Measuring complex change means handling more qualitative data, more carefully

 

Organisations handling sensitive data and hard-to-measure outcomes often need credible ways to measure impact beyond simple metrics, especially when results are indirect and control is limited. Getting clearer insight usually means working with richer qualitative evidence at scale, which raises the bar for privacy, data minimisation, and defensible analysis.

Data Conscious helps teams generate findings they can stand behind: rigorous evaluation, careful handling of sensitive information, and qualitative outcome analysis designed to hold up to scrutiny.

Typical challenges we help with

  • Sensitive or high-risk data environments (protection incidents, survivor-centered work, security/duty of care cases)

  • Indirect outcomes (behaviour change, norms and IHL, advocacy influence, collective protection results)

  • Evidence that sits across interviews, documents, partner inputs, and monitoring data

  • The need to translate qualitative evidence into clear, decision-ready conclusions without over-claiming

If you’re considering an evaluation or research study, book a call to discuss scope, safeguards, and what “defensible evidence” looks like in your context.

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EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS WORK

IHL Centre

IHL Centre Program External Evaluation. Data Conscious will deliver the independent external evaluation of Diakonia’s International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Centre program, covering implementation from 1 January 2022 to 31 August 2025. The IHL Centre is a Diakonia programme that promotes respect for and implementation of international humanitarian law by providing capacity-building, research, policy engagement, and technical/legal support to humanitarian, diplomatic, media, and civil society actors. The evaluation matters because the Centre is designed to influence behavioral change among key actors in complex humanitarian settings, where results are often indirect and attribution is rarely straightforward. Our work will assess performance against OECD/DAC criteria and test the plausibility of the contribution pathways set out in the program’s Theory of Change, including how the two pillars of work—Protection Response (legal advisory support, rapid analysis, capacity building) and Change Focus Projects (desk-led thematic work)—are being prioritized and translated into observable change. Using a utilization-focused approach grounded in Outcome Harvesting and Process Tracing, we will identify clear statements of what the IHL Centre has achieved for who, where and how, and then identify ways for it to build upon successes and overcome principle challenges in the next strategy cycle.

Protect Aid Workers Consortium

Protect Aid Workers (PAW) Mechanism Mid-Term Evaluation. Data Conscious is conducting the mid-term evaluation of the Protect Aid Workers (PAW) pilot, a rapid-response safety net for humanitarian staff who face critical security incidents or targeted threats because of their work. The evaluation matters because PAW sits at the hinge-point between duty of care and operational continuity: when support is fast, accessible, and trusted, organizations can stabilize after shocks and experienced national and local staff are less likely to drop out. Our work will test how closely PAW is operating as designed (eligibility, partner roles, decision-making, timeliness), who is and is not reaching the mechanism, and what bottlenecks or equity gaps need fixing before the next funding cycle. Using document and monitoring-data review, interviews, a partner survey, and case-based deep dives, we will produce clear, practical recommendations to strengthen delivery, learning loops, and scale-up options.

Norwegian Refugee Council

Research Mapping. Data Conscious Ltd is supporting the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Global MEAL Unit to map the humanitarian research landscape and assess the feasibility of new research partnerships and funding opportunities. The study explores how NRC can strengthen evidence on displacement, protection, and long-term programme outcomes through collaboration with academic and applied research institutions. By analysing funding flows, partner networks and ethical research standards, this project will help NRC identify priority areas for investment and position its programmes at the forefront of humanitarian research and innovation.

InterAction

Training & Workshops. The rollout included a global online webinar followed by targeted country-specific workshops. This included a one-week workshop with the Venezuelan Humanitarian Country Team to design theories of change and measurement tools for priority protection risks; followed by two one-day workshops in Colombia — one with an INGO partner working with local religious leaders to reduce risks from non‐state armed actors, and another with the Colombia Flagship Initiative covering a range of protection risks present across the country.

IASC Centrality of Protection TaskForce

Measurement Framework. Data Conscious partnered with InterAction to design the Centrality of Protection Measurement Framework – a practical, risk-based approach to assessing how humanitarian actors contribute to reducing protection risks. Rooted in results-based protection principles, the framework provides tools to develop proxy indicators linked to the core components of protection risk — threat, vulnerability and capacity — and offers qualitative tools for data collection, coding and analysis. These resources enable Humanitarian Country Teams and protection clusters to measure collective outcomes and demonstrate how their strategies, partnerships and advocacy efforts reduce risks for affected populations at country level.

