Pivot Collective

Shifting Knowledge and Power

We work alongside communities and institutions to co-create knowledge, support collective learning, and build more just and equitable health and development systems.

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Research · Strategy · ActionOne connected practice
Lived · Creative · AcademicDifferent ways of knowing
Communities · Institutions · FundersWorking across the system
Care · Equity · PartnershipHow we work

01 · The Collective

Who we are

Pivot Collective is a South African social enterprise comprising two legally distinct but closely aligned entities: a consulting company and a non-profit organisation. We work across regions to co-create knowledge, foster collective learning, and support community-led action in health and development. Our work is grounded in care, equity, and partnership, and guided by the belief that those most affected by systemic injustice should shape the decisions, evidence, and systems that impact their lives.

A central part of our work involves transforming how knowledge is created and used. We call this knowledge translation, but we mean something deeper than simplifying research or disseminating findings. For us, it involves co-creating knowledge with communities, valuing lived experience as expertise, and building meaningful pathways to action.

From our base in Cape Town, we work as a global collective of researchers, facilitators, implementers, and activists. Together, we bring academic, lived, and practice-based knowledge into conversation to support youth- and community-led research and learning.

02 · Approach

What we do

Knowledge into action, through equitable partnerships grounded in shared purpose and mutual accountability.

We collaborate with foundations, academic institutions, NGOs, researchers, and community partners to co-create knowledge, generate shared insights, and translate learning into action rooted in lived experience. Our work goes beyond creating spaces for dialogue: we critically examine evidence, surface patterns across contexts, and work with partners to ensure that insights inform strategy, policy, and systems change. We focus on intersectional issues such as infectious disease, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and climate change, each closely linked to structural inequality and to broader struggles for equity across the global South.

We believe meaningful change happens through equitable partnerships grounded in shared purpose and mutual accountability. Our work centres collective learning, shared authorship, and community-led strategies for research and action. We often serve as a learning partner, working alongside grassroots organisers, implementing teams, funders, and institutional leaders to support reflective, values-aligned approaches to complex challenges.

Through participatory research, peer-led inquiry, collaborative analysis and writing, visual and multimedia storytelling, facilitation and training, technical advising, and adaptive implementation support, we work alongside our partners to challenge dominant narratives about health and wellbeing. We strive to ensure that research and development practices are grounded in lived realities, shaped by those most affected by systemic injustice, and strengthened by rigorous, ethically grounded methods.

In all our work, we aim to shift not only knowledge, but relationships of power.

03 · Expertise

Areas of Practice

04 · Network

Our Clients and Partners

Wellcome Trust logo
AFD logo
PSI logo
Restless Development logo
Save the Children logo
Vocal Collective logo
Eh!Woza logo
Impact on Urban Health logo
Even Ground logo
Mabadiliko logo
Climate Action Accelerator logo
Southern Hemisphere logo
George Institute for Global Health logo
University of Cape Town logo
United for Global Mental Health logo
The Banyan logo
McPin Foundation logo
Praxis logo

We are always looking for partners who share our commitment to justice, equity, and community-led change.

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