We bring value to development organisations and governments through the design and execution of high quality primary research studies

 

As part of the world’s leading government and social research unit (with over 500 dedicated social researchers in more than 40 countries) the TNS Public Affairs research teams in Africa and the Middle East, is a leader and innovator in the execution of primary research and in the creation and delivery of high quality, action-oriented analysis and evidence-based recommendations. We bring value through methodological professionalism and flawless execution based on our deep knowledge of the local research context. Our experience in the region spans over 40 years of conducting surveys and qualitative research, including in the most challenging of environments. We work across a wide range of methodologies, from in-depth ethnographic studies to large and complex population surveys, and continually invest in methodological research to strengthen our approaches. Our commitment to local capacity building drives our business development; with the majority of our staff from our local country offices, and support inter-team exchanges and training in terms of both policy and investment.

TNS has offices across the region, and our key team leaders for social research projects based in East, West, South and North Africa, and the Middle East. We provide survey research services in nearly all countries in Africa and the Middle East, by working with field-teams of accredited partner organizations, sending in both researchers and field managers in where necessary to oversee training and fieldwork. Our multi-country project management team focuses on complex projects covering more than one country.

Research for Development

TNS provides primary research services for a range of public and private sector development partners, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, but also in parts of the Middle East. We provide high quality survey execution services and qualitative resources throughout the project life-cycle, from formulating successful intervention strategies to evaluating outcomes and impact.

We either become the data collection implementation partners for our clients or we provide a full service project including design and reporting.

Our main areas of focus are

  • Impact assessment and evaluation

  • Large-scale household and business surveys

  • Ethnographic, qualitative and deliberative research

  • Behaviour change and communications

  • Market research for development

Research for government authorities and para-statals

We bring innovation into government research and offer global benchmarking and best practice methods tailored to each individual country.

Within WPP, TNS is a global leader in research for Governments around the world, and we build global teams to answer your research query. Examples of our work around the world can be found at TNS BMRB, TNS Australia, TNS Infratest.

Our key methods in this area are:-

  • Policy and project formative research and impact assessment and evaluation

  • Large-scale household and business surveys

  • Ethnographic, qualitative and deliberative research

  • Behaviour change and communications; As part of the WPP Government and Public sector practice we offer an integrated approach with communications agencies and other Government providers.

  • Citizen and public service satisfaction and quality of life improvement

  • Public sector employee engagement and transformation

Political Research

We survey registered voters to measure voting intentions, develop winning political strategies underpinned by a comprehensive understanding of what drives political behaviors, and delve into the drivers and barriers to democracy.

The type of work we conduct in this area are

  • Electorate market and electorate potentials

  • Political values and political types

  • Political reputation and image research

  • Current political opinion research

When required, we team up with experts in political modeling from our teams in France and Germany, and for strategy execution with other members of our WPP group of companies more broadly.

We apply a number of research methods and tools to the political context such as

  • The TRI*M Party Performance Monitor (PPM) - Measures the reputation of political parties with voters

  • Conversion Model – understands the likelihood to convert from one party to another and the factors that would drive that conversion

Commercial CSR and sustainability programs of commercial companies and foundations

Using our TRI*M sustainability index and a range of other frameworks and tools, we support commercial companies to improve and measure the impact of their CSR and sustainability programmes.

Large-scale and complex household and business surveys

We conduct household and business surveys and large, complex data collection exercises and offer a range of data collection, analytical services and methods including specialist analytics. We have developed robust methods of ensuring quality even in very challenging environments.

Ethnographic, qualitative and deliberative research

Qualitative research connects governments with citizens, development organizations with beneficiaries, and companies with customers and we use it to develop policy and actions, explore the mechanisms through which projects make impact, understand long-term benefits and outcomes, develop appropriate projects, products, communications and interventions and track how attitudes change over time.

Behavior change, social change and communications

Many of the most important social issues in our region relate to behavioral change. We use the latest thinking in behavioural theory and behavioural economics to underpin our holistic, systematic approach. Our methods help clients develop, implement and evaluate behavior change programmes, design effective and efficient services and develop interventions to influence change. Our partner communications agencies are often involved with some of our work in this area.

Our TNS Behaviour Change Institute has been at the forefront of incorporating behavioural theory into research practice at an international level. Below is an example of one of our analytical tools.