RedR

External Evaluation. Data Conscious conducted an independent external evaluation of RedR UK’s 2023–2024 Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (CCADRR) program. The program supported local and national actors in climate-vulnerable countries to embed climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction approaches, ultimately contributing to greater community resilience. The evaluation assessed the project’s outcomes, the effectiveness of its internal monitoring and evaluation systems, and the revised delivery model, with particular focus on the impact of newly introduced components such as face-to-face trainings and coaching schemes. Drawing on analysis of these areas, Data Conscious outlined key findings and targeted recommendations to inform future iterations of the program.

IOM

External Evaluation. Data Conscious, in collaboration with MerlTech, conducted an evaluation of the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Migration Data Strategy. The evaluation focuses on assessing the strategy’s influence on IOM’s migration data activities and its role in articulating and positioning migration data work with external partners. It also examines the effectiveness of efforts to build internal and external coherence in data management, as well as the strategy’s impact and sustainability. The findings provided critical insights to inform the policy framework for IOM’s migration data initiatives beyond 2025.

InterAction

Training & Workshops. Data Conscious worked with InterAction to design and run a Theory of Change workshop in Mogadishu, Somalia. The workshop brought together local and international NGOs and UN agencies providing humanitarian protection across Somalia. It built off action-based research conducted by InterAction, which identified food-security linked protection risks among community members in Abudwak, Jowhar and Las’anood regions. Data Conscious provided a trainer to co-develop grounded protection risk analyses for each region and develop six independent theories of change for holistic community-based protection activities across all three regions.

The H2H Network

External Evaluation. Data Conscious provided case study evaluations of the H2H Network’s activations across four separate crises: the 2022 Horn of Africa drought, the 2022 Pakistan floods, the 2023 Türkiye/Syria earthquake, and the 2023 conflict escalation in Sudan. In each case, Data Conscious conducted a literature review of internal and external documentation relating to the crisis context and the H2H member responses, interviewed key informants involved in delivering H2H’s activities, and spoke with end-users of H2H products and services in the wider humanitarian system. The case studies highlighted the effects of H2H’s work on the international and local response to each crisis, including gaps filled and areas for further work.

InterAction

Theory of Change Workshops. Data Conscious worked with InterAction to design and run a Theory of Change workshop in Niger. The workshop brought together local and international NGOs and UN agencies providing humanitarian protection across Niger. It built off action-based research conducted by the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex, which identified food-security linked protection risks among community members in Tillaberi, Maradi and Diffa regions. Data Conscious provided a trainer to co-develop grounded protection risk analyses for each region and develop six independent theories of change for holistic community-based protection activities across all three regions.

International Committee of the red cross

Measurement Framework. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has contracted Data Conscious to design a bespoke monitoring and evaluation system for a multi-year, multi-country sexual violence prevention enhancement project. The project aims to enhance the planning, outcomes-based approaches and evaluation of ICRC’s existing work to prevent sexual violence in conflict. It will test two models of action across multiple contexts and over a three-year time period. The first model deploys a community-based participatory approach, to increase community capacity to prevent sexual violence from occuring. The second model involves multi-year engagement with arms carriers to prevent sexual violence through changes in knowledge, attitude and practice. Data Conscious will provide a global theory of change, project milestones and roll-out plans for both project models, as well as a package of tools for monitoring and evaluating what works to prevent sexual violence in conflict. The contract will be delivered between December 2021 and April 2022. 

Danish Refugee Council

Monitoring & Evaluation Guidance. Data Conscious has been contracted by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) to provide guidance on the use of monitoring data to evidence progress against its global results framework. The project will help Country Office teams to connect data on the numbers of people reached with DRC services, to country-level outcome indicators, in line with the nine outcome areas of DRC’s results framework.  Activities will include review and extraction of good practice from other organisations, identification of the most suitable approach for DRC’s country-office contexts, and the drafting of concise and practical guidance for country office to consistently follow this approach in their results planning and the review of annual results. The contract will be delivered between December 2021 and January 2022. 

InterAction

Training & Workshops. Data Conscious has been contracted by InterAction to provide M&E training and coaching services for member organisations in the fields of protection and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention in humanitarian contexts. Services provided include direct coaching to InterAction member organisations on the M&E of protection and GBV outcomes, delivery of training and workshops to field practitioners, input to methods and tools used to measure protection and GBV prevention outcomes. The contract is operated on a call-down basis, and runs from October 2021 to the present.

InterAction

Measurement Framework. Data Conscious has been contracted by InterAction to design an evaluation framework for gender-based violence prevention activities, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The framework is being developed by a team of four consultants using human-centered design principles and complexity-sensitive evaluation tools, with the aim of encouraging the adoption of outcomes-based design in the prevention of gender-based violence in crisis contexts. The contract runs from June 2020 until March 2021, with the final evaluation framework being shared with partners at a workshop in Washington, D.C.