We support
organizations to make
change happen

We support organizations
to make change happen

Learning and Change is a consultancy company founded in January 2020 to respond to the growing demand to support international organizations wanting to improve their impact and make a difference in the lives of the people they work with.

Learning and Change puts the impact on vulnerable people at the centre of what it does and its work aims to support organizations to make change happen. Its approaches are bottom-up and participatory as it usually works directly with the people and communities targeted by development and humanitarian programmes, making their voice central to the methodologies adopted.

Ultimately, the goal of Learning and Change is to disappear! We support the capacity of international, national and local organizations in a way that will allow them to work without needing external support.

We bring a range of experience that includes programme management, donor liaison, design, set-up and roll-out of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, capacity building of country offices. One of our key areas of expertise is how organizations can ensure and demonstrate that they are Value for Money. We design and operationalize Value for Money frameworks and approaches using standard and innovative methodologies adapted to each organization.

about learning and change

At Learning and Change we believe that:

  • We are pragmatic and hands-on. We work from the perspective of the practitioner who will need to use and implement the frameworks, approaches and tools.

  • People who are being targeted by development or humanitarian programmes hold valuable knowledge about what works and what does not work and their voices should be at the centre of the learning process.

  • Even though the issues we are grappling with are complex, we can still use simple – but not simplistic! – tools.

  • Learning is about understanding how change happens and generating knowledge about what works and what does not.

  • Adaptive management is a useful approach that allows organizations to build on what they have learnt to improve their work and, ultimately, their impact.

  • Any approach needs to be tailored to the specific circumstances in which an organization or programme operates. One size fits all attitudes can be problematic when dealing with intangible change in complex contexts.

Learning and change Francesca D’Emidio

Who We Are

Francesca D’Emidio is the Founder and Director of Learning and Change. Since 2017, she has been supporting INGOs and international development agencies with the development of Value for Money and Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks and is an Associate Trainer for BOND, delivering the training ‘Putting Value for Money into Practice’.

Formerly, she was a Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for ActionAid’s International Secretariat supporting the design and implementation of ActionAid’s Monitoring and Evaluation approach and leading a pilot project on Value for Money funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

She has had experience working in Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, South Sudan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic and remotely supported programmes in a variety of other countries.

She spent most of her early career in Latin America working for a variety organizations including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Save the Children, ACRA and others in Argentina, Dominican Republic and Honduras.

Ioannis Karvelis is a part time Administrative and Communications Officer. He supports Learning and Change’s communication channels, provides advice on design and visuals, produces videos and supports ad hoc administrative tasks. During the assignment for the development of ActionAid Guatemala’s Monitoring and Evaluation System using Outcome Harvesting, he developed two videos addressed to ActionAid’s Guatemala’s local partners to support them with the delivery of Outcome Harvesting workshops. Please see the video here: La Cosecha Comunitaria.

Learning and change Ioannis Karvelis
Learning and change Ioannis Karvelis

Ioannis Karvelis is a part time Administrative and Communications Officer. He supports Learning and Change’s communication channels, provides advice on design and visuals, produces videos and supports ad hoc administrative tasks. During the assignment for the development of ActionAid Guatemala’s Monitoring and Evaluation System using Outcome Harvesting, he developed two videos addressed to ActionAid’s Guatemala’s local partners to support them with the delivery of Outcome Harvesting workshops. Please see the video here: La Cosecha Comunitaria.