Helping programmes learn what works, and act on it.
CSDIL is a not-for-profit company that helps development programmes learn what works and act on it, so that women, children and marginalised communities see lasting change.
Our story
The Council for Sustainable Development and Impact Lab was founded in 2024 by three development professionals, all trained in social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Between us, we have run sanitation programmes in more than 20 cities, evaluated CSR portfolios, helped draft national procedures on child labour, and documented results across 16 states. We kept seeing the same gap: evidence collected but not used, and plans made without listening to the people they serve. CSDIL exists to close that gap.
Our theory of change
If
programmes are designed with communities, grounded in rigorous evidence, and supported through implementation by people with the right skills,
then
governments, funders and implementers make better decisions, spend resources where they work, and adapt faster,
so that
services reach the people who need them most, and behaviour, systems and policies change for the long term.
We contribute at four points in that chain: the evidence, the strategy, the delivery and the learning.
What we value
Rigour with empathy
Sound methods matter, and so does how a respondent feels after an interview.
Community voice first
We start with the people a programme serves.
Useful over impressive
A finding is only worth producing if someone can act on it.
Learning in the open
We share what did not work as readily as what did.
Integrity and independence
We report what the evidence says.