Three ways to work with D4Act
Fixed-fee Audits to start small. Multi-month Builds when the case is clear. Ongoing Retainers for portfolios that need a steady hand. Indicative ranges below; firm quote follows a 30-minute scoping call.
Transparent, fixed-fee where we can be, capped where we can't
Procurement teams should not have to guess what an engagement will cost. Every D4Act proposal sets out the price, the deliverables, the acceptance criteria and the payment milestones in writing - before fieldwork starts.
Fixed-fee bias
Audits and Setup engagements are always fixed-fee. Builds and Evaluations are fixed-fee per phase against documented acceptance criteria. Time-and-materials is the exception, not the default.
Milestone payments
Audits: 50% on signature, 50% on delivery. Builds: 30% on signature, then phase milestones with written acceptance. Retainers: monthly in advance, cancellable on 60 days notice after the minimum term.
Scope discipline
Change requests go through a written change-order process with new acceptance criteria and a price impact - so neither side eats unbounded risk. We default to under-scoping rather than over-promising.
Three tiers, scoped through a discovery call
Audit
What you get
- Source & schema inventory across DHIS2, ODK, Excel, SPSS, SQL, logframes
- Reconciliation gap analysis with severity rating
- Donor-readiness scorecard
- Written report (20-30 pages) + executive briefing
- Build-phase scope, sequencing & budget
Excludes
No code delivery, no dashboards built. The Audit is diagnostic.
Build
What you get
- Source connectors (DHIS2, ODK, KoBo, SQL, Excel, SPSS / STATA, logframe docs)
- Canonical schema & reconciliation logic
- Donor-ready dashboards (Power BI / Tableau / DHIS2)
- Documented audit trail with full lineage
- Internal-team training (2 sessions) & written handover
- 30-day post-go-live warranty period
Excludes
Hosting infrastructure costs, original data-collection, ongoing maintenance after the warranty period (covered by Retainer).
Retainer
What you get
- Pipeline monitoring & alerting (24/7 automated, business-hours human review)
- New partner / source onboarding
- Schema & rule maintenance
- Quarterly donor-reporting prep
- Roadmap & advisory check-ins (monthly)
- One business-day support response SLA
Excludes
Major redesigns or new feature builds (priced as a separate Build phase).
Each Data Bridge engagement is sized against the volume, partner count and donor-reporting cadence agreed with the client. Pricing, milestones and acceptance criteria are confirmed in a written proposal within five business days of a 30-minute scoping call.
SaaS for CommCare programmes - scoped through a discovery call
One-time onboarding
App-specific configuration, rule library tailored to your forms, brandable dashboard, email-alert routing, training for two staff, and lift-and-shift onto your CommCare domain.
Monthly platform & support
Hosted dashboard, scheduled QC runs, rule-library updates, email-alert delivery, sandbox for new rules, support response within one business day. Volume-based on submissions per month.
AI integrated into MEL workflows, with responsible-AI guardrails
From AI use-case diagnostics to deployed AI-assisted tools and ongoing model stewardship - priced as discrete tiers so procurement teams have a clear anchor.
AI Discovery & Roadmap
An independent diagnostic of where AI can add real value to your MEL operations - and where it cannot. Use-case mapping against the data you actually hold, model and vendor selection (open-source vs. proprietary), responsible-AI governance baseline, and a costed roadmap.
What you get
- AI use-case prioritisation matrix
- Data-readiness diagnostic
- Responsible-AI governance baseline
- Vendor & model recommendation
- Costed roadmap for the next 6-12 months
AI Build
We design, build and deploy AI-assisted tools inside your MEL stack - qualitative coding pipelines, anomaly detection, geospatial classification, dashboard agents - validated against ground-truth data, integrated with your existing workflow, and shipped with a documented model card and audit trail.
