About Us

Nascent Research and Development Organisation (Nascent RDO) is a non-governmental organization working in the Eastern Africa region with offices in Kenya and Uganda. We also work through partners in Tanzania and Ethiopia and other parts of Africa. A key agenda of Nascent RDO is to facilitate a more meaningful engagement between interventions and communities and enable development practice that is respectful and inclusive of local perspectives and knowledge.

Community members including women and young people participate as both users of, and active contributors to knowledge thereby promoting inclusive interventions and enhancing sustainability. Research is a key component of our work and an avenue through which we seek to provide evidence-based practice on how local perspectives play a key role in sustainable development.

We aim to highlight the nexus between theory and practice underscoring how research and practice are not dichotomous but strengthen each other. Nascent-RDO researchers have extensive experience in different fields and cultural contexts at national, regional, and international levels. We also have affiliation with an array of researchers in many countries in the region and beyond.

Our areas of research include but are not limited to: Children and Youth issues including children and youth policy. (Youth) Sexual and Reproductive Health, Education, Poverty, and (Child) Social Protection, Community Development, Gender Analysis, and Program Monitoring and Evaluation.

We believe that young people are owners of important knowledge and research should not just be about them but with them. When it comes to understanding the needs and perspectives of young people, a peer-to-peer-oriented approach in research is our niche. In collaboration with the International Institute of Social Studies, we are well known for our innovative ‘circles of support’ framework in working with youth peer researchers. In this model, a youth researcher is nestled within a supportive ecology of other experts including teachers, our organizational researchers as well as other international collaborators. We have implemented youth peer research models in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. In terms of giving and hearing the voice of the marginalized, we also ensure nobody is left out, in this regard, we have worked with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth as peer researchers in getting perspectives on their sexual and reproductive health