Development consulting · Ghana and West Africa
Evidence and strategy for inclusive growth.
NexPAL supports development institutions and businesses with research, monitoring and evaluation, digital data systems, programme design and market-system advisory. Based in Accra and Tamale, we combine technical expertise with local understanding to improve decisions and delivery.
Your data-driven impact partner.
Who we are
A Ghanaian consulting firm built around evidence
NexPAL is a Ghana-based development consulting firm helping institutions and businesses use evidence, strengthen programmes and pursue inclusive growth.
We are a small core team working with specialist associates and experienced enumerator teams. Our offices are in Accra and Tamale, and field operations are run from Tamale, close to most of the work.
For development institutions
Agencies, foundations, NGOs, government bodies, training institutions and international consultancies looking for a capable Ghanaian partner.
- Baselines, evaluations and independent verification for programme reporting
- MEL systems and data systems that institutions can run themselves
- Programme design, results frameworks and policy analysis
- Field data collection at national scale, managed from the north
For businesses
Corporate sustainability teams, agribusinesses, processors, exporters and growing enterprises.
- Measurement and verification for sourcing and sustainability commitments
- Market and value-chain analysis behind an expansion decision
- Enterprise growth strategy and inclusive sourcing models
- Business cases, investment preparation and funding proposals
Selected experience
Who we work with
Assignments delivered for development organisations, corporate sustainability programmes and donor-funded activities, in Ghana and across its agro-ecological zones.
Expertise
Our expertise
Four connected service pillars. Most assignments draw on more than one.
Research, Evaluation and Learning
Baselines, evaluations, independent verification and MEL systems. Quantitative and qualitative studies designed for the question actually being asked, with the limits of each design stated plainly.
What this includes →Digital Data Systems and Analytics
One register instead of scattered spreadsheets. Digital collection tools, quality routines, dashboards and reporting that your own team can run after we leave.
What this includes →Programme Design and Policy Advisory
Programme and institutional design: diagnostics, theories of change, results frameworks, delivery plans and policy analysis in the areas we know well.
What this includes →Market Systems and Enterprise Development
Market and value-chain analysis, enterprise growth strategy, inclusive sourcing, and the investment cases and funding proposals that follow from it.
What this includes →Sectors
Where we focus
Agriculture and Food Systems
Value chains, sourcing, smallholder livelihoods and processing, from shea and sorghum to horticulture and grains. Our deepest and most documented area of work.
Skills and Youth Employment
Technical and vocational training, graduate tracing, labour-market analysis and training-to-work pathways for young people entering the labour market.
Enterprise and Private-Sector Development
Growth strategy, market linkages, investment readiness and the evidence that sits behind a commercial or funding decision.
Our work
Recent work
Verification in progress
Beiersdorf and AAK Ghana
- Challenge
- A five-year shea programme needed an independent account of what is happening in the communities, measured the same way each round.
- Our contribution
- Independent baseline and multi-year verification.
- Value
- The programme has an independent, repeatable measurement line it can report against, and a documented participant frame that makes later rounds comparable.
Phase I complete
WUSC
- Challenge
- Training institutions had no consistent way of knowing what happened to their graduates, and needed an answer they could produce themselves.
- Our contribution
- System design, tools, training and pilot delivery.
- Value
- Two institutions have run a full tracer cycle with their own staff, and the system, tools and training record exist for others to adopt.
Delivered 2024
USAID Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment Activity
- Challenge
- A large farmer survey had to be executed across the programme's zone of influence, to a fixed timetable, in the local language of each district.
- Our contribution
- Enumerator deployment and primary data collection.
- Value
- A national-scale dataset delivered to timetable, with a documented field operation the Activity could account for.
How we work
How assignments are delivered
The method follows the research question. Enumerators are recruited in the districts where the work happens and work in the local language, and quality controls run while collection is still going on.
Insights
Method notes from live assignments
Participation is not people
Why an activity register cannot tell you how many people a programme has reached.
MeasurementDistributed, present, working, used
One adoption indicator, several different measurements, and the gap between them.
SystemsWhat a tracer system needs to survive handover
What has to be in place before a data system outlives the contract that built it.
Have a terms of reference, or still shaping one?
Send the brief and we will come back with the scope, approach, team and deliverables we recommend. If you are still scoping, start with a short conversation.