Impact Evaluation & Research Design

Impact Evaluation & Research Design — Profit Logic Consultancy
Impact Evaluation & Research Design

Does your program
actually work?
We find out.

Rigorous evaluation frameworks — experimental and quasi-experimental — that turn field data into credible, decision-ready evidence for donors, governments, and development partners.

“The hardest question in development isn’t what to do — it’s whether what you did made a difference.”

— Dr. Stanley Karanja, Founder

Evidence that earns donor confidence

Millions of dollars flow into development programs every year. But how many can truly demonstrate impact? At Profit Logic Consultancy, impact evaluation is not a box to check at the end of a project — it is the architecture that makes evidence credible, actionable, and fundable.

Drawing on years of field-based research across Sub-Saharan Africa, we combine academic rigour with hands-on implementation experience. We have designed and led evaluations in some of the world’s most demanding donor environments and published our findings in top-tier peer-reviewed journals—evidence of our ability to deliver.

The insight generated through this work now underpins every evaluation delivered through Profit Logic Consultancy—ensuring each project benefits from decades of field-tested methodological expertise.

A framework built for real-world complexity

01

Design Before Data

Every evaluation begins with a rigorous design phase — defining counterfactuals, sampling strategy, identification strategy, and ethical protocols before a single enumerator enters the field.

02

Systems-Level Thinking

Programs don’t operate in isolation. We capture spillovers, gender dynamics, market effects, and institutional factors that narrower evaluations often miss—using integrated analytical frameworks.

03

Decision-Ready Outputs

Findings are communicated not just as academic papers, but as policy briefs, investment cases, and scaling roadmaps — tailored to what donors, governments, and program managers actually need to act.

04

IRB & Ethics Compliance

All evaluation designs meet international ethical standards, with full documentation support for Institutional Review Board (IRB) submissions and data governance frameworks.

05

Digital Data Infrastructure

Standardized digital data collection protocols — SurveyCTO, ODK, SCML — with quality control systems, validation routines, and clean datasets ready for analysis and archival.

06

Capacity & Knowledge Transfer

Evaluations are opportunities to build lasting institutional capacity. Training, mentoring, and co-authorship ensure that your team can independently interpret and build on findings long after project close.

Selected evaluation engagements

These engagements were conducted while working with international agricultural research organisations and universities. The methodological expertise and lessons learned from each assignment are embedded in every evaluation delivered by Profit Logic Consultancy.

Quasi-Experimental
Kenya &
Uganda
IKEA Foundation · R4ICSA-II

Evaluating Climate-Smart Agriculture at Scale: The R4ICSA-II Programme

Co-led the evaluation of the IKEA Foundation-funded Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Rice Initiative for Climate-Smart Agriculture across Kenya and Uganda. The evaluation deployed a quasi-experimental framework combining Difference-in-Differences, propensity score matching, and panel data methods to rigorously assess program impacts on productivity, income, resilience, and CSA adoption among smallholder farmers.

Multi-stakeholder platforms were engaged to identify drivers, risks, and institutional bottlenecks, translating evaluation evidence into actionable scaling roadmaps with clear policy, financing, and investment recommendations for the funder.

Lab-in-the-Field RCT
Rural
Tanzania
NWO-WOTRO · CCAFS

Gender, Investment Decisions, and Labour in Smallholder Households

A key member of the team that designed and supervised a lab-in-the-field randomised controlled experiment examining intra-household gender dynamics in investment and labour allocation among smallholder farmers in rural Tanzania. This pioneering work generated rigorous causal evidence on how gender roles shape agricultural decision-making — filling a critical gap in CSA adoption literature.

The study was presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Economics (ICAE 2021), where it was awarded the Best Paper on Gender Award.

Working Paper Journal Article
Multi-Country Evaluation
11 Countries
Africa & Asia
Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT

Are Risks to Climate-Smart Investment a Red Herring? Evidence from 11 Countries

Led a multi-country financial cost-benefit and impact evaluation examining whether perceived risks and uncertainties actually constrain investment in Climate-Smart innovations across Africa and Asia. Deploying Monte Carlo simulations and ex-ante economic modelling, the study generated quantitative evidence across diverse agro-ecological and socio-economic contexts.

Findings were published in Climate Risk Management and directly inform investment strategy for development programs operating under uncertainty.

Read the Paper
Impact Evaluation
Ethiopia,
Ghana, SSA
USAID · CIAT

Evaluating Climate-Smart Soil Practices: Cost-Benefit Evidence Across Sub-Saharan Africa

Led the design and a multi-country impact evaluation of Climate-Smart soil practices across West and East Africa, combining ex-ante cost-benefit analysis with household-level impact assessments. The work evaluated trade-offs, co-benefits, incentive structures, and conditions for farmer adoption — providing donors with defensible evidence on which practices deliver the highest societal returns.

USAID Report Journal Article Working Paper
Longitudinal Survey
Rwanda &
East Africa
Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT

Rwanda’s Path to Resilience: Evaluating Climate-Smart Agriculture & Risk Management

Led an economic impact evaluation unveiling the economic potential of Climate-Smart Agriculture and risk management strategies in Rwanda, using a combination of household modelling, economic analysis, and impact assessment frameworks.

Read the Paper

Selected peer-reviewed publications

With an h-index of 21, over 2,300 citations, and 34 publications in leading development, economics, and climate journals, the methodological expertise underpinning every evaluation is independently validated by the global research community.

Heliyon · 2022

Cost-Benefit Analysis of prioritized climate adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa

Akinyi, D.P., Ng’ang’a, S.K., et al.
View Publication
Climate Risk Management · 2025

Are risks and uncertainties as constraints to investing in Climate-Smart innovations a red herring? Evidence from 11 countries

Ng’ang’a, S.K., Akinyi, D.P., Girvetz, E.
View Publication
Frontiers in Climate · 2022

Community-based approaches to support the anchoring of climate-smart agriculture in Tanzania

Pamuk, H., van Asseldonk, M., Ng’ang’a, S.K., et al.
View Publication
Climate Services · 2022

Comparative Profitability and Relative Risk of Adopting Climate-Smart Soil Practices — Six Practices in Western Kenya

Mogaka, B.O., Ng’ang’a, S.K., Bett, H.K.
View Publication
Regional Sustainability · 2021

Trade-offs and synergies of climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review

Devinia, P.A., Ng’ang’a, S.K., Girvetz, E.
View Publication
Scientific African · 2025

Rwanda’s Path to Resilience: Unveiling the Economic Potential of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Risk Management Strategies

Ng’ang’a, S.K., Akinyi, D.P., Chirchir, A.C., et al.
View Publication

Award-winning research

ICAE 2021

Best Paper on Gender Award

International Conference of Agricultural Economics — for the interesting lab-in-the-field research on gender and investment decisions in smallholder households in rural Tanzania.

Tropentag 2006 · Bonn

Exceptional Contribution Award

Recognised for exceptional contribution in the use of integrated models in agriculture at the Tropentag International Conference, University of Bonn, Germany.

Research Impact

2,379 Citations · h-index 21

Peer reviewer for 10+ international journals including Climate Change, Environment Development & Sustainability, and Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change.

Ready to build an evaluation that holds up?

Let’s design a framework that generates credible, fundable, decision-ready evidence for your program.

Start a Conversation