Our story
Jigsaw began with some late night conversations among friends - a small group of like-minded people wanting to use our skills to bring about positive change in our complex world. Each of us was already very involved in international development and humanitarian response. We shared - and still share - a deep conviction that evidence building is vital to disrupt and strengthen the education sector.
Fast-forward a decade and Jigsaw is an established and trusted provider of research, evaluation and strategy within the education sector. Everything we do is focused on using rigorous evidence to bring about lasting change in education. In the lowest income countries, more than 80% of children aged 10 cannot read a simple text, 250 million children never go to school: we are in the midst of a global learning crisis.
We are committed to using our skills to bend the curve of progress as much as possible. No single team can do this on all fronts - and that is why we specialise in technical areas where we can have maximum impact. We are driven by our mission and are a certified social enterprise: we are in this for the long haul.
Our values
We try our best to live by eight values. We enjoy talking with people about how these values guide our decision making - please ask us. Also, If you engage with Jigsaw and we don’t match up to our values then please tell us - we appreciate feedback and are committed to improving all the time.
We focus on the end game - this means you can expect us to focus on things like contextualisation, sustainability and scalability.
We play to our strengths - this means we only say yes to a few things, invest in building our technical expertise, and aim to be exceptional at what we do.
We ask important questions - life is too short to go with the flow, so we challenge ourselves and those we work with to think critically and constructively about big problems.
We treat people with dignity - power dynamics are real, respect is important, and our values are lived out through every interaction we have with each other and our research participants.
We are committed to learning - we do this collaboratively and rigorously, we believe in understanding complex systems, validating our assumptions and applying lean and adaptive principles to all our work.
We prioritise local contexts - and believe that our work is most effective when communities are centrally involved in decision-making.
We listen deeply - everyone has a story and this matters, so we prioritise participatory and child-friendly methods and build strong relationships with local research organisations.
We believe change is possible - but making it happen is complex and takes a long time, so we focus our energy on ensuring our work gets read, listened to, and has a positive impact on decision making.
To further ensure that all our work is done in line with the above values, the Jigsaw team is guided by the ethical principles laid out in the TRUST Global Code of Conduct. We have also strengthened our commitment to these values by taking the Dignified Storytelling pledge.
Our clients
Over the last decade we have successfully completed research, evaluation and strategy engagements for more than 60 organisations. We love working with individuals and teams that are committed to using evidence to enhance education outcomes. We provide discounted rates for our work with NGOs.
We engage directly with bilateral donors including FCDO, GIZ, SDC and Dubai Cares. We collaborate with INGOs such as Save the Children, Tearfund, VSO and War Child. We also work with international organisations including the European Commission, GSMA, PwC and UNICEF.
Our partners
In addition to the clients we serve, we have long-term partnerships with a small number of organisations including Refugee Education UK and UNHCR and EdTech Hub.