Briefings and Whitepapers
Insight-led documents that break down complex topics into clear, actionable narratives for senior audiences.
Some excerpts have been anonymised to maintain confidentiality
Sample 1 - Investor briefing
Excerpt from an INGO briefing
Our operating environment has shifted rapidly over the past five years. Water stress was once treated primarily as a development challenge, but is now commonly seen as a macro-level risk with direct implications for public health, regional stability and economic productivity. This reshapes both our programmatic priorities and funding landscape.
The most immediate pressure point is volatility in hydrological patterns. Several programme countries have experienced three or more consecutive years of below-average rainfall, which in turn drives higher incidences of displacement and undermines local water-governance systems.
As national governments struggle to respond, donors increasingly expect agencies to demonstrate not only delivery capacity but also credible climate-risk modelling.
We have expanded our analytical function accordingly. New geospatial tools are being piloted to improve targeting accuracy and reduce procurement inefficiencies. Early results are encouraging: response times have shortened, and in two regions procurement overruns have fallen by more than a third.
Yet structural challenges remain. Partner-level reporting continues to vary substantially in scope and quality, limiting our ability to quantify long-term impact.
Despite these constraints, demand for our technical advisory work is on the rise. Governments are seeking clearer regulatory guidance on groundwater management, and multilateral institutions are prioritising blended finance for water-infrastructure upgrades.
Sample 2 - Whitepaper
Excerpt from a paper on critical minerals
The world is shifting steadily towards electrification and renewable infrastructure, driving up the demand for battery-grade and clean-energy metals.
According to the latest from the International Energy Agency (IEA), demand for lithium grew nearly 30 % in 2024, while nickel, cobalt, graphite, and key rare earth minerals also saw demand increases in the 6–8 % range.
Despite this surge, supply-side constraints are becoming increasingly visible. Under current project pipelines, expected mined supply by 2035 is likely to fall short of projected demand. Under best-case scenarios, deficits of up to 40 % for lithium and 30 % for copper are predicted.
This imbalance creates a strategic window for mining and resource developers that hold exploration assets or early-stage projects targeting these minerals. Companies that can bring high-quality, battery-grade ore online, or secure offtake and refining partnerships, will benefit from structurally tightened markets.
Additional upside comes from pricing leverage, long-term offtake stability, and growing interest from downstream battery-manufacturing and energy-storage firms.
But mining’s execution risk is still non-trivial. Challenges include permitting delays, ESG compliance pressures, and the capital intensity of establishing vertically integrated processing facilities. There is also geopolitical and supply-chain risk, given concentration of refining in a small number of jurisdictions. For investors, the optimal play is backing operators that combine reserve quality with rigorous environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and transparent supply-chain traceability.
Sample 3 - Policy analysis
Excerpt from a paper on GCC policy
The discovery of Middle Eastern oil, particularly that of the Gulf monarchies, coincided with their birth as nation states. Now, the states constituting the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are amongst those most reliant on oil rent globally.
Saudi Arabia, the largest global exporter of oil, depends on oil for 70% of its export earnings (OPEC 2019). As oil reserves fall and demand for renewable energy increases in light of concerns about climate change, the global demand for Gulf oil could soon decrease drastically.
The IMF predicts that oil demand is likely to peak by 2040, with the world moving to a post-oil economy thereafter (IMF 2020: 2). This, along with the continued population growth of the Gulf, makes asking the question of how oil has shaped the politics of the region more pertinent than ever.
Understanding the impact of oil on the domestic politics of the Gulf may provide insight into what may change in a post-oil order.
This paper focuses in particular on the impact of oil rent, i.e. revenue from the export of oil, on the concurrent development of the relationship between state and society in the Gulf States, including Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The political impact of the Gulf’s dependence on oil rent has most commonly been studied through the lens of the Rentier State Theory (RST).
Emerging from a body of literature on the 1970s oil boom, the RST presents a celebrated, if heavily contested, answer to the question of how oil has shaped the politics of the Middle East.