Our Founders.
As an agile duo not bound by convention, they’re embedded in Africa’s most complex environments - blending deep local insights with a global perspective, and turning knowledge into bold, transformative strategies that drive real impact.
In their experience, some of the wisest voices are found where few are listening -and The Whys was created to help change that.
Little insight: a few years ago they travelled down the mighty Congo River together three times - where some of the earliest sparks for The Whys were born.
Born in England
Amy Scarth, PhD
Dr. Scarth brings a distinctive blend of business acumen and interdisciplinary insight to dilemmas requiring innovative thinking in complex natural landscapes of Africa. A conservation and development practitioner, applied social scientist (PhD) and private sector specialist - including a decade immersed in last-mile communities of Africa. Author of 'The Business of Poverty in Africa' and a shared vision for new systems of investment on the African continent.
Born in DR Congo
Victor Anasa
Victor emerges from humanitarian and development work in some of the world's most challenging environments. He's operated deep in conflict zones across the DRC, Niger and Haiti, pushing the boundaries of field analysis, programme management, logistics, interpretation (yes nine languages fluently!), and relationship-building to drive meaningful impact. His experience in the mining landscapes of DRC enrich historical and current perspectives.
The Whys is built for people that want to stay connected to real perspectives, not filtered reports.
Our Insight Studio is beginning its journey in the mineral landscapes of the Democratic Republic of Congo - one of the world’s most strategically important, but least understood environments.
The Whys model is built on a trusted field insight network, locally embedded contributors, and discreet, non-extractive data gathering - designed not to take from communities, but to inform, respect, and return value to those at the centre of the system too.
Our ambition is to scale studios across other high-stakes landscapes in Africa - mining, carbon, conservation - where global interests intersect with complex local dynamics.
The world needs deeper, system-aware intelligence. The Whys will be the go-to platform for behavioural insight, systems intelligence and grounded knowledge in the places that matter most for our shared future.
How? An intelligence model built to move with the system - because the system doesn't stand still
Delivering place-based intelligence at the pace and interconnection of today’s decisions - because we're connected on the ground.
What sets us apart is how and where we work, and our philosophy: embedded, independent and systems-aware. We're not a statistical dashboard and don't trade in fear and doom - we draw on lived experience, include informal systems, understand how global decisions land on the ground, and explore spaces for innovation.
We give stakeholders across the ecosystem the clarity to act more effectively, more ethically, and with a live pulse on what’s really happening.
We don’t observe complexity - we work inside it.
Building intelligence that moves with the system - and helps shape what comes next.
Systems understanding
Contextual depth
Opportunity windows
Multiple perspectives
Behavioural nuance
Expectation mapping
Narrative tracking
Real-time field signals
Landscape tensions
Shared costs - Shared futures
We’re building what doesn’t yet exist: timely, behavioural and systems intelligence from within the DRC - where global supply chains, climate finance and community dynamics collide. Our model combines strategic investment opportunities in shared infrastructure, continuous insight delivery, and tailored advisory for decision-makers in the high-stakes landscapes we are grounded.
Insight Investor
Insight Investors fund the infrastructure of the insight studio that enables better decisions in the world’s most complex and consequential landscapes - across sectors, stakeholders and systems. Sponsor the evolution of our pilot in the DRC.
Insight Subscriber
Regular, premium and decision-focused insights. Insight Subscribers gain regular access to field-grounded intelligence from the DRC - for timely, real-world understanding needed to navigate complex, high-stakes environments.
WHY?
Others report the surface. We decode the system.
We bring clarity to complexity - so leaders can make smarter, more grounded decisions.
In high-value, complex landscapes like the DRC, decisions about minerals, carbon, land and local impact are being made without a clear understanding of how systems are actually behaving on the ground.
Despite billions of dollars in ESG commitments, traceability tools and audit frameworks, decision-makers remain relatively blind.
The cost of misreading the system is high - and the opportunity for innovation is still largely untapped.
Formal, top-down data routinely misses the informal dynamics: narratives, behaviours, perspectives, perception shifts, incentives and hidden power structures that ultimately determine whether an investment succeeds, fails or earns legitimacy.
What’s missing isn’t more metrics - or myopic ‘solutions’ that don’t work. It’s human intelligence: the kind that explains why things are the way they are, and what might shape outcomes in the real world.
No existing tools offer this kind of insight at the landscape level - grounded, timely, and decision-focused, on demand.
Industrial Miners, Refiners & Traders
Stay ahead of frictions and uncover new possibilities by reading informal systems and dynamics that drive operational stability and lasting impact.
%E2%82%82S%E2%82%84).webp)
Manufacturing & End-Use Companies (EV, battery, green energy, tech brands)
Navigate responsible sourcing in fragile minerals supply chains. Go beneath compliance to see how the system really behaves - and what opportunities lie ahead.
Impact Investors, Sustainable Finance & ESG Analysts
Stakeholder dynamics beyond the dashboard, behind the metrics. Understand risk, impact and allocate capital with eyes wide open.
Artisanal Miners
Make sense of the shifting systems - navigate complexity, embrace sustainable livelihoods, and stay visible in a changing landscape.
Legal, Compliance & Sustainability
Confidently embed across natural resource supply chains - with intelligence that cuts through complexity. Actionable insight to act early, align ethically, and build legitimacy.
Donors, INGOs and Multilateral Institutions
Design smarter, more responsive, systems-aware programmes grounded in real-world insight that's current - not old assumptions.
Governance & Regulatory
National, local and international bodies. Craft effective policies and interventions with a clearer view of how decisions land on the ground.
Civil Society & Communities
When lived experience is understood, better outcomes follow - for people, place and the systems in between. Hear the voices often missed.
Carbon Market Actors
Understand what’s happening on the ground at the frontlines - so carbon investments and green finance reflect lived realities and legitimacy, not just carbon math.
Built for decision-makers across the ecosystem
Powered by a network of diverse minds.
At The Whys, we believe better decisions begin with better understanding - of people, of place, and how they’re interconnected.
Our work is rooted in the conviction that integrated insight drives innovation: making strategic decisions more human, more legitimate, and more connected to the realities on the ground.
We curate an interperspective lens -blending different ways of knowing and doing to reveal what others miss.
Our team brings together a diverse network of thinkers, researchers, interpreters and systems navigators working across complex landscapes.
We are grounded, curious and impact-led.
We prioritise questions over surface conclusions, challenge assumptions, and value lived realities over distant reporting.
ABOUT US
Grounded insight.
Informed decisions.
The Whys is a field-based insight studio generating behavioural and systems intelligence direct from Africa’s most complex, high-stakes geographies. We capture real-time, human-centric knowledge from the ground, helping companies, investors, advisors, institutions, local stakeholders and other ecosystem decision-makers to navigate with greater foresight, impact literacy and innovation.
Our first studio in the making is in the critical minerals landscape of DR Congo.