Research & Learning

Research tells us what works. It separates intentions from results. We know Living Goods saves lives because independent research has demonstrated this to be true. Research also helps us learn and improve our programs to deepen impact as well as to advocate for better community health policies, practices, and financing.

The evidence base for community health is strong and growing. Living Goods builds on this robust foundation, contributing additional research, evidence, and insight to further strengthen policy, practice, and financing for community health.

Our Research Philosophy

Robust design

We employ the most robust methods possible when conducting research. We consider Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) to be the bedrock of our evidence. But we recognize that RCTs are not always feasible, and there can be great value in other kinds of applied research. We seek to employ a diverse mix of methods to drive learning, measure impact and produce evidence for practice and policy influence.

Learning from successes and failures

We support research that will be widely disseminated and benefit the field of community health as a whole. We believe in transparency and believe that we can learn as much from a negative result as from a positive one.

Sharing insights

We partner with skilled and independent researchers and work closely with them so that they have the access they need to accurately assess our interventions. We also elevate our research findings with government to support the development of effective community health policies and budgets, and collaborate with advocacy coalitions such as the Community Health Impact Coalition.

Collaboration: We work closely with government partners, academic institutions, research firms, and other NGOs working in community health to identify important knowledge gaps and work together to produce insight and evidence to inform policy and practice in community health.