Moral clarity matters.
At the Center for Values in International Development (the Center) we
Elevate
Elevate the awareness, understanding, and essential role of a values-based discourse in international relief & development
Integrate
Integrate ethics pragmatically to inform all aspects of relief & development activities
Advocate
Advocate for the regular use of applied ethics to yield more just, caring, equitable, and sustainable development outcomes and processes
Our Vision
The Center envisions a global movement towards respect for universal human dignity, under which ethics holds a pragmatic and influential role.
Our Mission
Centering values in international relief & development.
The Center is redefining the current relief & development paradigm so that ethics takes a front-seat. The Center applies moral considerations and ethical analyses to achieve more just, caring, equitable, and sustainable processes and outcomes. The Center works with governments, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, foundations, and development practitioners to incorporate ethics into all aspects of their activities to foster human flourishing and a healthy environment.
Pride, for Everyone
Pride Month is here, but its significance varies enormously depending on your moral stance on sexual and gender minorities. Critics argue that gay and transgender people contravene norms of human relationships and identity that have largely prevailed – with some notable exceptions and grey areas – for millennia. In truth, heteronormativity and cisgender bias have […]
Threats to Respect, Threats to Dignity
How Social Media Challenges Conceptions of Respect and Jeopardizes Human Dignity It is nearly impossible to speak of the concept of dignity without also using the term “respect.” Indeed, dignity is a noun, and grammatical rules insist that in order to use dignity in a sentence, it must have a verb attached to it. Very […]
A Change to the Paradigm?
Is it simply the height of absurdity for a small, start-up non-profit organization called the Center for Values in International Development to think we might provoke a course-correction for a major federal agency? Almost certainly. Especially when this non-profit stands alone as the only organization of ethicists working in the international relief and development industry […]
Climate crisis as a human crisis – facing inhumanity with ethical creativity
This reflection considers the fate of humanity at the intersection between the climate crisis and the migrant crisis. The international regimes of climate governance and humanitarian protection are moving in opposite directions, tearing the fabric of our shared humanity, and creating abyssal inhumanity at Europe’s borders and on the high seas. In a striking essay […]
Putin’s sovereignty
“Contempt for human beings is intrinsic to the mentality of officials who rule rights-denying states.” These words by Princeton philosopher George Kateb have seldom been more clearly and tragically demonstrated than what we are now witnessing as Vladimir Putin launches his barbaric assault against the people and the free, democratic nation of Ukraine. Such a […]
Promoting Democratic Values to Prevent Democratic Backsliding
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, democracy was under threat. That threat continues. Around the world, the repression of peaceful protests, the use of extra-constitutional measures against periodic and free elections, the troubling reality of unequal protection under the law, and much more have come to characterize the severe negligence of core democratic practices, threatening the […]
The Greening of the No-Self
I participated in a conference a few weeks ago on Sustainable Peace, and during discussion on my presentation: “Thinking Sustainability, Thinking Peace,” many of the questions were about “the greening of the self” – a phrase that I used in my presentation. The phrase is not mine; it has its origins with a chapter by […]
The Importance of the Female Perspective
As many nations across the world strive towards democratic development, the gap between the number of male and female politicians continues to plague the globe. Out of 193 countries, just 22 have a female head of state and countries that boast equality in their national cabinet is limited to 13 (Vogelstein & Bro, 2021). In […]
Ethical leadership for Africa’s Agriculture Development
In a crisis, people call out for strong, ethical leadership. The world is now dealing with the decisions that leaders have made that have led to deep inequities in accessing the COVID-19 vaccines. Leaders from high income countries acted quickly to galvanize scientific energies and resources for vaccine development but have acted unethically in hindering […]
USAID: Owning the Moral Agenda in the Global Pandemic Response
Globally, and especially in the least affluent countries in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to push the demand for moral clarity in decision-making to ever higher standards of transparency and accountability. Within international relief and development policy and practice, ethical concerns become much more difficult to tackle when multiple demands are placed on limited […]