The Collective

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.

Since our establishment in 2019, we have been grounded in ensuring our approaches create innovative, sustainable and impactful solutions for the partners and communities that we serve.

Our members come from diverse fields, backgrounds and nationalities and with unique lived experience. We connect over shared interests, initiatives, passion and desire for impact in Africa. 

Within The Collective, you will meet members with experience and expertise in:

  • Research and Human-Centered Design
  • Product & Service Design
  • Business and Strategy Design 
  • Program Design and Management
  • Project Operations and Management
  • Visual and Communications Design
  • Innovation and Strategy Facilitation
  • Behavioural Design
  • Storytelling
  • Data Science
  • Gender-Lens Design
  • Value Chain Mapping and Analysis
  • Social Behavioral Change
  • Climate Strategy Design

Our expertise bring decades of experience in a variety of sectors such as: 

  • Education and learning
  • Digital economy and transformation
  • Food systems
  • Green energy
  • Public Healthcare
  • Wellbeing and Community
  • Tecnology and Innovation
  • Youth empowerment and employment
  • Sustainable planet and climate change
  • Financial Inclusion

We operate as a Collective of skilled individual consultants (from junior to senior) with domain and sector expertise, and lived experience. We come together as interdisciplinary teams, supported by The Collective leadership, to deliver impact in new and meaningful ways. 

Our consultants live around the globe, with the majority spread across Africa. They bring unique perspectives, thoughtful networks, and passion for creating change, by leveraging their expertise, experience and the power of community and collaboration.

We are a carefully-curated network of consultants, looking to create impact through thoughtful collaboration. The Collective has a core full-time team and distributed consultants.

As a consultant in The Collective, you will:

  • Have access to opportunities and projects that align with your interest, expertise and experience
  • Have access to other consultants and our global community of talent, enabling you collaborate with others for your projects
  • Have the opportunity to collaborate with others to work on Initiatives (projects Initiated by The Collective and its members). The Initiatives are an opportunity for you to deepen your impact, develop and practice skills, build networks and collaborate with communities in unique ways)
  • Receive operational and technical support (through our shared practice) to help you manage your projects and work better, to deliver value to your clients
  • Have access to thought leadership support, learning opportunities, sharing opportunities, and curated events and gatherings
  • Have the opportunity to continuously co-design The Collective, so as to stay true to our vision

Consultants in The Collective bring diverse perspectives to our work, but are aligned with our shared vision.

The Collective is for consultants;

  • Keen to work on social impact projects
  • With experience in our areas of work
  • Keen to collaborate with others in meaningful ways
  • Keen to invest and work collaboratively on initiatives that address pressing challenges in our societies and communities
  • Keen to leverage design and other approaches to bring to life viable, sustainable  and regenerative solutions
  • Keen to give back, mentor, share learnings and experiences with others
  • Keen to have flexibility in their work

Whether you are transitioning careers or jobs, or prefer to work as an individual consultant, or would like to collaborate with others, The Collective is just for you. 

Interested to join The Collective?

Start here. The Collective core team will reach out to you to start the process.

Isaac Jumba

Design Director

Isaac has over 8 years of experience working in the design, social innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa and supporting initiatives around the world. He brings deep expertise in leveraging design & strategy approaches in helping organizations innovate.

Argie Muriuki

Programs Design

Argie is a Food Scientist by profession with over 5 years of experience in designing and delivering programs and technical training to students and young professionals in areas of sustainable food systems, leadership and career development.

Chris Rasugu

Finance Consultant

Chris is a seasoned finance, operational and grants management professional with extensive experience managing international donor-funded programs for close to 20 years. He has supported different start-up companies in managing funded programs within complex.

Ivy Mwambingu Manyasi

Project Leadership

With over 11 years work experience, Ivy is a seasoned management consultant specialising in advisory (tax and business), strategy and shared value, with the aim of achieving global transformational growth and sustainable development by building beneficial inclusivity, resilience and sustaining viability.

She has a knack for identifying gaps in complex, multi-disciplinary business problems and seeking smart solutions, developing, and implementing big ideas into timely, profitable, impactful and sustainable projects by enhancing client and stakeholder relations using data-driven analysis, as well as creating and supporting effective systems, maximising knowledge management, monitoring strategic plan workflows and budgets

Kari Mruz

Strategy & Operations

Kari brings over 10 years of experience working at the intersection of social impact and innovation in Rwanda, the US, Poland, and Kenya. Previously, she was the COO at Nairobi Garage. Kari brings expertise in Operations, Project Management & strategy.

Edwin Njoroge

Product Design

Edwin is an all-rounded product designer with a specialization in graphic design and UI & UX design. He has a passion for education and enjoys sharing knowledge with others through facilitation and organizing community events.

Elizabeth Wangari

User Experience and Product Design Consultant

Liz is a User Experience Designer and Researcher with a demonstrated history of working hand in hand with end-users to delight their experience. She helps businesses align with modern technologies that are best-fit for their Customers and revenue needs.

Stacy Obiero

Programs Associate

Prior to joining Mideva Ventures Lab, Stacy had extended her impact contributions in international development consulting, public finance, communications, education and technology sectors. She has experience designing grant funding policies in Results-based financing projects for both governments and multi-lateral donor organizations. She employed human-centered design methodologies to provide optimal solutions to the main project stakeholders: funders, service providers and social program beneficiaries. Stacy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computing Science from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Dinah Awino Kawino

Green Transition Expert

Dinah is a trained expert in green growth related developments locally, regionally and globally with 6+ years experience working with private companies, individuals , academic institutions. Her focus is supporting MSMEs and organizations with Greening Transition and Capacity building. She has a background in political ecology and environmental community development.

