Strategic advisory & capacity building

NIRAS offers a comprehensive package of services designed to strengthen strategic planning, adaptive management, organisational development and results-based approaches across a range of contexts. Our work is grounded in a deep understanding of Results-Based Management (RBM), which emphasises analytical, flexible, and learning-oriented management. This approach seeks to maximise development outcomes by continuously learning from both successes and failures, adapting strategies accordingly, and selecting tools and methods that are most appropriate to the needs and capacities of each organisation.

We bring broad and practical experience not only in introducing RBM concepts and tools, but also in coaching organisations and facilitating meaningful learning processes that support RBM application at multiple levels – whether in strategic design, operational planning, or programme implementation. Our facilitation style supports internal reflection, enables collaborative learning, and helps teams to engage confidently with an adaptive management mindset.

Beyond RBM, NIRAS provides targeted services and capacity building in scenario analysis, strategic foresight and strategy review – tools that help organisations better understand emerging trends, draw on evidence, explore alternative futures, and make informed decisions in complex environments. We work closely with clients to co-create theories of change that are dynamic and realistic, clarify assumptions, and enable evidence-based adaptation.

Providing results-based and adaptive management support to Sida’s cooperation partners since 2011

NIRAS is the primary service provider on Sida’s Framework for Results-based management (RBM) and adaptive management (2023-2025) and has been supporting Sida and its cooperation partners since 2011. Our approach is grounded in the belief that results-based and adaptive management should be meaningful, context-responsive, and embedded in everyday work. We support organisations to strengthen their focus on actors and behaviours, build systems that enable learning and adaptation, and use results thinking to guide decision-making – not just reporting.

Our services are always customised to the unique context and priorities of each partner organisation. We offer practical, hands-on support that promotes sustainable integration of results-based approaches into daily routines and long-term ways of working.

Our services include:

  • Assessment of organisational readiness and capacity for results-based and adaptive ways of working, including analysis of institutional incentives, leadership, and systems.
  • Co-creation and integration of methods and routines for planning, monitoring, learning, and adjustment – aligned with the organisation’s values, strategies, and decision-making structures.
  • Support to intervention design, including clarification of theories of change, formulation of outcome-level objectives, analysis of actors and problems, and structured review of proposals or strategies.
  • Facilitation of organisational learning processes, such as reflection workshops, learning reviews, and practical approaches to monitoring change and uncertainty.
  • Tailored training and capacity development, combining foundational RBM concepts with real-case application and peer learning, both digitally and in-person.
  • Coaching and strategic advice to align operational practices with long-term goals, including during shifts in organisational culture, leadership, or external conditions.

NIRAS has provided such support to more than 270 organisations since 2011, including the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS), the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER) at Stockholm University, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), International Media Support (IMS), the Institute for Justice and Reconciliations (IJR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI), and the Centre for Human Rights (CHR).

Strategic consulting to conceptualise, develop, implement and review the “Impact Climate Returns” process

In response to major global trends – climate change, digitalisation, and evolving business dynamics – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG) launched a comprehensive strategic management process to enhance the integration of impact and climate considerations into its business model. We played a central advisory role throughout this transformation, providing strategic sparring, coaching, and consulting from initial planning to implementation. Their support covered both high-level strategic design and operationalisation, including thematic expertise in climate, impact, and diversity, as well as hands-on contributions in project management, governance, and communication. We facilitated over 70 workshops and multiple executive retreats, while also producing key materials to drive internal alignment and stakeholder engagement, thereby supporting DEG in shaping and embedding its new strategy at all organisational levels.

Developing an Impact Framework for the Global Crop Diversity Trust

We were commissioned by GIZ to support the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) in developing a strategic impact framework to better capture and communicate the organisation’s contributions – particularly to strengthen its case with current and potential donors. As a key actor in safeguarding global crop diversity for food security and climate-resilient agriculture, the Crop Trust needed a robust approach to articulate its impact. We led the process by designing an impact roadmap, crafting a tailored framework with tools like a theory of change and relevant indicators, and piloting these with the organisation. Through stakeholder interviews and workshops, we provided strategic guidance on implementation and offered recommendations for maintaining and updating the framework efficiently over time.

Embedding strategic foresight in the meta-analysis of Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs country programmes

The meta-analysis of Finland’s 10 Country Programmes for 2021–2024 was commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Evaluation Unit to the NIRAS-Particip consortium. Covering Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, Somalia, Tanzania, and Ukraine, the meta-analysis aimed to inform future development cooperation planning and assess country-level contributions to broader development results. Rather than evaluating individual interventions, the focus was on synthesising consolidated achievements and facilitating learning through self-assessment and foresight exercises with country teams. The process involved a series of in-depth workshops in each country, integrating scenario analysis to assess sustainability. NIRAS ensured methodological rigour and guided the participatory process, producing validated country reports and an independent synthesis report with strategic findings and recommendations.

Developing an Adaptation and Resilience Investment Platform in Zambia for the African Climate FoundationDeveloping an Adaptation and Resilience Investment Platform in Zambia for the African Climate Foundation

Our country presence in Zambia and our long-standing relationships at the highest levels of Government were critical in the development of our partnership with the African Climate Foundation, which is supporting the development of a new modality for mobilising and deploying finance in Zambia. Together with the Foundation, we developed two important analytical products to guide future strategy. First, a detailed institutional mapping assessed climate change governance mechanisms and used success factors from other country-level climate finance platforms (such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership approach) to provide strategic advice on the way forward for Government ownership of the Africa Research & Innovation Partnership (ARIP). Second, we produced a stocktake of the adaptation finance landscape including an analysis of gaps and opportunities. Alongside this we ran a range of stakeholder consultations and are in the process of negotiating an MoU with the Cabinet Office and supporting the recruitment of an advisor within Government. We are currently developing a process to provide a project preparation and deal support facility to help the Platform in its resource mobilisation efforts.

Training enumerators in the Lake Chad region for the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the World Bank

For this project, NIRAS trained 32 enumerators, 8 supervisors, 3 statisticians, 12 junior and senior researchers (i) to collect quantitative and qualitative data in four countries (Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria), (ii) to support regional knowledge and stabilization policies through evidence-based reports and policy notes, (iii) to foster regional dialogue by establishing a regionally accepted database on economic, security, development, governance and climate change indicators, and (iv) to support the establishment of a regional knowledge hub, accessible to all member-states and relevant organisations. Based on perception surveys conducted with more than 10,000 respondents, including highly vulnerable and conflict-affected communities, and 90 focus groups gathering 1,000 participants in total, in 24 highly volatile border regions of Lake Chad, NIRAS has been able to:

  • Establish a precise, objective and up-to-date comprehensive picture of the situation of communities at local level in peripheral, marginalised and hard-to-reach regions;
  • Support policy dialogues and thinking processes on regional development and/or stabilisation strategies;
  • Support multi-sectoral programming processes designed to assist the return to long-standing stability and community-led development (triple nexus);
  • Nourish political reflection on how to strengthen and deepen regional cooperation between the various Member States and technical and financial partners on common issues.