What you get
- One or more production AI tools
- Integration with your MEL stack
- Validation against ground-truth data
- Documented model card & audit trail
- Internal-team training (2 sessions) & handover
AI Support & Stewardship
Once your AI tools are live, we keep them honest: model-drift monitoring, prompt and pipeline updates, periodic responsible-AI reviews, and an embedded AI advisor on call. The natural successor to Tier B once your team is operating the tools day-to-day.
What you get
- Model monitoring & drift detection
- Prompt & pipeline updates
- Quarterly responsible-AI review
- Embedded AI advisor on call
- One business-day support response SLA
Cadrage against OECD-DAC criteria, not generic time-and-materials
For impact evaluation, MEL system redesigns and digital-health assessments, scope is set against the OECD-DAC criteria and a written evaluation matrix. Indicative ranges by engagement type:
Single-country impact evaluation
Mixed-methods, 6-12 months, baseline + endline. Includes evaluation matrix, sampling design, ethics protocol, fieldwork supervision, written synthesis report.
Multi-country MEL redesign
Indicator harmonisation, dashboards, 4-12 months across regional portfolios. Includes ToC refresh, governance, training cohort, written handover.
Training & capacity engagement
Tailored curriculum, 1-6 weeks, in-person or hybrid. Includes pre-assessment, training delivery, post-training mentoring (optional).
Built for institutional procurement
Currencies & invoicing
USD by default. EUR or GBP available on request. Invoicing entity: D4Act SARL, registered in Lomé, Togo. Payment by bank transfer; details on the invoice. NET-30 terms.
Taxes & withholding
Quotes are exclusive of VAT or withholding tax. Where applicable, your jurisdiction's withholding regime is documented in the SOW so the net delivery is predictable.
NDA & data protection
Mutual NDA available before scoping. Data-protection plan written into every SOW (GDPR, UK GDPR, Togo Loi 2019-014). Personal data anonymised at ingestion.
Intellectual property
Default: client owns evaluation deliverables and custom code. Reusable D4Act Lab components remain Apache-2 open source. Special arrangements (joint IP, donor open-publication) negotiated in the SOW.
Discounts
Multi-engagement discount (10%) when an Audit converts to a Build within 90 days. Public-sector and African civil-society rate available on request for non-donor-funded work.
Response & SLA
Initial reply within one business day. Written proposal within 5 business days of a scoping call. Retainer support: response within one business day, resolution targets in the SOW.
Pricing FAQ
Why aren't Data Bridge and DataPulse prices listed?
Both products are deeply context-dependent. Data Bridge pricing reflects partner count, source diversity, donor-reporting cadence and integration complexity; DataPulse pricing reflects form count, rule-library complexity and submission volume. Showing a single range invites mis-scoping. Instead, we run a 30-minute discovery call and send a written proposal - with price, milestones and acceptance criteria - within five business days. AI Services prices are listed because the tiers there are more standardised.
Do you offer payment plans for non-donor-funded clients?
Yes - extended phasing (up to 6 monthly instalments on Builds) is available for African civil society organisations and government clients. The total fee is unchanged.
What if our scope changes mid-engagement?
Change requests go through a written change-order process: revised acceptance criteria, schedule impact, and price impact - all signed before any work shifts. Small scope adjustments (less than 10% of effort) are absorbed without a change order.
Are travel and per-diem costs included?
For Audits and bespoke evaluations: yes, included in the fixed fee unless the SOW notes otherwise. For Builds and Retainers: standard travel for fieldwork is included; exceptional travel (extra in-country missions, donor-requested workshops) is invoiced at cost with prior written approval.
How do you compare to a Big-4 or large evaluation firm?
For comparable scope and methodology, our fees typically run 30-50% below international consultancies because our cost base is African-led and we don't carry partner overhead. Methodological standards (OECD-DAC, donor frameworks, peer review) are identical or better.
Get a written proposal in 5 business days
A 30-minute scoping call confirms the question, the data environment and the right tier. We send a written proposal with price, scope, milestones and acceptance criteria within five business days.