We are

About

Social development is about addressing persistent challenges like poverty reduction, education, healthcare, economic and social disparities, gender equality, and human rights. Through policy reforms and innovation, social development aims to transform social structures and create sustainable change that benefits individuals, communities, and societies.

Capability is committed to forging a global alliance of development experts and organizations, united by a shared vision of solving social development challenges through transformative methodologies.

We co-develop context-specific solutions grounded in local understanding with local organizations to support development organizations across diverse sectors, including democratic governance and decentralisation transformations, community development, education, climate change adaptation, rural development, and evidence-informed policy systems. 

These solutions apply systems thinking, problem-driven political economy analysis, and developmental evaluation as well as gender transformative strategies to help organisations address complex social challenges and implement adaptive initiatives that prioritise the most vulnerable.

Our offerings include

Research and analysis

We partner with local organisations to facilitate and conduct applied political economy analysis. This includes identifying and mapping locally-nominated problems, understanding stakeholder interests and incentives, and assessing how power dynamics influence policy outcomes. These insights help us design with our partners initiatives that are sensitive to the political environment and adapted to the local context.

Change strategies

We facilitate the co-design of programme  strategies that integrate problem-driven iterative adaptation. This collaborative approach helps generate theories of change and portfolios of actions aiming to shift governance systems so that they provide public services and livelihood support to the people in vulnerable situations.

MEL and strategic learning

We partner with local organizations to design and implement tailored monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems, collaborating as strategic learning partners throughout their programme. We combine developmental evaluation principles with sensemaking and group facilitation. By prioritising strategic learning, our MEL systems track progress and provide evidence and insights to guide programme adaptation and improve results.

Our work

WHAT WE ARE DOING

The BRAC Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) operates in seven countries—Rwanda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines—focusing on government-led extreme poverty reduction through the Graduation approach. As part of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team of the UPGI, we manage the Strategic Learning component. Our contributions include designing  and updating the adaptive MEL system of the programme, facilitating strategic discussions with country teams to address challenges in poverty governance using systems thinking and sensemaking, documenting and harvesting outcomes, and supporting strategic decision-making to adapt strategies, approaches, and work plans.

 
Client: BRAC International | Funder: Ted Foundation Audacious Project | Duration: 01/2022- To Date
 

WHAT WE ARE DOING

We conducted a lessons learned review of the three faces of the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) programme, which aims to improve land tenure security for smallholder farmers across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Over its three phases of implementation, MRLG has utilised innovative approaches, such as fostering multi-stakeholder alliances and adapting strategies to complex political contexts. Our role included providing insights into how MRLG’s interventions influenced policy processes, addressed tenure insecurity, adopted and adapted the principles for adaptive development, and supported sustainable reforms. The review aimed to identify critical factors behind MRLG’s successes and challenges, offering lessons for similar programmes globally.

 

Client: Land Equity International | Funder: Swiss Development Cooperation| Duration: 05/2024 – 03/2025

WHAT WE ARE DOING

We led the review and design of MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) processes for the Global Risks and Resilience (GRR) programme at ODI Global. Our work focused on developing tailored systems and processes that enabled the team to systematically document and capture their contributions to policy changes and their influence on risk and resilience policy systems globally. This approach ensured the GRR team could effectively track progress, adapt strategies, and demonstrate their impact in addressing complex, systemic challenges across diverse contexts.

 

Client: ODI Global | Funder: ODI Global | Duration: 08/2024

WHAT WE ARE DOING
As Strategic Learning Expert, we contributed to discussions organized by the Strategic Learning and Evaluation (SLE) team at Fondàtion Botnar, providing expert advice, ideas, and feedback on advancing strategic learning for the foundation. Through this exchange, we contributed to the conceptualisation of a learning support structure that could strengthen learning networks and enhance intra- and inter-organisational learning at the Foundation.
 

Client: Fondàtion Botnar | Duration: 10/2024-02/2025

Full list of projects

About us

Arnaldo and Katja are the founding members of Capability and established the organisation in 2018 to support social development through adaptive development and policy innovations that effectively address locally identified problems.

Arnaldo Pellini

Arnaldo is an experienced  researcher and development practitioner with over two decades of experience in the international development sector. His expertise lies working alongside teams in problem-driven political economy analysis, designing change strategies, and co-designing MEL systems for adaptive management. He has lived and worked for extended periods in Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Arnaldo holds an MPhil in Economic Development from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in Education from the University of Tampere (Finland). His extensive portfolio of publications across academic articles, book chapters, working papers, research briefs, blog posts, and opinion pieces underscores his commitment to promoting evidence-based policy and practice.

Languages spoken: Italian, English, Spanish, and German.

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Katja Pellini

Katja is a technical expert on climate resilience, social forestry and gender, focusing on participatory governance and learning. In her current role at Plan International Finland, she advises the organisation’s development cooperation and humanitarian assistance programme at the intersections of climate change and gender equality, strengthening the capacity of staff and partner organisations on gender transformative climate change adaptation. She has lived and worked for extended periods in Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Katja holds an MSc Ecology degree from the University of Oulu (Finland) and a Master’s degree in degrowth from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). Her commitment to democratic governance and climate justice is showcased by the title of her latest thesis: Plurality as a basis for political action and democratic space in degrowth.

Languages spoken: Finnish and English.

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Associates

Antonio Godoy Pellini

IT Specialist 

Paris, France

Cecilia Luttrell

Sustainability and Policy Consultant

Bath, England, UK

Our partners

Pakistan

SDPI-200

SDPI is a non-profit research organisation based in Islamabad (Pakistan) founded in 1992. The institute conducts research on various issues related to sustainable development, including climate change, water resources, agriculture, health, education, and poverty alleviation. It also provides technical assistance and advisory services to governments, NGOs, and other organisations working in these areas.

Indonesia

Based in Indonesia, the Dala Institute is dedicated to elucidating and identifying durable solutions to contemporary issues at the nexus between nature and society. Dala consists of a team of highly experienced researchers and consultants who understand that
environmental and societal challenges are inseparable. Its core services are social science research, performance and impact evaluations, and technical assistance.

Nepal

FDM is a consulting  company based in Kathmandu (Nepal). Over its past two decades it has conducted a number of assignments pertaining to research, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and institutional development on various social development issues and for a range of international organisations.

Canada

Using Evidence is a research and evaluation consultancy founded by Fred Carden that focuses on development and research evaluation. Using Evidence is concerned not only with high quality research, but in exploring ways to enhance the use of results.

Our clients