Studies, surveys, M&E
The problem we solve
Good research depends on what happens in the field, and the field is where most studies go wrong. Instruments are not pre-tested. Research assistants are hired in a hurry and trained in a day. Translations drift. Nobody checks the data until it is too late to fix it. For an investigator based thousands of kilometres away, it is hard to see any of this happening.
Research & Evaluation is our original and largest service line. Since 2016 we have planned, carried out and managed research in Uganda for local and international clients, including the University of California, Santa Barbara, Brigham Young University, the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. We cover the whole research process, from protocol and ethics approval to enumerator training, fieldwork, quality control, analysis and reporting. We know the approvals, the logistics, the communities and the shortcuts that cost you later. Our job is to give you data you can defend.
What we do
Field research
- Household, phone and digital surveys
- Randomised and survey experiments
- Key-informant interviews and focus groups
- Translation into local languages
Monitoring & evaluation
- Baseline and situational assessments
- Midline, endline and impact evaluations
- Retrospective evaluations
- Design of M&E systems
Research support
- Protocol writing; MUREC / REC and UNCST approvals
- Research tool design and testing
- Hiring and training research assistants
- Research audit and quality control
What we do for each client
| Client | Typical services |
|---|---|
| Universities & researchers | Managing fieldwork in Uganda, ethics approvals, data collection and analysis, research mentorship |
| NGOs & CBOs | Feasibility studies, project impact assessments, strategic plan development |
| Businesses | Market surveys, customer tracking, employee satisfaction surveys |
| Government | Data collection and analysis, research systems, capacity building for research teams |
Quality built in
Every field project includes back-checks, audio audits, high-frequency data checks and supervisor spot-checks. Every field team works from a written training manual and protocol. Data collection is encrypted and access is controlled, in line with Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019. For automated daily quality reports, see FieldPulse.
How we work
- Listen. Agree the research question, setting, constraints, scope and budget.
- Design. Protocol, instruments and sample, with ethics and other approvals secured.
- Prepare. Recruit and train the field team, test the tools, set up logistics.
- Deliver. Fieldwork with daily monitoring and quality control.
- Report. Analysis, report and hand-over of clean data and documentation.