We turn people's hopes and ambition into reform outcomes clients can own, finance, and sustain.
A compact international development advisory firm. Small by design, senior by design — built around practitioners who work in the space between policy ambition and delivery.
Small by design. Senior by design. Passionate about development.
Founded in 2013 by international civil servants who had run the programs themselves — and knew exactly where advice tends to stop short.
We use our knowledge, skills and experience to question, sharpen and — when necessary — redefine how development challenges are understood and solved. We are experts in the work that sits between policy ambition and delivery: governance, institutions, rights, inclusion, services, private-sector development, finance and capital markets.
We focus on complex strategic assignments where projects must be technically credible, institutionally feasible, financeable, sustainable and measurable — built around practitioners with, collectively, well over a century of work across the world.
From climate risk to a financed, approved program.
CGA framed the development problem, structured the economics and built the case that won Climate Adaptation Fund approval for a sustainable trout-aquaculture program — now under implementation across Junín, Huánuco and Puno. Diagnosis to financing to delivery, on one continuous line.
Think development deeply. Apply that thinking practically. Frame problems honestly. Design solutions clients can implement, finance and sustain.
Five values at the core of everything we do.
Our values guide every conversation, decision and interaction — among our team and with our clients. Our mission is to share our experience, knowledge and values, and help clients deliver better public services to the citizen.
Leadership
Courage, vision and integrity that inspire others. We advocate first-best solutions and lead by example.
Vision
Seeing the bigger picture — breaking complex problems into manageable pieces and seeing the plan through.
Integrity
The highest ethical standards. Everything we do is built on trust — and we guard it so it is never compromised.
Teamwork
The best solutions come from different backgrounds coming together — built on relationships and respect.
Passion
We've dedicated our careers to equitable development. We believe our work matters — and it shows.
We reject the fashionable in favor of the practical — yet practicality unsupported by sound concepts becomes adhockery. So we anchor every solution in evidence, lessons and the realities of the place.
We start from the problem, not from a template — and keep the thinking practical.
We test every problem from three vantage points at once, because reforms affect people directly and indirectly — and a fix for one group often creates consequences for another.
Those who decide
"Who holds the authority, the incentives, and the power to say no?"
Those who deliver
"What capacity, systems and resources make this actually doable?"
Those who live it
"How will citizens, firms and communities actually experience it?"
A sound recommendation has to reckon with how each group frames the problem and their willingness and ability to act on it — because how decisions get made depends on where people sit. It is useless to ask for something you know will not be delivered.
Think through the problem
Thorough analysis, institutional diagnosis and systematic evidence review.
Design feasible interventions
Clear theories of change, risk analysis and bankable project preparation.
Support implementation
Tools, technical assistance and accompaniment through adaptive problem-solving.
Evaluate & learn
Objective evaluations and M&E frameworks that measure what matters.
Five integrated practices, working as one team.
Most engagements draw on more than one — the hardest problems rarely respect a single discipline.
Public Administration and Governance Reforms
We help governments build the institutions, systems and capacity to govern with transparency, deliver services, and sustain reform long after the assignment ends.
Human Rights, Inclusion & Mobility
We help institutions put people — their rights, their dignity, their inclusion — at the center of policy and programming, from gender and disability to migration and civil-society accountability.
Inclusive Services & Sustainable Development
Development becomes meaningful when people can obtain reliable services, skills and economic opportunity — and when the systems behind them continue to function under pressure.
Private Sector, Trade & Financial Inclusion
Private-sector growth begins when firms can compete, reach markets and finance the next stage.
Capital Markets & Regulatory Reform
We foster the flow of capital from the financial market to the real economy in an efficient, transparent and regulated manner.
Three practices that run across all five.
Generate the evidence, grow the capability, transfer the ownership. Every assignment eventually has to be designed, financed, coordinated and accounted for.
Bankable Projects and Programs
Guidance on how to develop projects and programs, and how to build a quality portfolio.
Explore → 02Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Results frameworks, performance systems and independent evaluation for UN agencies, banks and bilateral donors.
Explore → 03Training and Capability Transfer
Political economy analysis for development bank staff, institutional training, and university partnerships.
Explore →We diagnose systems, not symptoms.
Interventions fail when problems are treated in isolation — a governance reform stalls if it ignores political incentives; a service falters if the people delivering it lack authority or resources. Our five practices aren't silos. They're entry points into one development system, and we understand how the parts interact before recommending how to change them.
System
We compete on judgment, not scale or brand recognition.
Political economy first
We map who has a stake — beneficiaries, implementers, financiers and those at risk of exclusion — before proposing solutions.
Root causes, not symptoms
We examine problems across sectors, institutions, incentives and financing at once — to design solutions that address the source.
Full-spectrum impact
Beyond financial cost: political capital, social repercussions, distributional effects and institutional burden on delivery.
Client ownership
We structure moments for clients to challenge findings and validate options — because reforms clients shape are reforms they defend.
Capacity that remains
We build the skills, instruments and routines that survive the assignment — design without capacity to execute stays on paper.
Mentoring & relationships
Senior advisors stay present throughout — building the trust that lets difficult findings be heard and reform take root.
A compact firm with a wide operational map.
Recent and representative engagements across fragile states, Latin America, MENA and Europe.
Convening and training Latin America's municipalities.
A compact, senior-led team. Our people are our most treasured resource.
Our team carries two kinds of responsibility: leading the firm — its direction, entities and quality — and leading our practices, where the technical work gets done. Several of us do both.
Giulio de Tommaso
Yann Christin
Rodolfo Figallo
R. Todd Andrews
Giulio de Tommaso
Yann Christin
Alexander Danilenko
Hamid Alavi
Veronica Musa
Sonia Sanchez Quintela
