Insights for a better world.
Insights for a better world.
We are a boutique development research agency. We produce deep, grounded insights on development issues, with particular expertise around the ways digitalization, healthcare, and macro level development impact ordinary people.
Our Research Approach
We aspire to provide accurate and thoughtful reflections on ordinary people’s real needs and experiences, amplifying their voices in the development conversation. We specialize in mixed method and qualitative research deeply engaged with the communities we aim to serve and generative in opening up new ways of understanding development problems and imagining solutions.
Our Team
Ekko is led by a team of dedicated researchers with extensive development research experience, particularly in Africa.
Dr. Julie Zollmann
Dr. Julie Zollmann is a social scientist who studies the ways that ordinary people in the Global South interact with a changing world. She is the author of Living on Little (Practical Action 2020), based on the Kenya Financial Diaries study.
Catherine “Cate” Wanjala
Catherine is an experienced research manager with training in anthropology and public policy. Cate has a passion for generating deep insights from qualitative fieldwork and helping policymakers and practitioners better understand the contexts in which they are working.
Current Work
Health, Finance, and Making a Life
Ekko is collaborating with Georgetown University and FSD Kenya on an ambitious financial diaries study focused on healthcare in Kenya. We are tracking and quantifying healthcare costs, the costs of missed care, and the tradeoffs families face in healthcare decision making. Fieldwork spans eight counties and runs through the end of 2026.
Digitalisation and Citizenship
How are new government digitalisation initiatives changing citizens’ experiences of service delivery and their relationship with the state. We’ve been looking at digital ID and increasingly at the role of human intermediaries—like cyber cafes— in enabling access to the digital state.
Digital Livelihoods
How is the way Africans earn a living shifting in the age of smartphones, platforms, and AI? Our team has done extensive research on earnings and quality of work in the platform economy and social commerce. We’re thinking critically about where there are genuine opportunities for improved livelihoods in this shifting world.
Read more about what we’re learning and thinking about by following our Substack, The Development Ekko.
Ideas
