My Story
My name is Deborah Thomas. As a mixed race child growing up in a white working class neighbourhood, inequality and discrimination were lived realities and my passion for social justice was born. Trained early to observe, analyse, manoevre and speak out, my intrinsic interest in cultural diversity naturally led me to the world of international development.
The early part of my career was spent in India and Pakistan working for the UK’s aid agency, learning the importance of relationships and influence to bring about change, how government bureaucracies’ work, and engaging with women and poor people whose voices never seemed to be heard.
Today I can share over 30 years of experience of working on international development.
The Company
We believe that local people have to be the drivers of social, political and institutional change and our role is to facilitate and enable them to lead, innovate, learn, broker and mobilise support for change be it among policy circles or at the community level.
We take a problem-driven and results-oriented approach to development where evidence and analysis is central to finding solutions, monitoring implementation, measuring results and learning how solutions need to be adapted for impact and sustainability.
Our goal is to facilitate the transformation of government and community systems so that they deliver accessible services to all, equitable outcomes and become a driving force for gender and socially inclusive development. We want to see the equity gap in institutional deliveries eliminated; the social gradient in health between remote and more accessible areas a thing of the past; and violence against women and girls abhorred and eradicated.
Our mission is to continue to share our experience and to contribute to a more socially inclusive and equal society.
Bias & Backlash - the invisible forces holding woman back (© UNDP)
Human Development Report 2019 - inequalities in human development in the 21st century (© UNDP)
