Our story
Kembali Consulting focuses on working through the complexity of public policy to create and partner toward finding real, meaningful solutions that positively impact people's lives. The work of Kembali focuses on partnering with clients and stakeholders to find real solutions to complex issues, particularly within the transport and public transport sector, and around broad issues of transition, transformation and intersection between the public and private sectors.
Our strategic and integrated approach has its origins in the Malay word – Kembali, which means "to return" or "homecoming". A return to basics. A return to roots or fundamentals to find solutions to complex issues. Kembali is focused on achieving homecoming and thereby shifting the fundamentals. We focus on ensuring the complex is deciphered and navigated. Importantly, we reimagine a meaningful homecoming for the Global South as we reposition our issues and drive solutions leveraging the immense talents in transformative and meaningful outcomes.
Kembali is rooted in South Africa with strong pan-African networks, ensuring we leverage insights, local knowledge and strategic insights. We work on multi-dimensional projects in the transport and public transport sectors, public sector projects, and ongoing issues around transition.
The story of Kembali begins with Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar, its founder, who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa – rooted in Cape Malay culture. His passion for this work is fueled by his experiences of being confronted by the dynamics of Apartheid spatial planning and minimal public policy or integrated transport solutions in his origins. Kembali is an opportunity to leverage expertise, experience and networks to drive public policy in a different direction.
Transport and public transport, in particular, provide a unique catalytic opportunity to shift opportunities and to unlock real futures for people. Critically, this lens or philosophy of approach informs how Kembali approaches complex issues to transform and positively impact local issues and broad public policy issues.
​
The focus of our work leverages institutional, regulatory, management, strategic and implementation knowledge, expertise, and skills to ensure our policy interventions and solutions are sense-checked, stress-tested and housed within the proper context.
We believe this is appropriate given how mega or public sector projects often obscure the real purpose or objective. Kembali's approach considers how public policy goals can support implementing solutions that both policymakers and decision-makers can rely on, ensuring confidence in proposed policy and projects that create real change and impact.
A fundamental building block at Kembali is that we partner on complex issues with policymakers and decision-makers to ensure that the "Complex is Deciphered".
Our Credentials
We are a proudly South African BBBEE Level 1 Contributor, a black-owned business (certificate number: 9330975702) with a commitment to empowerment, transformation and leveraging and supporting a network of skilled and exceptional talent that can drive change in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. Critically, we harness the talent of young people in the Global South and leverage specialist skills and unique insights to all our projects.
Our leadership
Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar
Founder
At the helm of Kembali is Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar, who has leveraged his professional and personal networks to provide Kembali with a Pan-African outlook and approach focused on driving change within the public policy arena.
Our approach is not focused narrowly on pure outcomes but rather about shifting strategy, process and facilitating real resolution that pushes the envelope and achieves a meaningful homecoming horizon with our clients and stakeholders.
A multi-disciplinary network of skilled individuals supports Kembali to fulfil our strategic objectives creating a deep pool of partner organisations with the necessary complementary skills to accentuate our technical skills and expertise. Partnerships are crucial for Kembali, and we seek to partner and create opportunities for capable and values-driven partners.
Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar has over 16 years of professional and corporate experience across multiple sectors, focusing on structuring, strategy, institutional and regulatory frameworks, and implementing public sector projects in various jurisdictions. For the past seven years, his primary focus has been around the structuring, business planning, institutional arrangements, and implementation of public transport projects in Africa. Andrew Ihsaan has managed large and multi-disciplinary teams on major public sector projects ensuring client delivery and overall quality assessment, and proper strategic planning.
He has also worked on major public-sector projects across various spheres of government in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. His career and experience have spanned over the professional services, non-profit/civil society, management consulting, public sector, and corporate environment, as well as the South African party-political environment (working in an executive capacity at a national level).
He holds an LLB (Law degree) from the University of the Western Cape, a Public Management diploma from Morgan State University (Baltimore, US as part of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship launched by President Barack Obama). Also, he holds an LLM (Masters degree) from the University of Cape Town with a focus on Environmental Law and issues of Public Law.