About Vashi Impact Group

An all-women-led firm with a feminist, intersectional agenda

We are an all-women led firm that specifically seeks to address a feminist, social inclusion and intersectional agenda across the globe. Our main aim is to address gender and social inequalities, and intergenerational poverty.

Meet our team Vision & mission

Who we are

Led entirely by women from Black, Minority, and Ethnic backgrounds

Vashi Impact Group (VIG) is a registered international development and humanitarian consultancy group. We are a collective led entirely by women from Black, Minority, and Ethnic backgrounds, with headquarters in Cambridge with offices in New Delhi, Kabul, and Kampala.

As a feminist organisation, our principles and practices are deeply influenced by the ground-breaking work of prominent thinkers and activists such as Bell Hooks, Maya Angelou, June Jordan, Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, Pragna Patel, Nira-Yuval Davis, Avtar Brah, and Kimberly Crenshaw. Their insights inspire and inform our approach, guiding us in our relentless pursuit of social justice and equity.

Cambridge (HQ)
New Delhi
Kabul
Kampala

Vision statement

Setting an international standard for ethically delivered expert services in conflict and non-conflict contexts ensuring the principles of do-no-harm approach and safeguarding.

Our Vision

To advance knowledge production and evidence-based policymaking from the Global South by centring the expertise and lived experiences of individuals from conflict-affected and non-conflict settings.

Our Mission

To advance evidence-based research and evaluation by actively engaging individuals from historically marginalised communities, including persons with disabilities, minority groups, and refugees, primarily from the Global South.

Our Commitment

We uphold the principles of the do-no-harm approach and safeguarding throughout the research and evaluation processes, ensuring our work contributes positively to the well-being and resilience of communities worldwide.

We are deeply committed to advancing a feminist and intersectional agenda across Asian, MENA, Latin American, and African regions. Our overarching goal is to address pervasive gender and social inequalities, as well as intergenerational poverty on a global scale.

Our values

The principles that guide every project

Intersectionality

We understand people's identities and experiences are shaped by multiple factors and that these factors cannot be understood or addressed in isolation from one another. We look at our clients’ data from the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, gender, and other identities, as they apply to an individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Safeguarding and ethics

We treat individuals with respect, empathy, and compassion, recognising their fundamental humanity and rights. We uphold dignity that involves fostering an environment where people feel valued, heard, and empowered to express themselves without fear of discrimination or marginalisation.

Stakeholder Engagement

We actively engage stakeholders and consult with individuals, groups, and organisations who are affected by or have a vested interest in a particular issue, decision, or process. We emphasise open communication, collaboration, and participation to ensure that diverse perspectives are considered, concerns are addressed, and decisions are made with the input and involvement of relevant stakeholders, especially of those from the global south.

Accountability

We hold our stakeholders and ourselves accountable. We take responsibility to answer for one's actions, decisions, and performance. It involves being transparent about commitments, and expectations, taking ownership of outcomes, and accepting consequences for both successes and failures. As such, we promote trust, integrity, and reliability in relationships and institutions by holding individuals and organisations accountable for their conduct and the impact of their actions on others.

Transparency

We promote transparency and involve openness, honesty, and clarity in communication, decision-making, and operations. It entails providing accessible and understandable information about processes, policies, and outcomes, allowing stakeholders to make informed choices, ask questions, and hold decision-makers accountable. We promote visibility and reduce ambiguity or secrecy in our communication with clients.

Quality

For us, quality encompasses the standard of excellence or superiority in products, services, processes, and outcomes. It involves delivering results that meet or exceed expectations, fulfil requirements, and satisfy stakeholders' needs and preferences. Our quality is defined by timeliness and attention to detail. Timeliness refers to completing tasks or delivering solutions within established deadlines or reasonable timeframes, demonstrating reliability and responsiveness. Attention to detail involves being thorough, meticulous, and precise in work processes, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and reliability in outputs and avoiding errors or oversights that could compromise quality or effectiveness.

Meet our team

The faces behind our success

Our team consists of individuals affected by war, people with disability, refugees, women, and individuals from minority backgrounds. Our team is based across the globe and maintain links with grassroots organisations, government agencies, development partners and the private sector.

Apart from being fluent in English, VIG team members can communicate in a number of languages including Sign Language, French, Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, Pashto, Farsi, Luganda, Somali, Amharic, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi.

Leadership

Ritu Mahendru, PhD

Chief Executive Officer & GESI Evaluation Director

Dr Ritu Mahendru brings over 25 years of experience in consulting, technology, and the international development sector to VIG. Throughout her career, she has led evaluation teams and managed global programmes addressing issues such as child poverty, social protection, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI).

As the driving force behind VIG’s vision, Dr Mahendru has played a pivotal role in shaping the organisation’s work across 56 countries. A published author, she has contributed extensively to peer-reviewed journals and written journalistic pieces highlighting people’s lived experiences of inequality and marginalisation.

Currently based in Uganda, she enjoys cycling, running, yoga, singing, and horse riding.