Health

Khulisa designs and implements a range of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) interventions aimed at improving health outcomes and productivity in the health sector.

Working with over 150 programmes in Africa including health ministries, national AIDS commissions, colleges and universities, donors, NGOs, and community organisations, Khulisa assists in testing and building data quality and standardising data and data management to strengthen health systems. We use M&E tools – particularly Data Quality Assessments (DQAs), Performance Assessments, and Appreciative Inquiry (AI) – to assess health services and the efficiency of health staff and management systems.

The sector has also witnessed a significant shift towards public health evaluations. Since 2012, Khulisa witnessed a substantial increase in health evaluations. We can directly correlate this trend to the increased need for evidence-based decisions and accountability amongst donors.

Khulisa’s M&E work reveals a range of development and organisational management gaps, which may undermine health service delivery if not pointed out and addressed. Recognising the importance of effective data and data management systems, our work therefore equips governments to improve public health service delivery in Africa.

Education

Although education has improved over the last few decades in Africa, the challenges are still immense. Approximately 40% of Africans over the age of 15, and 50% of women above the age of 25 remain illiterate. According to the UN, almost half of African countries may not attain the Millennium Challenge goal of universal primary education by 2015, with nearly 40 million children not attending school.

Early childhood development and secondary/vocational education is, in most countries, inaccessible to the majority of children. Thus, access continues to be a problem, compounded by poor quality provision, and inefficient systems.

From 2009 to 2015, Khulisa assessed more than 2500 primary, secondary and vocational schools in South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Our visits have given us insight into educational access, best practices, data quality and psychosocial the available resources to teachers.

Khulisa entry point into the South African development space has been through education. Our expertise in this field spans 22 years and we utilise numerous methodologies, tailored to suit the type of project, context and within fiscal, political and time constraints.

Agriculture

Africa has enormous potential to address the global food security crisis. Agricultural practice forms the foundation of many African economies. Realising the critical value agriculture plays in Africa, Khulisa has successfully ventured into the sector in 2011 and has ever since been involved in over 20 agriculture projects.

One of these projects is Farmers Voice Radio (FVR) – one of Khulisa’s first implementation projects. It started operations in 2009 and was primed by Khulisa in the project’s fourth year (see www.farmervoice.org). Prior to that, Khulisa provided monitoring and evaluation services to FVR. Using widely-accessible technology for knowledge diffusion, FVR worked with agricultural extension services, radio stations, and other key implementing partners to improve the quality and quantity of agricultural extension information to farmers for greater food security and improved livelihoods.

Youth and Socio-economic Development

According to the African Union, it envisions an integrated African economic, social, cultural and political development agenda by the year 2025. Young people between the age of 15 and 25 represent more than 60% of Africa’s total population and thus play an integral role in the socio-economic development of the continent.

Khulisa’s work in Youth and Socio-economic Development began in 2009, with a focus on financial services ─ most specifically access to financial services. It is a critical and often overlooked component of economic growth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 80% of working age adults are denied access to finance either through absence of opportunity or lack of financial knowledge and skills. This, specifically amongst unemployed youth, remains a major development challenge.

Khulisa’s projects over the past 22 years have supported clients to assess, better understand, and improve on youth development initiatives through various impactful projects. Our skilled team of specialists is capitalising on the rise of ICT and social media in Sub-Saharan Africa. This emerging social phenomenon is empowering younger generations to change economic and socio-political contexts through smart phone technology. In line with this unfolding dynamic, we deploy various innovative technology services in our projects.

Business Intelligence & Data Visualisation

In a global society saturated with data, Business Intelligence and Data Visualisation (BIDV) is a key driver in helping managers use information to make well-informed decisions.

Sectors such as public health rely heavily on BIDV to detect and prevent diseases, plan and manage health programmes, and strengthen health systems. The education sector uses BIDV to track students’ progress, manage school systems, and inform policy decisions.

Over the past decade, Khulisa has played a critical role in supporting the public sector to make sense of the ever-increasing amount of organisational data. Our expertise in dashboard reporting, tracking tools, database design and utilising web-based and mobile phone technologies has positioned Khulisa as experts in using BIDV for development.

The rise of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions is revolutionising the BIDV landscape. In addition, the presence of cell phones is ubiquitous in Africa, and the prevalence of smart devices and faster 3G and HSDPA networks is increasing at a rapid pace. Our teams of experts and consultants are fully equipped to utilise these trends and deploy them to improve data collection and improve organisational systems

Impact Investing

Khulisa works with impact investors and fund managers to create measurable theories of change, performance indicators and targets, and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) strategies. These tools help to rigorously assess the social, environmental, and financial returns of impact investing activities and portfolios. Investments can maximize real positive impact on society and the environment and reduce negative impact while ensuring solid financial returns.

Khulisa’s nearly 30 years’ experience and skills designing and using M&E tools can assist investors/fund managers to measure these impact investing objectives and goals and provide corrective action to increase their impact.  In particular, Khulisa assists the impact funds by:

• setting up the M&E framework and Theory of Change;
• developing the data management systems for routing reporting from investees; and
• conducting third party verification of reported data from investees to determine the accuracy of reported data.