Our philosophy

Ask differently. Connect deliberately. Make the work practicable.

Our work begins with what is already present — and asks whose assumptions define a problem, who authorises the answer, how knowledge is classified and who is invited to design.

Unslaving ways of work Pathways to impact Intersectional by design Our values

01 · The intellectual stance

Unslaving
ways of work

Decolonisation dismantles colonial structures. Unslaving asks what remains captive in our imagination even after those structures appear to have changed.

Institutions can change their leadership and language while still running on inherited assumptions about expertise, legitimacy, strategy and progress. We help them recognise those inheritances — and give local knowledge, histories and lived realities equal authority in deciding what to build next.

02 · From critique to reconstruction

Co-create pathways to impact and success.

Critique alone rarely changes much. We move between four practices — challenging a grantmaking logic while still designing responsible processes, questioning a strategy cycle while still producing credible choices and resource models.

1

Interrogate assumptions

Name what has become settled, and whose frame it serves.

2

Recentre agency

Recognise where power, knowledge and resources already reside.

3

Reimagine possibilities

Imagine from another centre — honest about what is attainable.

4

Accompany process, action and create impact

Make the alternative workable — in systems, budgets and delivery.

03 · Intersectional by design

Support to examine how advantage and exclusion interact in your decisions and actions.

We look at how power, labour, knowledge, belonging and value influence decisions and actions. We work attentive to the plurality of lived experiences and realities rather than a universal template.

What the lens changes in practice

Enquiry & research

Examine whose questions and methods frame evidence; value lived experience, feminist knowledge and oral history.

Convening

Who can enter the room, whose voice is trusted, how care is resourced and disagreement held without coercion.

Grantmaking & philanthropy

Decision rights, administrative burdens, partner safety and compensation for community expertise.

Strategy & leadership

Succession, remuneration, unpaid work, culture, safeguarding and gendered expectations of leadership.

Creative collaboration

Attribution, consent, narrative ownership and communities’ right to contest representation.

Commercial delivery

Budgeting for accessibility, safeguarding, facilitation and fair collaborator pay.

Our values

The values that undergird the PIMVirg philosophy.

Agency & ownership

Clear on who owns a question and who decides. Accompaniment is never authorship of a movement.

Knowledge & attribution

Community knowledge, oral histories and creative work credited, with permissions agreed before publication.

Feminist safety & care

Meaningful access, contextual safeguarding and attention to unpaid and emotional labour.

Fair collaboration

Specialist and community expertise budgeted; no speculative unpaid labour.

Commercial transparency

Clear fees, milestones, expenses and timelines — sustainability without treating movement agency as expendable.

Context sensitivity

Careful risk assessment in restrictive contexts; no disclosure of sensitive work without permission.

Evidence & learning

Activity, outputs and outcomes kept distinct. No claims of impact that has not been demonstrated.

Responsible exit

Planned handover, knowledge access, credits and continued stewardship.

Ready to examine what might be built from another centre?

pimvirgconsulting@outlook.com · +254 180 955 375 · Nairobi, available for location-flexible engagements

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