Kantar Public announces leadership of its Development Practice

Following the launch this week of Kantar Public, the new operating brand which unites Kantar’s global expertise in governmental and the public sector, Kantar Public today announces that Melissa Baker, CEO Kantar Public - Africa and Middle East, and Surya AV, CEO Kantar Public - India and South Asia, will be co-Chairs of its newly launched Development Practice

Kantar Public’s Development Practice works across multiple areas of public policy, from maternal & child health, reproductive health, disease eradication, sanitation, agriculture and education. It brings together the best of the global experience and locally tailored approaches to assess the appropriateness, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of social programmes in Africa and South Asia.

In addition, the Practice’s Communications for Development (C4D) expertise encompasses a range of methods that include formative research to inform interventions; operational research to assess impact and cost effectiveness; baseline research and KPI setting; partner and community mapping; pre-testing and piloting campaigns, efficiency and effectiveness modelling; and media monitoring.

The development practice brings together robust social science approaches and commercial private sector research models where appropriate.  Kantar has a strong history of investing in innovative and efficient methods and cost-effective ways of establishing attribution in resource-poor projects.   The practice draws on our strong global investments in technology enabled research to incorporate mobile and other digital methods within the portfolio. Commenting on the launch, Melissa Baker said,

“We are excited by the opportunity this initiative provides us with to continue to invest in high quality research and evaluation experts based in Sub-Saharan Africa, India and other South Asian countries that will deliver deep insights and information to our clients”.

The Development Practice has on-the-ground consultants and researchers in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia and South-East Asia, strengthened by recent appointments in Kenya and India.  A new Director of Evaluation, a head of Survey Methods and multi-country project field specialists, will support the strong focus on methodology and high quality independent evaluation and learning agenda.

Commenting on the launch, AV Surya said,

“The Development Practice helps us bring together our best learnings across countries.  We are delighted to give our clients access to the global pool of knowledge and talent which we are sure will provide best in class service to their data and information needs, as well as create new opportunities for our people to work internationally”.

Kantar Public is a new operating brand which unites Kantar’s global expertise in governmental and the public sector around the world. It works with clients in the fields of public policy, programme implementation and communications to partner in delivering a better public realm. In the Development Practice current clients include the World Bank, World Food Programme, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, UNICEF. The practice operates out of key hubs in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia that provide advisory services, to our country teams. 

Kantar is part of WPP, and for communications related work and evaluation the Development Practice partners extensively with the communications agencies, public relations and branding expertise within WPP, as part of the WPP Government and Public Sector Practice.