We use a combination of research techniques (direct research, ethnography, desk research,social media analysis) to map out all the factors – personal, social and environmental – that might be influencing a particular issue or behaviour.

TNS has worked on behavior change in many areas, including the following:-

  • Hand-washing and broader sanitation related behaviour

  • Neo-natal health

  • Maternal health

  • Adoption of agricultural practices and products

  • Family planning

  • HIV prevention

  • Water conservation

  • Energy

  • Energy conservation

  • Health eating and nutrition

We work with experts from TNS BMRB in the UK in the Behaviour Change Research for Governments.

Policy and project impact assessment and evaluation

We help governments and development organizations develop appropriate policies and projects with responsive and robust evaluation exploring policy implementation (formative evaluation); policy delivery (process evaluation); policy impact (impact assessment); and return on investment (economic analysis).

TNS has developed a framework for our work on evaluations that is rigorous and impartial and brings clear results, utilizing mixed methods and data sources, with conclusions based on clear chain-of-evidence.

Our specific services include:

  • Provision of fieldwork for impact assessments, including selection of control and treatment groups

  • Development of monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks

  • Evaluation

  • Impact assessment

  • Cost benefit analysis

 

Effective Communications

Effective communications is key to successful policymaking and public service delivery. Whether recruiting and motivating public sector staff; moving public services online; persuading citizens to make healthy choices; working towards development goals; or increasing voter turnout, governments and development organizations need to understand and engage citizens.

Communications is one of the key levers in the policy mix alongside regulation and incentives. Communications should therefore be at the heart of the policymaking cycle - from formative research through creative execution to monitoring and evaluation.

TNS helps public sector and donor funded clients develop compelling communications which is based on real insights into the influences on people’s behaviour, both automatic and reflective. We use a tool box both from the development world and tools developed in commercial advertising development and tracking research to provide extensive impact on development and government communications.

This applies to both behavior change and brands in the “social marketing” space/ Focusing in on brands in particular, social marketing organizations can benefit from a deep understanding of the emotional drivers of brands. The TNS tool, Needscope, successfully helps social marketers improve the strength of their brands. For more information click here. Development partners such as Population Services International, have successfully applied Needscope for improved brand positioning.

Being part of the WPP Government and Public Sector practice, TNS works alongside partner WPP agencies in media planning, creative, and digital to ensure the delivery of holistic communications programmes for government and development clients. WPP is a world leader in marketing communications services, with 179,000 employees in 110 countries. WPP includes leading companies in advertising, media investment, social and market research, public relations and public affairs, branding and design, direct and digital marketing and field marketing.

Thus as TNS we can provide world class integrated research and communications services to clients. Some of our work is available on the WPP Public Sector Practice site.

 

Citizen and public service satisfaction and quality of life improvement

We help governments improve services through recommending areas of priority and improvement and tracking the impact. Our Public Sector Improvement Model has been developed to guide this work and we employ a variety of methods to understand and track customer satisfaction including our bespoke TRI*M tool, which enables global benchmarking of performance in citizen satisfaction.

 

Public sector employee engagement and transformation

As part of reform in many countries the understanding of current views, attitudes and behaviors of staff is vital to inform the transformation process. Our employee toolbox consists of a variety of resources to help our clients meet their business objectives and develop effective strategies to change behaviors

Market research for development

We apply cutting edge market research tools for the development and measurement of markets for products and services in the development sector.

  • Our approaches in Innovation and Product Development to the development of successful products. Market research approaches have been successfully applied for example, in the development of appropriate lavatory technology, cook-stoves, solar lighting, products and approaches in the area of MNCH, mobile services for nutrition. Research is used to identify opportunities, create product or service ideas, optimize products, and successfully launch and validate products.

  • TNS runs regular monthly retail audits in a number of countries that measure distribution and sales. These have successfully been used to measure condom sales and sales of commodities, for projects sponsored by USAID.

  • Retail census including GIS mapping is a particular expertise of TNS in Africa, and retail censuses have been used to understand the universe of outlets for planning of retail strategies for family planning methods in Uganda.

  • A household panel, run by TNS for Kantar which is the umbrella organization of the research agencies within WPP, of 1,000 households is currently running in Kenya and Nigeria. This measures use of products at home, and can be applied to the purchase and use of socially marketed or beneficial products. 

How we’ve helped our clients

Cape Town

TNS helps City of Cape Town achieve 7 consecutive years of citizen satisfaction improvements.

