Learning is key for social development. Achieving impact requires us to learn from experiences, learn from established sciences, and learn from new applied sciences (like behavioural economics).  Towards this, we bring the following strengths:

• We are a learning organisation with 20+ years of experience. Our sister organisations and our breadth of work provides us a 360 degree view of development.  
• We work with the best in the field – partners and programmes, learning from them.
• We carry our own experiments into our field labs on a range of issues.
• We have collected a number of ideas, models, tools, approaches etc. over time, in a variety of subject areas and cataloged them for use for our partners (in their engagement).

We facilitate organisations and programmes to learn through:

• Designing and operationalising systems for learning and knowledge management
• Action research (design, implement, disseminate)
• Support reflection, documentation and dissemination, using learning lenses
• Synthesis – of research, experiences
• Research and evaluations 
• Assessments – community immersion workshops, audience segmentation & insights, understanding of ecosystem

Some key examples of our work in this area:

• Communication for Development (C4D) is a cross cutting component of UNICEF programs in India. The program is led by the C4D Section in Delhi and has fifteen State programs in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana. UNICEF concluded its current country program cycle (2013-2017) in December 2017. UNICEF partnered with Catalyst Management Services to Identify and document results and learning emerging into a national level results document and development of state level cases for the 15 states.
• Partner in the Learning for Impact (L4I), the knowledge collaborative by USAID India Health office and their implementing partners, is facilitated by Swasti Health Catalyst and Catalyst Management Services, It provides insights and evidence to maximise the health impact of USAID health investments in India.
• Lessons on partnership and alliance building – Lessons learnt from the Market Based Partnerships in Health Programme, funded by USAID. Document distills learning from an insider’s view on how Abt Associates and its partners built, sustained and achieved results through partnerships and alliances.
• Knowledge Series on Family Planning Helplines – A study to assimilate learnings from helplines across the country, focusing on market-based partnerships that are sustainable.
• Understanding the dynamics of the traditional milk market – Used action research methodology to understand the dynamics of traditional milk market and to facilitate actions for strengthening the sector ( for Capitalisation of Livestock Program Experiences in India (CALPI) supported by the Swiss Development Corporation