INSAD recently turned 17, and we wanted to celebrate by sharing some of our memories of experiences and lessons learned, as a consultancy specialized in social investigation and the evaluation and design of social projects, programs and policies.

Their shared passion for social research and a desire to contribute to social change and equity led Yolanda and José Luis Palma Cabrera to set up an independent agency dedicated to research into health and demography: INSAD. Building on 20 years of professional experience in academic and public institutions, on 29 May 1999 they started work as a consultancy specialized in social evaluation and research.

A crucial next step was to bring in Manuel Urbina, Ricardo Vernon and Javier Jiménez as partners. Sharing the initial interests and concerns of INSAD, they complemented and expanded its horizons, thanks to their huge experience in governmental, academic and civil society organizations.

At INSAD we are convinced that interventions based on rigorous research and precise and up-to-date information accelerate social development. This is why we seek to contribute to the reinforcing of actions carried out by civil society organizations, foundations and government, through consultancy and sociodemographic studies.

An important reference point for our specialized work is the more than thirty years’ experience of our researchers in the design and application of probability sampling surveys of the DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys) variety, ensuring that their results have a high degree of rigor and detail.

Among the first of INSAD’s projects was a survey for the evaluation of the Young People (Gente Joven) program run by Mexfam and the Survey on Health, Well-Being, and Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean (SABE), for the PAHO. Since 2000 it has carried out studies for Pathfinder International, The Population Reference Bureau, the International Cooperation Agency of Japan, the World Bank, the Packard Foundation, the Guttmacher Institute, CONACYT, National Autonomous University (UNAM), The Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), and the Universities of New York, Georgetown, Harvard, Berkeley, among others.

INSAD has also had an opportunity to contribute to the governmental accountability agenda, supporting Mexican organizations such as CONEVAL, CONAPO, SSA, SEDESOL, SEP, SHCP, ASF, among others.

Since the beginning of the century, the general trend of development agencies has progressively given rise to a need to develop and define guidelines, indicators, and technical proposals that give an account of the progress and achievements of each project. INSAD has contributed to meeting this need by accompanying CSOs in the design of their M&E plans and tools, based on the logical framework approach, an analytical tool that allows for planning, monitoring and evaluating of the full cycle of a project or of any of its components (according to what each OSC determined to be a priority).

Along with the MacArthur Foundation and the Population Council, INSAD entered the field of strengthening CSOs in 2000, and since then, together with organizations such as the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Ford Foundation, has offered technical support and assistance to more than 150 CSOs from Mexico and Latin America.

INSAD has a solid multidisciplinary team that has been able to enrich and diversify their perspectives and capabilities, thanks to the valuable contribution of each of the people who has joined it.

17 years since its founding, INSAD is a sustainable and established private consultancy that is guided by the values of professional and personal ethics and continues to fulfill its original purpose: to strengthen social development and civil society through applied research and specialist technical support.