The City of Cape Town’s vision of developing a place of opportunity for its citizens by building global competitiveness and reducing poverty is driven by the opinions and views of the citizens to whom they deliver a range of services. In order to make this vision a reality and continue to facilitate the desired quality improvement programme, it has been absolutely vital for them to identify and monitor the needs of the residents and businesses of Cape Town on a regular basis. The end goal of collecting this information is to effect improvements in satisfaction levels with regard to service delivery by the City of Cape Town for two key stakeholder groups – residents and businesses. TNS South Africa has been running this survey of Citizens in Cape Town for over 7 years. The study involves 3 000 face-to-face interviews among residents of Cape Town, and 700 Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews amongst businesses registered within the City of Cape Town, and focus group discussions amongst residents and business owners in Cape Town. The study uses TNS’s TRI*M _PSQ (Public Service Quality) methodology that is tailored to track and diagnose citizen satisfaction, and it has helped the City achieve 7 consecutive years of upward trend in satisfaction among the city’s residents. 

Helping the Governments of Lagos Sate to improve performance

Lagos State is the most populated and commercialized state in Nigeria with an estimated size of over 19 million people. In order to effectively deliver governance to the people of the state, The Lagos State Government sought to realign its policies to deliver enhanced services to the people of the State. TNS has been helping them do this by understanding citizen’s needs through a bi-annual ‘Needs and Expectations Assessment’ survey that first took place in May 2011. In each wave, a representative sample of 4050 residents aged 18 and above, across the 20 Local Government Areas in the city, is conducted using computer assisted personal interviewing. The study examines the level of engagement of the citizens by LGA and demographics and tracks shifts over time to understand the impact of the State Government’s various initiatives. At each wave it seeks to identify further areas for improvement that are then used to inform policy development and strategy, covering governance, health, waste management, education, transportation, security, employment and housing and sub-areas. The core measure for engagement is the TRI*M Public Service Quality index, and in-depth driver analysis is also conducted to identify those areas most impacting on engagement performance.

Helping Lagos State Government transformation programme

The Lagos State Government has been adopting cutting edge processes to improve the quality of service delivery through the state’s civil service, led by the Office of Transformation. As part of an internal transformation process, TNS conducted a consultancy to bring to bear the thoughts and behaviours of employees in performance improvement efforts. TNS research among employees in the Civil Service Commission, Establishment and Training area, Public Service Office, State Treasury Office, The Health Commission, The Ministry of Education, the Office of Physical Planning, the Lands Bureau and the Motor Vehicle Administration Agency. A sample was also conducted among members of the general public and political appointees. A total of 3911 respondents participated in the last wave of the study. The study provides recommendations on how to change employee behaviours through diagnosing the current situation of the Public Service in terms of its attitudes and providing an in-depth understanding of the barriers to change, underlying reasons, history and other factors that form the basis of existing attitudes. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used for data collection. The study utilized the TNS Behaviour Web and behaviour change strategy development approach. 

Innovative public private partnerships for consumers, business and the environment

Public private partnerships for sustainable futures

 

Citizens say they feel under-informed about the impact they can make through these day-to-day decisions particularly in the face of environmental challenges on the scale recently witnessed and read about in the media. All this can result in a sense of disempowerment and inertia setting in, with citizens feeling that the real power and responsibility lie elsewhere – with government and the corporate sector.

This creates challenges for policy makers and government communicators. But in this policy area as in others, there is growing interest in exploring new models of collaboration, where government and the corporate sector come together to drive the desired behaviour change and where behavioural research is helping to unlock how private/public partnerships can invigorate work around the sustainability agenda.     

Last year, the World Economic Forum sponsored a major research programme[2] in collaboration with cross-industry partners to explore how companies can engage consumers to trigger behavioural shifts that enable more sustainable lifestyles whilst creating business value. This work has usefully stimulated further debate on the role of corporates in managing the supply side of the green equation, moving beyond CSR into marketing.

Many global corporates are already actively engaged on this journey, including the likes of Unilever and M&S. Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and their recent campaign ‘Project Sunlight’ are not only driving consumer behaviour change (for example in creating less waste), but are also driving business growth and profit. Key to success is ensuring consumer benefits are not compromised. In the personal care category for example, Unilever applies the principle of ‘choice editing’ to offer deodorants in compressed cans - using 25% less aluminium and 50% of the propellant of larger equivalents – without impacting on the customer experience.