CESAR is an expert-led research and training consultancy built around a core leadership and technical team and an extensive network of trusted researchers, epidemiologists, statisticians, monitoring and evaluation specialists, software developers, university academics and other technical experts.
Our core team provides strategic leadership, scientific direction and quality assurance across all assignments. Depending on the nature and scale of the work, we collaborate with carefully selected associate consultants who bring specialised expertise. Our project team includes experienced project managers, field supervisors and trained data collectors from an established database of more than 100 fieldworkers.
At CESAR, every project, regardless of size, is guided by the same principles: scientific rigour, methodological excellence, integrity and a commitment to delivering work that exceeds our clients' expectations.
CESAR's training programmes are designed and quality-assured by its technical leadership team and delivered by a carefully selected faculty of internal specialists and honorary CESAR facilitators, including university professors and experienced industry practitioners.
Our facilitators combine strong academic credentials with extensive practical experience in diverse fields, including research, monitoring and evaluation, data analysis and evidence generation. Because our trainers are actively involved in implementing research and evaluation projects, participants learn not only the underlying theory but also how these methods are applied in real-world settings.
Today, CESAR offers more than 20 specialised short courses covering research methodology, monitoring and evaluation, data management, statistical analysis, data visualisation, artificial intelligence and scientific reporting. Every course is designed to equip participants with practical, immediately applicable skills that improve individual performance and strengthen organisational capacity.
Our commitment is simple: every participant should leave a CESAR course with knowledge they can confidently apply immediately in their work.
Behind every successful consultancy assignment is the right combination of expertise. Whether conducting a national survey, designing a monitoring and evaluation system, evaluating a complex programme or delivering specialised technical training, CESAR brings together the expertise needed to deliver scientifically sound and operationally practical solutions.
Our core team and associates include epidemiologists, biostatisticians, demographers, economists, monitoring and evaluation specialists, qualitative researchers, database developers, software engineers, public health professionals and other technical experts.
CESAR maintains a database of more than 100 experienced fieldworkers and supervisors who have supported research projects across South Africa and other African countries. Depending on project requirements, we rapidly assemble and train field teams while maintaining rigorous quality assurance systems throughout implementation.
Over the years, CESAR has successfully managed field teams ranging from small specialist groups to large multidisciplinary teams. In 2024, for example, CESAR recruited, trained and managed a 90-person field team to implement South Africa's Bio-Behavioural Survey Lite (BBS-Lite) across seven districts, collecting questionnaire data and biological samples from more than 6,000 participants.
This ability to scale while maintaining quality is one of the reasons governments, universities, international organisations and development partners continue to trust CESAR with complex research assignments.
Dr Braimoh Bello is an epidemiologist, biostatistician and monitoring and evaluation specialist who serves as Technical Lead and Training Director at the Centre for Statistical Analysis and Research (CESAR). He is also an Honorary Lecturer in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health.
With more than 20 years of professional experience, Dr Bello has led numerous high-impact research, evaluation, strategic information and capacity-building projects across Africa. His work focuses on helping governments, universities, development agencies and other organisations generate credible evidence, strengthen programmes and make better decisions through rigorous research and data analysis.
He has provided technical leadership and consultancy services to national governments, universities, public institutions, WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund, UNFPA, and other international development partners. His experience spans epidemiology, monitoring and evaluation, implementation research, impact evaluation, clinical trials, statistical analysis, programme verification and organisational learning.
Among his notable assignments, Dr Bello served as one of four international evaluation specialists on the independent evaluation of the UK Department for International Development's Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme in Zambia. He also served as Research Quality Manager on a DFID-supported health evaluation in Pakistan. More recently, he led the implementation of South Africa's Bio-Behavioural Survey Lite among key populations, managing a multidisciplinary field team of approximately 90 personnel and overseeing data collection from more than 6,000 participants across seven districts. In 2025, he led the training of more than 200 representatives from 119 community-based organisations across South Africa on Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning and Accountability (MERLA) for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Dr Bello has authored more than 90 publications, including 21 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 70 technical reports, and has delivered more than 50 conference presentations across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. He continues to teach, supervise and examine postgraduate students while leading CESAR's technical work in capacity building, research, monitoring and evaluation, data analysis and evidence generation.
He holds an Honours degree and a Master's degree in Microbiology from the University of Benin (Nigeria), a Master of Science in Medicine (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and a PhD from Utrecht University (the Netherlands). He has also completed advanced professional training in epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of London, business leadership at Harvard University, and artificial intelligence at the University of Oxford.
Under his leadership, CESAR has grown into one of Africa's leading providers of specialised research, monitoring and evaluation, and data analysis training, while delivering complex consultancy assignments for governments, universities, development partners and international organisations.
We have a large team of fieldworkers, most of whom have many years of experience with CESAR. For large assignments, we have demonstrated the capacity to mobilise substantial implementation teams. For example, in 2024, CESAR successfully assembled and managed a field workforce of over 100 trained fieldworkers for a major research project, supported by robust supervision and quality control systems.
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