CSDIL Council for Sustainable Development and Impact Lab

One cycle, five steps.

Every assignment runs as one cycle in five steps, and what we learn at the end shapes how we listen at the start of the next.

  1. Community members at a village meeting
    1

    Listen

    We begin with communities, frontline workers and officials, through formative research, consultations and co-creation workshops.

  2. A researcher conducting a household interview
    2

    Understand

    We generate evidence with mixed methods: surveys, qualitative inquiry, process and impact evaluation, and secondary analysis, using frameworks such as the OECD-DAC criteria.

  3. Hand-made posters and cards in Hindi from a co-creation workshop
    3

    Design

    We turn findings into strategies, policy options, behaviour change plans and costed implementation plans that partners can actually use.

  4. Students seated outside a school for a community session
    4

    Deliver

    We work alongside governments and implementers, from urban local bodies to state departments, to put plans into practice.

  5. A facilitator presenting to participants at a training workshop
    5

    Learn and share

    We measure results, document what happened and why, and build the skills of the people who carry the work forward.

Lessons from step 5 feed the next cycle.

A partner can engage us at any single step. The value grows when one team holds the thread from the first conversation to the final lesson.

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