Research Design
Framing questions that matter, choosing methods that fit reality, and producing evidence organisations can act on.
Research & Programme Design
Evidence is only valuable when it improves a decision.
Chioma Nwaiwu is a research and programme design consultant working with NGOs, foundations, funders and mission-driven organisations in Nigeria and across Africa. Her practice focuses on understanding how people behave, where systems fail them, and how organisations can design more relevant programmes, products and interventions.
Her specialist areas include evidence-based programme design, financial inclusion research, women's economic empowerment, market and audience segmentation, and strategic facilitation — translating rigorous research into decisions leaders can defend and teams can implement.
Capabilities
Seven areas of practiceProgramme & Intervention Design
Translating research into programmes grounded in real human behaviour and the constraints people actually live with.
Financial Inclusion
Understanding how people earn, save, borrow, spend and plan — and where existing products fail them.
Women's Economic Empowerment
Designing around the specific constraints, opportunities and aspirations shaping women's economic lives.
Market & Audience Segmentation
Moving past demographics to segment by the decisions people are trying to make.
Insight Translation
Turning findings into decisions leaders can defend, teams can act on and users can feel.
Facilitation & Strategic Conversations
Convening the right people around the right question — and moving the room toward a decision.
How I Think
A four-step way of working.
01
Understand the people
Begin with the humans at the centre of the question. Their reality is the ground everything else stands on.
02
Identify the real constraint
Distinguish the visible symptom from the actual barrier. The right constraint changes the right intervention.
03
Translate evidence into a decision
Findings are only useful when they clarify what to do next. Every insight is written for action.
04
Design for implementation
Design programmes that survive contact with the real world — the systems, the people, the constraints.
Awarded Research
Interledger Foundation Call for Papers Grantee · 2025
Mapping financial exclusion among forcibly displaced people in Nigeria.
In 2025, I was selected for the Interledger Foundation's Call for Papers programme. My study builds on existing survey data to examine financial-inclusion gaps among forcibly displaced people across seven conflict-affected states in Nigeria.
The research considers how these gaps differ by gender, income and displacement status, and explores whether open-payment systems could improve access for populations that remain poorly served by conventional financial services.
Research Areas
Financial Inclusion · Forced Displacement · Open Payments · Gender · Nigeria
Status
Research in progress · Paper expected in 2026
Selected Research
Research grounded in how people experience systems.
My research has moved across public health, implementation science and financial inclusion, but the underlying question has remained consistent: what happens when policies, systems and programmes meet the realities of people's lives?
BMJ Open · 2021
Assessing Community Engagement in Nigeria's Polio Eradication Initiative
This study used the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to examine the factors that supported or constrained community-engagement strategies within Nigeria's polio-eradication programme.
View ResearchTropical Medicine and Health · 2022
A Qualitative Exploration of the Contributions of the Polio Eradication Initiative to the Nigerian Health System
This research examined the infrastructure, workforce capacity, relationships and operational knowledge created through the polio programme, and what should be protected as Nigeria transitions beyond polio eradication.
View Research2019
Perceived Societal Views About Condom Use and Risky Sexual Behaviour Among Never-Married In-School Adolescents in Ibadan
A study of 420 adolescents examining how perceptions of social support, effectiveness and access to condoms relate to sexual behaviour and the design of more responsive adolescent-health interventions.
View ResearchExplore Chioma's complete publication record, co-authored research and conference papers on ResearchGate.
View All PublicationsPractical Resource
The Program Manager's Field Manual
A practical resource created for people responsible for turning programme ideas into organised, implementable work.
Explore the Field ManualCommon Questions
Working with a research & programme design consultant.
What does a research and programme design consultant do?
A research and programme design consultant helps organisations understand the people they serve and turns that understanding into programmes, products and interventions that work in the real world. Chioma's practice spans research design, programme and intervention design, financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, segmentation, insight translation and strategic facilitation.
Who does Chioma work with?
Chioma works with NGOs, foundations, development organisations, funders and mission-driven companies working in Nigeria and across Africa — particularly teams designing for financial inclusion, health, and women's economic empowerment.
How is the work grounded in evidence?
Every engagement begins with the humans at the centre of the question. Chioma is a published implementation-science researcher (BMJ Open, Tropical Medicine and Health) and a 2025 Interledger Foundation Call for Papers grantee, studying financial exclusion among forcibly displaced people in Nigeria.
Need evidence that can survive contact with the real world?
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Writing & IdeasEssays on leadership, evidence and the discipline of building something that lasts.Read more The Builders CommunityThe Room, the Conference and Under the Surface — where the research meets practice.Read more About ChiomaBackground, current focus and the questions shaping the work.Read more