Our Principles

The company aims to follow a principled approach as presented in https://www.guilford.com/books/Principles-Focused-Evaluation/Michael-Quinn-Patton/9781462531820

The principles are intended to evolve over time and be used to help guide the company towards coherent decision making. Current company principles are:

• Scalable Impact. This principle is central to the company vision. It pushes thinking to go beyond just finding individual solutions towards understanding how those solutions can be replicated.
  • Viral Scaling. This principle relates to how the company aims to achieve impact at scale. It can be interpreted as focusing on initiatives that have the potential spread naturally.
  • Sustainable Development. This principle touches on the desire for longevity. It forces the company to think beyond any given intervention and to always plan for continued development post-intervention.
  • Capacity Building. This principle defines the heart of company implementation. It manifests itself through the company mentor-ship programme as well as the implementation approach of specific projects.
• Options by Context. This principle is part of core company thinking. It requires context to be considered when proposing options or interventions, in particular it precludes the search for single or blanket solutions.
  • Open by Default. This principle affects both the inputs and output of the company. It implies the need for a justification not to ‘go open’ as the default is to be open. In particular when a valid justification exists then no negative judgement is given to being ‘closed’.
  • Local Innovation. This principle is something the company believe in and wants to support. It can empower communities both for today and the future while enabling interventions to adapt.
  • Continually Evolving. This principle provides a world view for the company. It fights against complacency and stimulates innovation.
• Systems thinking. This principle affects how the company tackles problems. It encourages building an understanding of how any company activity relates to and fits into the bigger picture.
  • All Academic Levels. This principle applies particularly to company education activities. It challenges the company to think beyond a given academic level to the full educational system.
  • Trans Disciplinary. This principle defines the role of subject experts in company activities. It forces subject experts out of their comfort zone by engaging beyond their expertise and discipline.
  • Holistic Interventions. This principle applies to company activities. It leads to an expectation that any interventions consider all angles and implications of implementation.
• Inherently Inclusive. This principle applies to the company ethos. It builds from the founders’ appreciation of diversity and challenges the company to eliminate discrimination in all its forms.
  • Collaborative by nature. This principle forces the company to always look beyond itself. It encourages people to think beyond themselves within the company and about building partnerships for the company.
  • Enabling Opportunity. This principle describes the company’s relationship to its staff. It challenges the company to aim beyond equal opportunity by creating opportunities.
  • Consciously Ethical. This principle represents the company’s conscience. It encourages an effort to be made to think through any decision which has potential ethical implications.