Bernice Nyoike

Innovation Programs Consultant

Bernice is an experienced Innovation Programs consultant who is keen to design and implement programs that invest in women entrepreneurs and social innovators. She has successfully designed and implemented programs across Africa and has served at iHub, Village Capital, and the Merck Accelerator in Nairobi, and Innovation Village in Uganda.

Steven Sungyong Heo

Leadership Advisory

Steven Sungyong Heo is a highly accomplished international development professional and the founder of the non-profit organization Africa Insight. With over 14 years of experience focused exclusively on African regions and international cooperation, he is recognized as a leading expert in civil society organization, global citizenship, and cultural diversity.

Vanessa Mwangale

Advisory

Vanessa is a seasoned Organisational Management expert who has supported fast-growing organizations to achieve sustainable growth through innovation, with 10 years of management experience getting things done and has experience working in the Humanitarian, Social Impact, E-commerce and Education. 

Djemillah Mourade Peerbux

Innovation Programs Consultant

Djemillah Mourade Peerbux has 16 years of experience as a news editor for both radio and television,  a social innovator and a sustainability enthusiast. She created the Wavemakers program  – a series of Social Innovation Skills Labs designed to foster a community of social innovators in Mauritius. She is experienced in designing and facilitating design thinking workshops, HCD programs, Disruptive & Futures Thinking workshops.

Esther Njoki

Ops and Research

Esther has over four years of experience in leading operations and managing finances. She has worked with Africa YES Centre in designing and leading operational structures and processes. She is a founding member of the Africa YES Program. She has also worked in project management through work-study programs with organisations such as ALX (Africa Leadership University), LECB Project, and Azimath Company.

Tessie Waithira

Research Consultant

Tessie Waithira is a Research Consultant based in Nairobi, Kenya, specializing in UX Research, Digital Anthropology, and Technology for Development. Through her research, she aims to provide impactful insights that inform decisions across various products, programs, and strategies for different partners.

 

Her interests lie in projects that focus on digital culture studies, advancing economic opportunities, innovation and technology for development, and utilizing digital media for knowledge dissemination to bring about change. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to identify user needs, extract insights from findings, and discover potential areas for exploration, leading to meaningful solution

Francis Mwangi

UX Research Consultant

Francis Mwangi is a UX Researcher with an interdisciplinary mindset and roughly 7 years of industry experience. Specializing in data collection, analysis, and synthesis, ethnographic research and information architecture, he strives to delivers actionable insights that guide product decisions and ensures seamless user experiences.

 

He is passionate about solving meaningful problems and making people’s lives better with user-centric design.

Elinam Teinor

Innovations Project Manager

Elinam has more than 10 years of experience working in the social impact and sustainable development space in Ghana. She has experience in project management, strategy design, research, analysis, project monitoring and evaluation. She has previously worked on projects across Africa with the UNAIDS, Africa Voices Foundation, Mastercard Foundation and Africa Foresight Group

Sharon Mwehe

Special Projects Associate

Sharon is a dedicated professional with a background in  International Relations. With a strong foundation in project management, communication, and leadership skills. Her commitment to inclusivity, advocacy, and community engagement drives her work.

Grace Muthoni

Communications & Community Engagement

Grace is a communications strategist with a profound bias for storytelling. She has over 5 years of experience in Broadcast media, Public relations, Environmental conservation, and Social and community engagement. 

Her expertise ranges from strategy development and execution to content creation and community engagement. She always seeks ways to simplify, amplify, and advocate for effective communications across the social and interpersonal spectrum.

Titus Gitau Duse

Design Researcher

Titus is a versatile designer with a passion for addressing societal challenges by leveraging creativity, design thinking and innovation to solve pressing societal challenges. With a strong foundation in Architecture and Human Centered Design experience, he brings a unique blend of technical expertise and user-centered approach to problem-solving. His interest lies in the intersection of design, climate resilience, and humanitarian action.

Kavengi Kitonga

Researcher

Kavengi Kitonga is a versatile individual with interests in econometrics, visual arts, data storytelling, machine and deep learning , and the design of artificial intelligence (AI) powered applications.

 

She holds an MA in Economic Policy Management and a Bachelor of Economics. In 2019 (to date), she started her PhD programme in Agricultural Economics under the African Regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Sciences and German Academic Exchange Service scholarship programme based in the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya. Kavengi was selected as a recipient of the Genebank Impacts Fellowship Program of the Crop Trust in 2018, and thereafter a recipient of the Mawazo Fellowship Programme in 2020.

Joy Muli

Design Researcher

Joy excels at championing human-centered design principles to deliver innovative and tangible solutions to real-world problems. She is passionate about social innovation and impact. Her expertise extends to design research, project management, collaboration, and leadership, evident in her successful contributions to projects.

Alice Wangui Nuthu

Design Researcher

Wangui is a versatile professional with a passion for user research design. As a research designer, she conducts user research and applies design thinking principles to create solutions that resonate with users. Her career reflects a blend of administrative acumen and creative problem-solving, all underscored by a strong commitment to continuous learning and professional growth.