Moral clarity matters.

At the Center for Values in International Development (C4V) we

line drawing of a person climbing a sequence of columns to reach a flag

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

C4V 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.

C4V is redefining the current relief & development paradigm so that ethics takes a front-seat. C4V applies moral considerations and ethical analyses to achieve more just, caring, equitable, and sustainable processes and outcomes. C4V 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 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 […]

a woman stands grasping a large soursop fruit in a tree

Beyond Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming

By Anna Malavisi, PhD (Vice President) | August 28, 2022

In July of this year, USAID published a report titled, “Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming,” produced by the Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning team. I’ll begin by commending the Agency on this report, as it identifies some of the most important factors necessary for effective, meaningful development. For example, the report emphasizes the inclusion […]

people walking in Moldova Pride holding big pink hearts overhead

Pride, for Everyone

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | June 15, 2022

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 […]

woman looks at computer in a concerned or confused way

Threats to Respect, Threats to Dignity

By Guest | April 16, 2022

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 […]

Chloe Schwenke speaking at the 2017 conference of the Society for International Development in Washington, DC.

A Change to the Paradigm?

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | March 24, 2022

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 […]

a row boat in a storm with a kite flying overhead

Climate crisis as a human crisis – facing inhumanity with ethical creativity

By Guest | March 12, 2022

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 […]

members of the Russian army

Putin’s sovereignty

By Chloe Schwenke, PhD (President) | February 24, 2022

“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 […]

people in the street holding signs

Promoting Democratic Values to Prevent Democratic Backsliding

By Guest | January 16, 2022

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 […]

sandy background with a sheaf of grass

The Greening of the No-Self

By Anna Malavisi, PhD (Vice President) | November 28, 2021

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 […]

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