We help create social change that lasts

Our highly regarded consultancy provides acclaimed design and evaluation services to the Australian aid program, international development partners and local organisations

Design

Successful programs start with a good design. We work with you and your partners to create award-winning designs and strategies, built on local ideas and ownership and grounded in best practice.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Our team of world-class specialists design and implement monitoring and evaluation tailored to your needs. Our work is informed by a deep understanding of theory and what works in practice. We build on what is valued locally and work to be genuinely inclusive. We produce timely evidence to support good decisions.

Learning & Development

We work across all levels of an organisation to build the culture and capability to value and use evidence to support good management. We provide direct mentoring and training to staff, helpdesks and clinics for timely support and trusted advisors at the senior leadership level to offer analysis and strategic advice.

Selected Work

DESIGN

We led the design of DFAT’s gender flagship program in Indonesia—MAMPU, an eight-year, $120M program supporting coalitions of women to work politically to achieve change. Within the sector, it’s regarded as one of DFAT’s most successful programs and featured as the best practice example in DFAT’s guidance on advanced localisation.

We led the design of Disaster READY, DFAT’s $50M disaster preparedness program in the Pacific. The design brought together coalitions of NGOs across five countries and won a DFAT award for disability inclusion.

We worked with a wide range of DFAT stakeholders to develop a strategy to integrate climate change considerations across the aid program, following our earlier work on DFAT’s initial climate partnership design for the Pacific.

MONITORING & EVALUATION

Since 2019, we have analysed DFAT’s performance and quality system by validating the final reports for all aid investments over $3M. Our independent validation is used in DFAT’s accountability reporting to the Australian Senate.

We lead an ongoing series of After Action Reviews for DFAT’s Humanitarian Branch reviewing joint departmental responses to disasters and assessing what worked and what could be further improved.

We provide M&E technical services to DFAT’s Office of the Pacific through the Pacific Recovery Economic Support Program, supporting improved practices in the aviation sector, budget support and other investments.

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

We work with DFAT to deliver the agency’s design and M&E training through quarterly Aid Management Training. In this strategic role, we help strengthen the department’s ability to manage design, monitoring and evaluation of aid investments.

We produce annual themed learning papers for DFAT based on our extensive review of documentation while validating DFAT’s final investment monitoring reports. Our papers respond to current needs in the department, producing evidence informed recommendations. Our presentation of findings through workshops and brownbag sessions are highly valued within DFAT, often informing subsequent policy and programming.

We provide timely M&E technical advice through help desks, M&E clinics and rapid review supporting the work of DFAT’s humanitarian branch and the Office of the Pacific.

About Bluebird

Bluebird was founded in 2007 by Jess Kenway, a multi award-winning M&E specialist with over 20 years’ experience across Australia, Oceania, South-East Asia, and Africa.

She has twice won the Australasian Evaluation Society's Award for Excellence in Evaluation. Two of her program designs include DFAT’s highly regarded flagship Indonesian gender equality program MAMPU and award-winning Disaster READY disaster preparedness program in the Pacific. She was asked to contribute to a Development Intelligence Lab series on how to strengthen evaluation practices within DFAT as interest and demand for evaluation increases.

Her team of world-class consultants hail from Australia and abroad. They have worked in virtually every development sector and context.

Bluebird’s approach is to take on a select number of consultancies each year and to deliver these to an exceptionally high standard. We ensure all of our products and processes are highly engaging, and meticulously produced.

We value opportunities to work with organisations and teams over the longer term to support the use of evidence and learning throughout the management cycle.

Since 2012, Bluebird has held a Standing Offer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for Design, Research and Monitoring and Evaluation. Bluebird is also an approved consultancy on the Management Advisory Services Panel with the Australian Government.

Bluebird Associates

  • Dr Farida Fleming is an evaluator with over 25 years of experience in international development sectors such as agriculture, education, gender equality, health and disaster and humanitarian preparedness and response. She provides high level monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) technical advisory services and is an experienced team leader and advisor. Farida’s strong cross-cultural, training, facilitation and reporting skills underpin her technical qualifications and experience.

  • Kari has twenty-five years’ experience working with for-purpose, public sector and international development agencies to design, monitor and evaluate social change programs. She is passionate about using performance information to improve social change programs and presenting complex ideas in simple ways.

  • Sara Webb specialises in program monitoring, evaluation and learning, program design, and supporting organisational governance. She works in international development, social enterprise and community organisations, both domestically and internationally. Sara is the director of Duniya Consulting.

  • Kate is an independent monitoring and evaluation specialist with experience in development program design and performance management. She has worked in both humanitarian and development contexts, and is adept at working with multi-disciplinary teams across various cultures. Kate holds postgraduate qualifications in evaluation and international relations.

  • Dr Maya Cordeiro is an independent researcher and evaluator with over 20 years’ experience in international development, including grassroots experience in South Asia and design, monitoring, evaluation and GEDSI assignments across the Pacific and Timor-Leste. Her focus areas include: participatory action research, gender and feminist analysis, outcome measurement, M&E capacity building and the development of monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches for complex programs.

  • Jo is passionate about finding practical ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of development interventions. Her extensive experience in international development includes working for the former Office of Development Effectiveness in DFAT and AusAID for seven years. Since 2014, Jo has worked on leading evaluations, evaluation syntheses, more useful monitoring systems, quality reviews, training and promoting gender equality.

  • Doug Elsey is an independent researcher and evaluator with formal training in critical social and political theory. He has over 10 years’ experience in qualitative research and MEL projects in international development, particularly programme and multi-country evaluations and donor/portfolio reviews. His key areas of focus include gender equality, feminist and social inclusion analyses, governance, political economy/situational analysis, and the use of digital technologies in development aid.

  • Ronnie MacPherson specialises in the monitoring and evaluation of climate change, low carbon development and clean energy focused policies and programmes. He works with a variety of organisations and cultures, ranging from national governments to UN agencies to small voluntary groups. Ronnie is the director and founder of the Greenstate consultancy.

  • Joseph Thompson is a MEL and research consultant working primarily in the water (WASH and IWRM) and environmental sectors. He is well-versed in both the design and implementation of small to large-scale, multi-country evaluations, thematic reviews and assessments, Theories of Change, and MEL systems. Joseph is also the director at Ishka Consulting, based in the UK.

  • Dr Sumera Jabeen is an independent evaluator and researcher with over eighteen years’ experience in international development. She specialises in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research and evaluation. Sumera’s key focus areas are economic development, natural resource management, education, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and capacity development.

  • Dr Doug Hendrie is a writer, editor and author with 20+ years experience. He edits environmental research for The Conversation.

  • South Asia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Samoa, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Australia.

  • Climate change, disaster preparedness and humanitarian response, women's leadership and economic empowerment, economic development and trade, community development, education, vocational education and training, health, governance, democratic governance, rural development, natural resource management, law and justice reform, and financial literacy.

  • UNDP, DFID, EU, Oxfam, Red Cross, Plan, International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation, URS Sustainable Development, Adam Smith International, Coffey International, Global Trade Professionals Alliance, Alinea International.

  • DFAT, Federal Department of the Environment, Australian Sports Commission, Victorian and Queensland Departments of Primary Industries, Goulburn, Broken and Queensland Murray Darling Catchment Authorities, South West Queensland Legal Access Centre, Australian Wool Innovation, Australian Landscape Trust, Environment Victoria, AngliCORD, Homebase Youth Service, Financial Literacy Australia, Women’s Health in the North, Small Business Mentoring Service, Anglicare.