What We Do

The company’s work falls into four broad categories:

Policy support

We assist our clients to develop policies, which in the past have included:

national and municipal infrastructure investment and finance,
income, tariff and subsidy policies,
municipal performance management, and
municipal service regulation.

Strategic planning

We assist clients with strategic planning, including:

economic planning,
infrastructure investment and financial planning,
regulatory strategies,
development planning, and
environmental management.

Management Support

The company provides management support to clients, in, amongst others, the areas of:

public-private partnerships,
establishment of new business practices,
institutional and organisational transformation and corporatisation, and
financial planning.

Research

The company undertakes research in the fields of water and sanitation, infrastructure economics, and public finance. This emphasis on research makes PDG unusual for a private firm, influencing its work profile and the structure of its organisation. The professional staff is highly qualified and the company has established relationships with a number of universities.

The sectors in which we work are explained in our Practice Areas.

"The PDG team was technically brilliant – they got what was required and responded in the context we hoped for.”

PDG Client Survey, 2011

"This process and eventual evaluation report had several key results that influenced the USDG and, ultimately, its ability to improve human settlements for the poor. Among these included the DHS agreeing to retain the grant as a flexible fiscal instrument to fund broader human settlements and rewriting the Grant so that it clearly articulated that it is meant to fund built environment projects that support human settlements for the poor. While the evaluation findings influenced the Grant, they were also used to influence policy. The DHS used the evaluations to inform, along with other evaluations, a new human settlements white paper” - Matodzi Amisi and Ahmedi Vawda (DPME)

Matodzi Amisi and Ahmedi Vawda, ‘Strengthening democratic governance in the building of integrated human settlements through evaluations’, Chapter in Democratic Evaluation and Democracy: Exploring the Reality (2017)

"They try to leverage the linkages, to make sure it actually works in a development context.”

PDG Client Survey, 2011

"They have met our expectations and even gone beyond what we asked for.”

PDG Client Survey, 2011

"There was lots of time pressure from me and the team went the extra mile repeatedly to deliver what I needed.”

PDG Client Survey 2007