Moral clarity matters.

At the Center for Values in International Development (the Center) we

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Elevate

Elevate the awareness, understanding, and essential role of a values-based discourse in international relief & development

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Integrate

Integrate ethics pragmatically to inform all aspects of relief & development activities

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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.

A woman in a black headscarf throws her head back in anguish

Palestine – Moral Clarity and Moral Confusion

By Anna Malavisi, PhD (Vice President) | November 10, 2023

Like many people, I have been transfixed watching the events currently unfolding in the Middle East. It has been unsettling to witness the varying reactions of people to this appalling tragedy, to see how differently people are reacting when compared to the Ukraine/Russia war, and to see how the world is simply ignoring the tragic […]

black and white image of hands gripping the bars of a cell

Dignity Under Confinement

By Guest | August 31, 2023

In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly, drawing its inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that document’s robust affirmation of inherent human dignity, adopted Resolution A/RES/70/175, better known as the Nelson Mandela Rules: “The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners”. In the name of the late South African President Nelson […]

Transformational – not transformative – leadership

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | July 17, 2023

I’m an unrepentant advocate of “transformational” leadership – not “transformative” leadership. Is this a semantics storm in a teacup? After all, “transformative” and “transformational” are similar terms…but there are important differences. “Transformative” generally refers to something that brings about a significant change or transformation. It implies a person, process, or an event that has the […]

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A fundamental question of hope

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | June 19, 2023

Once again, it’s Pride Month around the world. Unlike most such commemorative Pride Months in the recent past, however, the joyful celebrations of identity, expression, rights, and dignity that Pride signifies are now tinged with an ominous and – particularly for transgender persons – alarming recognition. The anti-LGBTQI+ pushback, well-orchestrated and exceptionally well-funded, has now […]

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Artificial Intelligence, and Ian’s school

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | May 19, 2023

In 2018, I had the remarkable opportunity to visit my son while he was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa. Ian taught at a public secondary school in the Ouesse commune in the Collines Department of Benin, with students ranging in age from 10 to 25. The school facilities were very […]

three people gathered around a laptop

But what problems can applied ethics solve?

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | March 20, 2023

In late 2011, just six months into my service as a Senior Advisor to USAID (political appointee under the Obama administration), I managed to convene a gathering of eleven of USAID’s top strategic planners and senior analysts in one room. I posed a single question to them: “Would it not be advantageous to include the […]

Morality in foreign policy: reflections on a remarkable gentleman from Plains, Georgia

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | February 27, 2023

It was June of 1979, and I was newly arrived in Kenya for what would become ten years working in and exploring that beautiful country. Being a little insecure in this new environment, I was cautious when a young Kenyan man approached me in Nairobi while I stood in the long queue awaiting entrance to the National Museum of Kenya. Still, his smile was disarmingly warm as […]

a sepia colored photo of a man walking down a dirt road at dawn

Yearning for meaning in international development

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | February 3, 2023

It takes a certain acquired skill to balance a career as a practitioner in humanitarian response and international development with a “night job” as an adjunct professor of public policy.  I have done this delicate balancing act at both Georgetown University and the University of Maryland for two decades; I have no plans to stop […]

a compass with a black background. the red north arrow points to the words Core Value

USAID’s Core Values:  Really “Core”?

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | October 14, 2022

My first and only visit to the African Development Bank, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, was in 1989. I went there expressly to meet with their environmental specialist, an American gentleman whose name I sadly cannot now recall. I was then a very young town & regional planner, based in Nairobi, and I was very interested in […]

several dark-skinned medical professionals in blue scrubs, masks, and hairnets with heads bowed

International Development and Health: Rethinking Global Pessimism about the Future

By Guest | October 3, 2022

By Sean A. Valles, Director and Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University Pessimism about the future is rising around much of the world. Meanwhile, the social institutions of democracy are experiencing slipping public support. The global COVID-19 pandemic has also drawn attention to the importance and […]

The Center for Values in International Development
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Washington, DC 20006
USA

Registered as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia, USA, and tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.