Context-sensitive design
A disciplined way to turn global sustainability frameworks into work that fits a particular place, its people and its institutions.
The same goal needs a different design in every place
The Sustainable Development Goals set a shared destination. They do not prescribe the route. A water programme, a youth employment scheme or a climate strategy that succeeds in one setting can fail in another because of differences in values, law, markets, climate or trust.
Localisation is the process of adapting global goals to local realities so that they are owned, delivered and measured by the people they affect. Context-sensitive design is how we do it: a structured method that makes context the starting point of every decision rather than an afterthought.
How we read a context
Each lens asks a simple question: what here will make this work, and what will make it fail?
- Values & cultureBeliefs, faith, norms and identity that shape what people will accept and own.
- Institutions & policyLaws, regulators, national strategies and the way decisions are really made.
- Economy & livelihoodsHow people earn, spend and invest, and who carries the cost of change.
- Environment & resourcesClimate, water, land and energy conditions specific to the place.
- Community & relationshipsNetworks, trust, leadership and who is heard or left out.
From understanding to ownership
- UnderstandRead the context through the five lenses, using data and the voices of the people affected.
- TranslateMap global frameworks such as the SDGs and reporting standards to local priorities and language.
- Co-designShape solutions with the communities, staff and leaders who will carry them.
- MeasureAgree a small set of indicators that mean something locally and can be tracked.
- EmbedBuild the skills and governance that keep the work going after we step back.
What guides every project
Research-driven
Decisions rest on evidence: data, literature and systematic listening to the people affected.
Context-sensitive
Culture, institutions and local priorities shape the design. Nothing is transferred unchanged.
Innovative
Simulations, games and practical tools help people learn by doing, and remember what they learned.
Why a chameleon?
A chameleon adapts to its surroundings without becoming something else. Its eyes move independently, so it can watch two directions at once. It judges distance precisely before it moves, and it reaches further than its size suggests.
For us it stands for the balance at the heart of localisation: staying true to global goals while adapting fully to local reality.
See where your organisation stands
The free readiness check scores your organisation against the principles of context-sensitive design in about five minutes.