About
A research business built around a subject
Angavu Africa Insights provides research support, data and analytical services to organisations in Kenya, with a specialist focus on crime, criminal justice and public safety.
What the business does
Organisations regularly need research work done that does not justify hiring someone permanently. A consultancy wins a contract and needs the background review written. An NGO has to produce workshop proceedings a donor will accept. A programme has monitoring data that needs cleaning before anyone can report on it. A set of interviews needs transcribing, some of them in Swahili.
That is the work. It is bounded, it has a deliverable, and it can be quoted. We take on a defined piece of it and return something usable.
The specialist focus
Alongside that general service work, the business specialises in crime, criminal justice and public safety. It is the subject area it was built around, and it is where the research skills and the subject knowledge meet.
Specialisation in this field is mostly about knowing what the sources can and cannot support. Recorded crime figures reflect reporting and recording practice as much as crime. Survey measures of victimisation capture something different. Court and prison data is produced to run institutions, not to answer research questions. Knowing that before you start is the difference between analysis and a confident mistake.
How we work
Scope agreed before work starts. Sources recorded so claims can be checked. Limits stated rather than glossed over. Work declined when it is not something we can do properly.
That last one matters more than it sounds. A research business that accepts everything is telling you something about the quality of what it accepts.
The name
Angavu is a Swahili word meaning bright or clear. It describes what a good piece of research work should leave behind: a situation that is easier to see than it was before.
What we are not
Because the specialist subject is crime and justice, it is worth being explicit. Angavu Africa Insights is a private research business. It is not a government body, a law-enforcement agency, an established research institute, or affiliated with any public institution.
It does not provide private investigation, background checks or screening, security consultancy, security risk assessment, security audits, security plans, guarding or security training, and it does not intend to.
It also does not write academic assignments, essays, theses or dissertations for students to submit as their own work.
Tell us about your project
Describe what you need and when you need it. We will come back with a quote, or tell you straight away if it is not work we can take on.