What we bring to a public commission
As a registered public-benefit association we have no commercial reason to soften findings, and commissioned research remains scientifically independent. That is what makes an evaluation credible to every party at once.
Evaluations are structured against the six criteria where the commission requires it, with peer review built into the design and the level of claim stated: description, contribution or attribution.
From two evaluators for a focused programme review to the nine-person international team that carried the OECD evaluation across three countries over three years.
Primary research in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, the DRC, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Peru, through associates based in those regions.
Minerals and metals first, then cocoa and other agricultural commodities: conflict minerals, artisanal mining, child and forced labour, and due diligence regulation across jurisdictions.
Most of what we do for public bodies is published. Where a report is the commissioner’s to release, we make the methods available and the data where we hold the rights.
Five kinds of commission
Each starts from a question a public body has to answer, and ends with a defined deliverable.
Did the programme or standard achieve its aims?
Independent evaluation of programmes, standards and policy instruments: quasi-experimental where data allow, contribution analysis where they do not, structured against OECD-DAC criteria and judged from the perspective of the people the intervention is meant to benefit.
How will you know whether it is working?
Monitoring and evaluation frameworks for programmes and guidance: theory of change, indicators with data sources and cadence, protocols, and capacity building for those who will collect the data.
How common is it, and is it changing?
Population-based surveys with probability sampling for phenomena without an administrative baseline: child labour, forced labour, working conditions, community knowledge and attitudes. Sensitive-measurement designs where people are afraid to answer.
Are companies meeting the requirement, and is the law achieving its aim?
Whole-market benchmarks of corporate compliance with a due diligence or disclosure law, giving regulators and legislative reviews the empirical baseline they need. The Commission must review the CSDDD’s effectiveness by 26 July 2031; a baseline built before 2029 gives that review its point of comparison.
What is the scale of the problem, and what would a rule cost?
Models of the scale of hidden phenomena and of the costs and benefits of regulatory options, built to be auditable and updated as data change.
Work with international organisations and public bodies
Mid-term evaluation of the ILO’s global HRDD4DW project
Independent evaluation of the global project on human rights due diligence for decent work. Under way. For the ILO · DI associates
planetGOLD: terminal evaluation
Reducing mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining; fieldwork in the Philippines. Under way. For UNEP
A decade of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance in 3T supply chains
Impact evaluation with difference-in-differences and nine case studies. For the OECD
Evaluation of the ABS Initiative on BioTrade market pathways
OECD-DAC evaluation across Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa and Kenya. For GIZ
Addressing root causes: private sector impacts on child labour outcomes
Systems modelling and 74 practices companies can use against root causes. For UNICEF
Monitoring and evaluation framework for the OECD minerals Guidance
The framework later used for the impact evaluation. For the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct
50 billion euros: Europe’s child labour footprint in 2019
Economic modelling of EU imports associated with child labour. For the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
Cost model of Dodd-Frank Section 1502 compliance
An economic cost projection largely reflected in the SEC’s Final Rule. Submitted to the US SEC · DI associates
Oversight of initiatives against the worst forms of child labour in cocoa
Annual population-based surveys in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana; four reports to the US Congress. For the US Department of Labor · DI associates
Tell us what the review will ask
Send us your terms of reference, or the question behind it, and we will propose a design that can answer it: the evidence available, the team, the timeline and the level of claim the findings will support.