Who We Are
MIDEVA is a social-impact research, design and innovation consultancy collective that works across Africa. We leverage behavioural, human-centered design and community-powered approaches to support teams and organizations to tackle complex challenges so as to create lasting impact.
We’re redefining what’s possible, and building a desired future, powered by research, innovation and community collaboration.
What guides us
Our mission is to unearth and share valuable research, insights and ideas of what is possible.
Our vision is to shape a future where innovation puts people first, and where businesses and communities thrive in sustainable and impactful ways.
What We Do
As a collective, we are powered by collaboration. We apply research, creativity, strategy, design and data to imagine and build products, programs, services, experiences and businesses that address modern-day challenges, and that help people, organizations and societies realize the future in impactful ways.
We help organizations develop deep understanding and insights around their stakeholders, or topics of interest, through various field research techniques. Research may cover areas such as:
- Design and management of venture-building programs
- User and customer research
- Product and service interest or usage research
- Value chain mapping and analysis
- Problem understanding for challenge brief formulation.
- Exploratory and Validation research
With decades of experience working in social innovation across Africa, we support organizations to conceptualize, launch and manage customized innovation programs. In particular, we can support you in the:
- Design and management of incubation programs, accelerator programs and bespoke entrepreneurship programs.
- Design and management of open innovation challenges, ideathons and hackathons
- Design and delivery of learning and facilitated programs
- Research and development of Innovation challenge briefs
- Design and creation of transformational learning programs for your team and stakeholders
- Design and management of venture building programs
Strategy is about making critical decisions under uncertainty and competition, informed by evidence.
- We work with organizations to design and implement ambitious strategies that deliver impact and business goals.
- We support organizations in designing and managing complex projects, aligning stakeholders, carrying out pilots and bringing transformational projects to life.
Leveraging our expertise in behavioural design, human-centered design, data, product and service design, we help translate innovative ideas into viable concepts through prototyping and testing. This can be in the form of digital products, services, experiences and programs.
We empower teams to innovate better products, services, processes and experiences through our tailored workshops. Our workshops are in forms such as:
- Design Sprints: 1 to 2 weeks long programs that bring together diverse teams to define problems, prototype ideas, and test solution concepts
- Design Thinking and Human-centered design workshops (one day to 1 week) – empowering teams to learn and practice human-centered design
- Innovation challenge workshops – these are customized workshops helping teams address specific challenges
We support social enterprises, companies and entrepreneurs in launching new or refining existing products, services and business models.
We test ideas and concepts by leveraging human-centered design, lean and agile methodologies and strategies, helping organizations make business decisions quickly and affordably.
We additionally support organizations to ideate and test new business models to help propel the business forward.
How We Work
Agility, collaboration &
local inspiration
We are agile in our efforts to explore new ways of delivering value-based solutions in our work and emphasize co-creating with partners, and building local and contextualized partnerships with the communities we seek to serve
Human-centered design
is at the core
We leverage the principles of human-centered design (HCD) to guide all of our work. We prioritize understanding broader contexts while building empathy so as to understand the users and other stakeholders of the products and services we create; designing around their needs, desires, aspirations and realities.
Strategy & data for
decision making
We go beyond designing solutions that are desirable to designing and launching initiatives that are feasible and viable. We leverage strategy and data to make informed decisions on how the initiatives will work, and what is needed to make the implementation a reality.
Our Work At A Glance
Research, Co-design, Prototyping, Business Design
How Might we develop viable business models for the provision of Solar Cooling Solutions in the agri-food Value Chain in Western Kenya?
Design Sprint Facilitation, Design Thinking Facilitation
How Might Copia Kenya Product Team leverage Design Thinking to refine their Product Innovation Process?
Design Thinking Facilitation, Course Design, Venture Design Support
How might design thinking help eTrade for Women Digital Entrepreneurs Refine and Scale their Businesses to Accelerate Impact and Achieve SDG Goals?
Design Sprint, Research, Facilitation, Prototyping
How might we better support IRC health teams to generate interventions that would increase the uptake of SRH services among refugee youth in Somalia and Ethiopia?
Research, Innovation Program Design, Program Management, Social Venture Design
How might we better support early-stage social entrepreneurs in East Africa to build viable and scalable impactful businesses?
Research, Initiatives
How might we better support working mothers during their first 6 months of the Exclusive Breastfeeding journey?
Research, Co-creation Workshops
How Might we increase user uptake, engagement and retention for female users on the MESH platform?
Where We Work
As a consultancy, our work is deeply rooted in social impact. We are keen to push boundaries, rethink approaches and co-design interventions that lead to better outcomes economically, socially and for the environment (planet). While our innovative approach can be applied to any sector, the collective is keen to drive innovation and impact in:
- Sustainable Food Systems and Regenerative Agriculture
- Education, Learning and Development
- Health and Wellbeing
- Entrepreneurship & Digital Economy
- Climate & Sustainability
- Care economy and Social Services
- Humanitarian Services
- Sustainable Communities and Cities
Some of our Partners and Clients
Our success is linked to the success of those we serve, so we strive to deliver at every interaction and prove why we’re the right choice.
Meet The Collective
We’re a diverse and creative team of researchers, designers, project managers, and venture builders, passionate about design, innovation, and social impact.
Let’s Work Together
Whether you are looking to bring an idea to life or you are looking to implement a complex impactful project, or you are looking to infuse design and innovation in your work, processes, teams, and projects, or you are looking to design and implement programs and services for innovators, we are here for you.
We help teams and organizations bring ideas to life through research, design and innovation.
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