Creating Meaningful Change
Development consultants specialising in program design, monitoring, evaluation and learning
We are a team of leading social development consultants. Our mission is to strengthen development practices for social justice.
We want your projects to have the greatest economic and social impact and for your team to become engaged, empowered, and inspired.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2000, we are Southern Africa’s leading social development consultancy. Our dynamic team contributes to a just world by strengthening transformative development programmes and processes for social justice.
We hate boring and have no time for stagnant, outdated methods.
That’s why we bring planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (PMEL) to life. We power up planning, magnify monitoring, elevate evaluation, and lighten learning. Our holistic approach creates tangible, impactful change.
Our evaluation work is engaging and meaningful; our training and facilitation are fun and exciting – we help connect people and organisations to their purpose.
Our specialist multi-role consultants are trainers, evaluators, researchers, and facilitators. We prove a deep understanding of the social development field, monitoring and evaluation methodologies, and data collection methods.
Featured Projects
Date: 2024
Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Training Hub
Frontline Aids - United for Prevention (U4P) Program
Date: 2023
Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Training Hub
What we learned as facilitators of Monitoring and Learning processes.
Date: 2023
Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Training Hub
Capacity strengthening for partners of Brot für die Welt (BftW).
See how Southern Hemisphere is making a tangible difference to people, projects , and communities.
Our Services
We provide support for all project activities. Our services aim to help your team make informed decisions at every stage of the project cycle — from situation analysis, project development and design, data gathering and analysis, to insights for learning and improvement.
Evaluation &
Applied Research
You need better insights for greater impact. We are experienced, pragmatic researchers and evaluators. We provide the full spectrum of applied research and evaluation services to assess progress and inform your decision making.
Program Design
& Strategy
Success is driven by vision and careful planning. That’s why we help you design your organisational strategy, and programs that inform strategic decisions and lead to stronger programes and organisations.
Monitoring, Evaluation &
Learning Systems
We partner with you throughout the monitoring, evaluation and learning process. With your team, we co-create the process and systems to measure and describe success through collected data. MEL doesn’t need to be a lonely function.
Training &
Learning Hub
The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning field is continuously advancing and it’s imperative to keep up with the movement, and we’ve got just the tools and skills to help you do that.
Upcoming Training Workshops & Events
TBC
Design Thinking
TBC
Designing and Managing Evaluations
TBC
Outcome Mapping
TBC
Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) for Development Projects
TBC
Introduction à la théorie du changement Webinaire
TBC
Gender transformative evaluations
TBC
Introduction to Report Writing
TBC
Putting Learning back into Monitoring and Evaluation
Types of evaluations we can assist with
Our participatory evaluation process ensures that we design and implement evaluations that meet your and your partners’ needs, inform better decision-making and deliver valuable recommendations to enhance your social impact.
Our participatory approach also supports the capacity building of your team and partners to understand and manage M&E processes better in the future.
Project implementation evaluation
Summative evaluation
Formative evaluation
Impact evaluation
Baseline studies
Our Clients
We are privileged to work with many organisations operating across Africa and beyond. We typically consult for not-for-profit organisations such as the State, NGOs, academic institutions, civil society groups, multi-lateral organisations and donors. We also partner with corporate social responsibility programs and philanthropies. We team up with organisations who share our vision for social justice, and who recognise that stronger programs and MEL systems is the way to get there.
“Great to design research tools with the Steering Committee in charge of overseeing the research. The participatory process ensured that the outcomes of the study were clearly agreed upon. Southern Hemisphere provided open communication throughout the research process. The researchers adapted the report to the needs of the government departments and therefore ensured that the research would be used to guide policy and programmes. It was a true pleasure to work with the Southern Hemisphere team.”
Applied Research Client
“Southern Hemisphere’s experience and knowledge of the subject matter was excellent and clear from the level and depth of technical support provided which resulted in successful finalisation of the strategy.”
Strategic Planning Client
“Southern Hemisphere’s facilitation skills were excellent and allowed for adequate engagement of all stakeholders. The quality of their work and the work ethic is exceptional.”
Monitoring, evaluation and learning systems client
“The process was well managed and care was taken to ensure participation of relevant stakeholders at various levels.”
Evaluation client
“The entire process was very inclusive and numerous stakeholders were included. I worked with Southern Hemisphere on two main projects and would like to highlight the very high quality of their work, their constant professionalism and problem-solving attitude. It is always a pleasure to collaborate with Southern Hemisphere.”
Government of South Africa
“The overall experience was very professional and met our expectations. Southern Hemisphere has a very good knowledge of the subject matter.”
Evaluation client
“The evaluation provides a useful methodology to use to evaluate policy influencing. This can be replicated by teams that may wish to evaluate their influencing work.”
Evaluation client
“I would definitely recommend Southern Hemisphere to colleagues – especially because they are a Southern, women-led evaluation consulting firm.”
Evaluation client
“The evaluation process was participatory. The inception and feedback workshops were important processes. The inception workshop was useful in helping to clarify evaluation scope, expectations and key stakeholders to be included. This is an important step in the process. It gets the organisation on board and serves as a reference. Knowledge of the subject matter may have been difficult but experience and knowledge of the evaluation process was more important and what the process needed. I appreciated the ability to keep the organisation on track.”
Evaluation client
“From inception to finalization of the report, Southern Hemisphere involved all of the stakeholders identified during the inception phase. Southern Hemisphere were professional in their approach and conducted a rigorous and robust analysis that we will happily publicize widely. Thank you team Southern Hemisphere for all of your efforts and providing us with an independent assessment of our Project that will no doubt be highly beneficial in helping us to raise the profile of our work.”
Evaluation client
“I loved Southern Hemisphere’s capability and expertise in facilitating online discussions and consultations for the evaluation and design process. Although the report has an executive summary, 82 pages are still too much for majority of the expected audience. It was great working with you guys, I hope that our paths with cross again in future.”
Evaluation and program design client
“It’s been a real pleasure to work with you as a learning facilitation team. You have been an inspiration to us throughout the last few years and it’s been wonderful to work with such a creative, adaptable and sharp team of people who really get the process of learning (which is so hard to find!).”
Learning facilitation client
“The participative and collaborative nature of Southern Hemisphere’s process enabled learning and comprehension, helping the team to internalise and invest in the process. Tools and resources are now at our disposal to accurately measure return on investment and the change brought about by the work undertaken by the organisation.”
Evaluation client
“The Southern Hemisphere team is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate shifting targets and deadlines. The Southern Hemisphere team became ‘trusted advisors’ and ‘tour guides’ for the duration of the process and project.”
Capacity strengthening partner
“The Southern Hemisphere team was willing to adjust their approach to accommodate team and organisational needs.”
Evaluation client
“Southern Hemisphere took time to understand the organisational context and requirements to ensure the relevance of their process and approach. In addition, Southern Hemisphere has availed themselves to provide future guidance once the organisation’s application of the MERL system kicks off. The Southern Hemisphere consultants come with a wealth of expertise and are able to assimilate to the organisation’s needs.”
Monitoring, evaluation and learning systems client
“It was a very participatory evaluation process – our colleagues from the Country office were patiently taken along the process and empowered to perform data collection. The way in which the consultants kept all of us on track of the process despite the process being stretched over many months was outstanding.”