.
• Futures diagnostics to surface leadership assumptions, blind spots and biases underpinning current strategies and investment choices.
• Scenario development (best-case, worst-case, baseline, transformative) for sectors such as governance, climate resilience, digital inclusion, extractives, education and health.
• Strategic options design—identifying “no-regrets” moves, hedging strategies and innovation pathways under different future conditions, including shrinking ODA and evolving philanthropy.

2. Foresight-Driven Programme Design and Implementation

We redesign “Programming Approaches” to foresight-driven, learning-centred interventions that links intended outcomes to current delivery.

Key offerings:

• Participatory futures-informed programme reviews, combining strategic plan refinements, sense-making immersions, participatory reflections, validation forums, and sounding-board sessions.
• Organisation “vision architecture” and programming biographies that map how an organisation’s identity, values and portfolio can evolve over the next 5–10 years under different scenarios.
• Red Teaming/ refinement of Theories of Change, logical frameworks and impact measurement frameworks to ensure they account for uncertainty, shocks, disruptions, non-linear changes and emergent outcomes.
• Beneficiary and stakeholder journey mapping over time, including network mapping, knowledge graphs and “snowballing change” to capture, track and understand micro trends and indirect shifts.
• Design and curation of internal organisation/ sector knowledge forums, intranet spaces and the publication of sector/ thematic reflection papers, playbooks, case studies, and “futures practice notes”.

3. AI‑Enabled Foresight, Communications and Capacity Building

We support leaders and teams to understand, critique and responsibly deploy future-ready communication and consulting capabilities.

Key offerings:

• Futures-thinking and strategic foresight training including practical tools that can be embedded into annual planning and review cycles for NGOs, CBOs, Foundations, Trusts, Political Parties, Professional Associations, Federations, Cooperatives, social enterprises, Faith Based Organisations etc,
• Strategic Advisory to support narrative development, counter malign/disinformation, misinformation and coordinated attacks.
• Technical Support in workflow re-engineering and AI integration for PR Agencies, Consulting Firms and Development Organisations, focusing on tasks such as research synthesis, scenario exploration, knowledge management and insights dashboards.
• Technical Support in developing prototype AI-enabled and technology solutions e.g internal chatbots for policy and programme teams, AI-supported evidence retrieval, agentic Whatsapp channels etc.
• Leadership retreats and board sessions on AI governance, risk, and opportunity in impact-driven organisations, ensuring ethical, inclusive and context-sensitive adoption.

4. Corporate Social Responsibility and Partnerships Strategy Development

We evolve CSR design into a forward-looking “Shared Value Futures” offer that aligns corporate purpose, ESG expectations and community resilience. This is combined with advisory on alliances, partnerships and sponsorship arrangements to ensure clients have 360 view of CSR ecosystem and avoid duplication, redundancy and efforts that are prone to community backlash.

Key offerings:

• Foresight-informed CSR strategy design that anticipates regulatory trends, stakeholder expectations, climate risks and social licence dynamics relevant to local and international realities.
• Ecosystem mapping and foresight-informed partner identification—spotting emerging actors (impact investors, local funds, innovation hubs, civic tech groups) and future-relevant coalitions.
• Fundraising and resource mobilisation strategies designed for a future of blended finance, impact-linked instruments and constrained grant funding.
• Convening and facilitation of collaborative initiatives and collective impact platforms that use shared foresight, data and learning to address complex social challenges.

5. Futures-Informed Advocacy, Movement Building and Policy Influence

We bring foresight and deep context analysis into advocacy and movement building work, helping clients argue not only for what must change now, but also for the futures they want to secure.

Key offerings:

• Futures-anchored advocacy strategy and campaign design that connects present policy demands with long-term societal trajectories e.g Public Interest Litigation, Digital Rights, Security Sector Reforms, Social Protection etc.
• Stakeholder and power-mapping with a time dimension—how political coalitions, interest groups and citizen movements may evolve and what this implies for advocacy windows.
• Preparation of policy briefs and memoranda to parliaments, regional bodies and international forums that incorporate scenarios, risk analysis and options for resilient, future-proof regulation.
• Community-level and Movements participatory futures shaping both current policy debates and long-term visions.

Insert Case Studies of

1. AMREF Study & Community Engagement
2. RELI Strategic Plan
3. ZAF Midline Review