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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY

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.

Global network of expertise
Networks of expertise, mobilized worldwide
13+
years of operation
75+
countries of assignment
4
operating offices
5
integrated practice areas
WHO WE ARE

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.

Governments & public sector Development banks & multilaterals Donors & investors
Climate-adaptation aquaculture programme, Peru
SPOTLIGHT

From climate risk to a financed, approved programme.

CGA framed the development problem, structured the economics and built the case that won Climate Adaptation Fund approval for a sustainable trout-aquaculture programme — now under implementation across Junín, Huánuco and Puno. Diagnosis to financing to delivery, on one continuous line.

Approvedby the Climate Adaptation Fund
3 regionsunder implementation today
OUR CORE PROMISE

Think development deeply. Apply that thinking practically. Frame problems honestly. Design solutions clients can implement, finance and sustain.

OUR VALUES

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.

1

Leadership

Courage, vision and integrity that inspire others. We advocate first-best solutions and lead by example.

2

Vision

Seeing the bigger picture — breaking complex problems into manageable pieces and seeing the plan through.

3

Integrity

The highest ethical standards. Everything we do is built on trust — and we guard it so it is never compromised.

4

Teamwork

The best solutions come from different backgrounds coming together — built on relationships and respect.

5

Passion

We've dedicated our careers to equitable development. We believe our work matters — and it shows.

Principled pragmatism

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.

HOW CGA THINKS

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.

Three lenses on every problem

Those who decide

Policy decision-makers

"Who holds the authority, the incentives, and the power to say no?"

Those who deliver

Delivery institutions and systems

"What capacity, systems and resources make this actually doable?"

Those who live it

People affected by policy

"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.

Then we put it to work — and keep learning
THINK

Think through the problem

Thorough analysis, institutional diagnosis and systematic evidence review.

DESIGN

Design feasible interventions

Clear theories of change, risk analysis and bankable project preparation.

SUPPORT

Support implementation

Tools, technical assistance and accompaniment through adaptive problem-solving.

EVALUATE

Evaluate & learn

Objective evaluations and M&E frameworks that measure what matters.

What we learn from evaluation feeds straight back into the next problem — the cycle never really stops.
PRACTICE AREAS

Five integrated practices, working as one team.

Most engagements draw on more than one — the hardest problems rarely respect a single discipline.

Add practice areas under “Practices” in the admin to populate this grid.

BEYOND SILOS

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.

Development
System
Governance & Public Administration
Human Rights, Inclusion & Mobility
Service Delivery & Sustainable Dev.
Private Sector, Trade & Finance
Capital Markets & Regulatory Reform
HOW WE WORK ACROSS ALL FIVE

Three capabilities that run through every engagement.

Not practices in themselves — these are the threads our partners ask for again and again, woven through all of our work.

Capacity Development

We build the skills, tools and routines that remain after we leave — training, mentoring and institutional strengthening so reforms keep running on local capacity, not consultants.

Operations Support

We help get projects ready and keep them moving — from bankable project preparation and procurement to implementation support that turns approved plans into delivery on the ground.

Monitoring & Evaluation

We measure what matters — rigorous M&E frameworks, independent evaluations and evidence that lets clients prove impact, learn fast, and defend results.

WHAT MAKES CGA DIFFERENT

We compete on judgment, not scale or brand recognition.

01

Political economy first

We map who has a stake — beneficiaries, implementers, financiers and those at risk of exclusion — before proposing solutions.

02

Root causes, not symptoms

We examine problems across sectors, institutions, incentives and financing at once — to design solutions that address the source.

03

Full-spectrum impact

Beyond financial cost: political capital, social repercussions, distributional effects and institutional burden on delivery.

04

Client ownership

We structure moments for clients to challenge findings and validate options — because reforms clients shape are reforms they defend.

05

Capacity that remains

We build the skills, instruments and routines that survive the assignment — design without capacity to execute stays on paper.

06

Mentoring & relationships

Senior advisors stay present throughout — building the trust that lets difficult findings be heard and reform take root.

Add team members under “Team” in the admin to populate this section.