Yearning for meaning in international development

Yearning for meaning in international development a sepia colored photo of a man walking down a dirt road at dawn

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 […]

USAID’s Core Values:  Really “Core”?

USAID’s Core Values:  Really “Core”? a compass with a black background. the red north arrow points to the words Core Value

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 […]

International Development and Health: Rethinking Global Pessimism about the Future

International Development and Health: Rethinking Global Pessimism about the Future several dark-skinned medical professionals in blue scrubs, masks, and hairnets with heads bowed

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 […]

Beyond Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming

Beyond Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming a woman stands grasping a large soursop fruit in a tree

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 […]

Pride, for Everyone

Pride, for Everyone people walking in Moldova Pride holding big pink hearts overhead

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

Threats to Respect, Threats to Dignity woman looks at computer in a concerned or confused way

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?

A Change to the Paradigm? Chloe Schwenke speaking at the 2017 conference of the Society for International Development in Washington, DC.

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

Climate crisis as a human crisis – facing inhumanity with ethical creativity a row boat in a storm with a kite flying overhead

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

Putin’s sovereignty members of the Russian army

“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

Promoting Democratic Values to Prevent Democratic Backsliding people in the street holding signs

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 […]

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