A small firm, deliberately.

For three decades the global outsourcing industry produced an enormous volume of analysis, almost all of it commissioned by parties with a position in the outcome. Vendors published research proving vendors were right. Advisors published research proving advisors were needed. Governments published forecasts proving the policy they had already announced.

Akholi was founded on a narrow proposition: that the labor market is the most consequential structure in any economy, that it is poorly measured almost everywhere, and that someone should be answering questions about it without a book to talk. We take no vendor fees, no referral arrangements, and no engagement where the conclusion is specified in the brief.

The practical consequence is that we are small and intend to stay small. We publish our method alongside our findings, including the parts that weaken our own case. When the data does not support a claim, the claim does not appear, and we would rather return a fee than sign a report we cannot defend under questioning.

Our clients are governments deciding how to spend a generation of public money, institutions accountable for whether a program worked, and boards making location decisions that will outlast the executives making them. None of them is well served by being told what they want to hear.