Client Name: Save the Children, India Location: Andhra Pradesh (Nellore), Assam (Dhemaji), Maharashtra (Nashik), and Rajasthan (Dungarpur) Background Context: Save the Children was implementing the SMARTPUR intervention with a gender-sensitive livelihood approach to address the structural barriers for rural communities. The intervention was planned to be implemented in 60 villages in 1 district each in […]
Client Name: American India Foundation (AIF) Location: Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai Background Context: AIF conceptualized the ‘Engage to Empower’ Program focused on creating aspirational career pathways and enabling candidates who lost livelihoods or lives of earning members due to Covid-19. The program specifically prioritizes women, persons with disabilities (PwDs), marginalized youth, and families who lost their earning members […]
Client Name: International Labour Organization (ILO) Location: New Delhi Background Context: Given the significant contribution of natural stone mining to livelihoods and the state economy in Rajasthan and the challenges it continues to face, the ILO has initiated an effort for the sustainable natural stone industry in Rajasthan. The initiative aims at formulating […]
Client Name: Indus Action Background Context: Indus Action (IA) is a “do-tank’’ that works towards securing a social protection safety net for vulnerable families by providing sustainable access to a Portfolio of Welfare Entitlements and Rights (POWER). IA sought to create and strengthen the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) efforts of the organization with the support of an […]
Client: Infrastructure and Leasing Financial Services (ILFS) Location: Rajasthan Background Context: Noore ki Bhurj Panchayat located in Bap Tehsil, Jodhpur District, is in western Rajasthan and part of the extreme-arid region of the state. It is characterized by sparse and scattered habitations, drought and scarcity and a poor state of formal literacy. Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan, a […]
Client: i-Saksham Location: Bihar Background Context: The Saksham Education and Learning Foundation (i-Saksham) initiated a fellowship program to empower females as edu-leaders and leverage education as a medium of change in Munger and Jamui districts in Bihar. In the two-year fellowship program, the edu-leaders underwent educational and personal transformational training and are placed in government schools […]
Development Solutions provides tailored advisory services to clients committed to making a social impact. We engage in cross-sectoral work in areas such as sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, education, gender equality, healthcare, water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), climate change, skilling & livelihoods, child protection and socio-economic inclusion. We focus primarily on MERL+ consulting services: […]
Vranda believes that the only way to achieve a bigger social change is by taking small steps toward it. This motivated her to work in the social sector and contribute her bit by working towards a better future. At Development Solutions, she works as Research Associate and focuses on the end-to-end execution of all project […]
Ravikanth currently works as a Senior Research Associate at DS where he handles end-to-end management of social impact projects which includes monitoring and evaluation, capacity building/training of project personnel, client communication and coordination. Prior to joining DS, Ravi worked as a Capacity building expert at WE Hub (Women Entrepreneurs Hub) – the first state-led Incubator […]
Priyadarshini is a mixed-methods researcher who has recently joined Development Solutions as a Senior Research Associate. Over the past 2 years, she has worked in evaluations spanning the sectors of livelihoods, child protection, education, skilling and entrepreneurship. The evaluation designs she has worked with include summative impact evaluations, evidence synthesis, sequential explanatory designs, and meta-evaluations. […]
Anil Vishwakarma is a senior field associate at DS. He specializes in operations support, administrative support, team support, project management, organization and time management, and training and development experience. He assisted in completing complex projects in the states of Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Punjab. Before joining Development Solutions […]
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For development sector researchers, interactions with people across communities and geographies are an intrinsic component of research studies. It offers us a chance to gain their perspective, understand their needs and inform decisions that could improve their lives. Yet, anyone who has collected data in a development research setting would, at some point, have encountered […]
What is it like to be on the other side of a survey? Dilemmas in data collection For development sector researchers, interactions with people across communities and geographies are an intrinsic component of research studies. It offers us a chance to gain their perspective, understand their needs and inform decisions that could improve their […]
Air pollution is a silent killer. According to the World Health Organization, about 99% of the population breathes in polluted air. For India, this is even worse because India’s 1.4 billion people, which is nearly 100 percent of the population, are exposed to poor quality air. There is no city in India that does not fall […]
Digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in the past- reaching around 50 percent of the developing world’s population in only two decades. India itself has been on a digital-first trajectory for a few years. With recent developments in technology and an increase in smartphone penetration, the way we address issues in the […]
Our Story Development Solutions (DS) was founded by S Ramanathan and Vasudha Chakravarthy in 2014. DS exists for two reasons: To enable informed and grounded decision-making for development, through improved availability, interpretation, and utilization of evidence To enable impact-driven institutions to leverage the power of research and knowledge, strengthen data systems, build team capacity, and […]
The year 2020 has defied all apriori conceptions of normal, changing every aspect of life. Given the recurrent lockdowns, restrictions on travel, social distancing protocols, and the general inhibition to step out in the public realm; almost no sphere of the personal and professional world has remained the same. Social research is among the many […]
While scaling up has always been desired, it has posed challenges. There have been frameworks and guides on scaling up, such as the MSI framework [1] and tools and techniques for practitioners. In India, too, there has been a focus on scaling up, and “implementation pathways [2]” have been suggested. Nonetheless, scaling up poses challenges. A key challenge […]
