Value for money N°19 — Appraisal CBAx · LSF · He Ara Waiora · He Tauira

Value for money, proven.

Cost-benefit analysis that holds up to Treasury, agency and council scrutiny.

Public money increasingly comes with one question attached: what is the value for money? We build the cost-benefit analysis and outcomes evidence to answer it — for the agencies appraising spend, and for the organisations that have to prove their value to government to win and keep funding.

01 Who this is for Two sides of the same question

Agencies appraising spend

Departments, Crown entities and councils deciding where to invest and how to demonstrate value for money — Budget bids, business cases, programme appraisal, and the social investment shift toward funding measurable outcomes rather than outputs. We provide the cost-benefit analysis and outcomes evidence that stands up to review.

Organisations accountable to government

Businesses, iwi entities, NGOs and providers who have to prove value for money to government — in tenders and procurement, council contracts, and funding applications. When a bid or a contract turns on demonstrating value, we build the cost-benefit case that makes it credible.

02 The frameworks we work in Treasury-aligned

We work fluently in the appraisal and reporting frameworks the New Zealand public sector actually uses — so the analysis lands the way reviewers expect.

CBAx

Treasury's CBA tool

Cost-benefit analysis using Treasury's CBAx model and its database of New Zealand impact values, with assumptions made transparent.

LSF

Living Standards Framework

The wellbeing domains agencies have used in value-for-money assessment since Budget 2019.

He Ara Waiora

Te ao Māori wellbeing

Treasury's te ao Māori wellbeing framework, now part of value and wellbeing assessment — and central to how we work.

He Tauira

The XRB's framework

The External Reporting Board's voluntary framework for articulating intergenerational, cultural, environmental and social impact — grounded in tikanga.

Where outcomes resist monetisation, we report them in wellbeing terms alongside the cost-benefit results — never forced into a single number when that would mislead.

03 What we deliver

What we deliver

  • Cost-benefit analysis — social and economic CBA to Treasury conventions, with discounting, counterfactual and sensitivity testing.
  • CBAx-aligned appraisal and bridging — analysis built to slot into the CBAx model, or a clear bridging table so agency reviewers can follow it.
  • Value-for-money cases for tenders and procurement — the evidence that wins and defends government and council contracts.
  • Social investment outcome evaluation — measuring the outcomes funders now expect, with evaluation designed in from the start.
  • Non-market and wellbeing valuation — valuing outcomes that have no market price, using documented sources and conservative assumptions.
  • Where it fits, SROI — a social return ratio when a funder-facing return on investment genuinely helps.

It is the same cost–benefit rigour that sits behind our SROI work — one engine, two faces of the same analysis.

Not ready for a full appraisal? A Pathway Scan is a short, fixed-fee piece that maps what value is being created and what evidence exists — a low-risk way to test the case before you commit.

04 In practice Public results, and the shape of the rest

Two we can show in public — and the shape of the rest.

$149m

of contracts matchmade to Māori and Pasifika suppliers.

Amotai supplier diversity programme · Impact evaluation for Auckland Council. One large contract drives most of this total.

4:1

benefit–cost ratio — $15m net benefit from $5m invested.

Tū Ātea · Cost-benefit analysis (base case). $10.5m added to GDP annually.

Elsewhere, where the client work is not public, the value-for-money engagements look like this:

A 50-year cost–benefit analysis

of a proposed visitor-experience facility — market and non-market value, Treasury discount rates — to test the investment case before capital was committed.

A CBAx-based socio-economic analysis

with regional economic multipliers, supporting an iwi-led decision to expand a community service and facility.

Value-for-money evidence for tenders

quantifying the social value of a national services provider's programmes, to strengthen bids into local-government facilities contracts.

A CBAx-style cost–benefit model

for a regional housing-repair and energy-efficiency programme, evidencing value for money to its public funders.

A forecast (ex-ante) SROI

of a government-funded whānau wellbeing programme, to make the value-for-money case to the funder before scaling.

Health-economic evaluation

integrating Māori wellbeing frameworks with conventional cost-effectiveness analysis, for a government health agency.

05 Why Matatihi

Economic rigour, and genuine te ao Māori depth.

Plenty of providers can run a cost-benefit model. Far fewer can do that and evidence value the way He Ara Waiora and kaupapa Māori practice require — the direction the public sector is now moving. We do both, which is why our work holds up for the agency reviewer and rings true for the community it describes.

Our cost-benefit and SROI work has supported funding and investment decisions across sport, education, health, housing, tourism, infrastructure and community services — with analysis that survives review.

Selected results & clientsWork Impact assessment & SROIService The full SROI guideGuide · Free

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Need to prove value for money?

Whether you are appraising spend or bidding to deliver it, the first kōrero is free. Tell us what is on the table and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.

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