2024 Dignity Report

In 2022, a group of scholars and development practitioners interested in advancing dignity came together to develop the Consensus Research Agenda on dignity. It laid out five urgent questions about dignity: 

1. How is dignity to be defined? 
2. How can respectfulness be measured? 
3. How do dignity and respect operate? 
4. What acts increase perceptions of respectfulness, and what are the consequences of that?
5. How do actors and sectors regard dignity, and what actions will increase support for a dignity agenda?

We spent our first years on the first three questions: understanding dignity and how to measure it, drawing together a global network of allies, and honing in on impact. That work has equipped us to address this next crucial question of rigorously testing what works. We are just at the beginning of that journey.

We believe that piloting and testing the most promising dignity interventions will help us understand what works to better respect human dignity and talk more precisely about the benefits of doing so. 

But we also want to acknowledge this is just one piece of the puzzle, and at times the work ahead can feel daunting. This year, we witnessed horrific assaults on human dignity worldwide. Some of us have felt helpless in the face of such human suffering. We have asked one another what we can do. 

One thing we know is we have to keep moving forward. We can’t give up. We look to our colleagues, to the practitioners working hard to uphold dignity on the ground every day, and to the funders supporting this work for inspiration every day. We aspire to be leaders who are willing to look inward and have honest (and hard) conversations about their potential shortfalls. 

As we continue on the What Works? journey, the IDinsight Dignity Initiative will keep spreading the word, building, and growing coalitions, and defending the dignity agenda. In due time, we hope to consider the lessons this work holds for governments and public policy worldwide. 

We hope you will join us on that journey. Wherever we go and whatever progress we may make, it must serve more human systems, better serving the preferences of those with the least power in our shared world.