Building cultures of dignity

If dignity is essential, as previous editions of the Dignity Report have shown, then we must seek to build it. This year, we put the spotlight on the organizations and people in the development sector wrestling with enduring cultures of dignity – starting with our own internal work at IDinsight. We hope to share practical lessons for leaders advancing dignity within their organisations. 

Organizational cultures of dignity

Various studies, including our latest analysis of the Afrobarometer and Arab Barometer surveys, have consistently shown that people value being treated in a way that respects their dignity and yet disrespect is very common. To address this and build a development sector that values and upholds people’s dignity, we require innovation, learning and improvement at all levels of the sector. 

One obvious first priority is a service provider’s external interactions, and ensuring these interactions are respectful. But to build and sustain these impacts at large scale we need to expand our scope beyond just looking at service delivery points. We need to critically analyse and reflect on our internal processes, systems and most importantly, people. It is those cultures that power and sustain change in external interactions. In this we have learned from the work on dignity of IDinsight board member Seye Abimbola, which emphasises broader structural changes alongside everyday practices.

We believe that truly sustainable and respectful change begins with an internal commitment. Dignity cannot only be something we promise to participants; it must shape the very culture of our organizations. When staff are treated with respect, when processes reflect fairness, and when leaders models trust, dignity turns from being a stated value to a lived one. Our allies in the sector  have continuously shown us that organizations that foster dignity among their staff and in their processes are better equipped to deliver programs that are respectful, inclusive, and sustainable. Thus we decided to focus on building a culture of dignity from the inside out as the guiding theme of the 2025 Dignity Report.

Our internal work this year

At IDinsight, we treat this as a core institutional priority. Our leadership is committed to this vision, believing that our internal values and actions must align with our external mission of building positive impact for people’s lives. This past year, we have taken several concrete steps to integrate the principles of dignity into our everyday operations. This includes new internal training, new processes, protocols, communication channels and much more designed to keep the conversation around dignity active and central to our work. 

Various teams across the organization have taken initiative to lead this work. And through this report we invite some of these teams to share how they have grappled with the questions of dignity day to day and how they have come together as a team to envision a fairer and more respectful way of working. The following chapters will explore in detail how we are incorporating a dignity lens into our projects, how we are ensuring dignified storytelling with communities, our newly expanded ethics policy and finally how we are thinking about dignity in innovations like AI – that are disrupting the sector and that are at the heart of IDinsight’s new strategy. 

For other organizations in the sector, we believe these journeys offer several key learnings. We believe these are the most important lessons we can share

• Begin with honest self-reflection: The first step is to confront your organization’s blind spots. This requires a diagnostic approach that goes beyond good intentions. Tools like our Dignity Self-Assessment provide a structured starting point, helping teams identify where their current practices may be falling short. This needs to be followed up with more rigorous diagnosis to understand the key barriers and possible ways to improve. This initial diagnosis is crucial before any meaningful action can be taken.
• Integrate dignity into core processes: It’s not enough to simply provide resources. Dignity must be woven into the fabric of your organization’s processes and pathways. This means embedding it in project or program design, ethical review, HR policies, and team communication. It requires moving from a mindset of a separate lens for projects to one of foundational integration. Within IDinsight, we analysed the flows of how our work and culture is approved and shaped, and sought out the ‘choke points’ when important and lasting decisions are made, such as at our approval process for new projects, ethics review, and project kickoff materials, to ensure dignity is upheld.
• Sustain the effort with leadership and communication: Building a culture of dignity is a long-term commitment, not a one-time project. It calls for leaders to consistently and visibly champion these values. Continuous internal communication is also vital to keep the conversation alive, share learnings, and ensure that everyone feels a sense of shared ownership in upholding these principles. This sustained effort creates the necessary environment for dignity to move from a stated value to a lived one.
• Prioritize “Deep Practice” especially in adversity: While consistent leadership communication is vital, actions matter significantly more than words in shifting mindsets. The true test of a culture is how it behaves during high-stakes moments. Acting with courage and principle during a crisis or when facing difficult trade-offs has a far greater impact on culture than general pronouncements. 
• Commit to continuous learning: Building a culture of dignity is a long-term commitment that requires patience for trial and error. This needs continuous learning supported by regular measurement that generates feedback loops, embeds institutional learning and ensures accountability to the standards we commit ourselves to. We also have much to learn from other movements, peer organisations, and above all from the wide body of evidence on these questions. We have previously profiled other organisations building cultures of dignity, and in this year’s report we are glad to learn from the disability rights campaigner Vix Jensen about her efforts.

Looking ahead, we are committed to building on this foundation. Our goal is to continue to refine our practices, share our learnings, and collaborate with others in the sector to build a movement. Each organization will walk its own path toward making dignity a lived culture, shaped by their unique contexts. Yet, our journeys are also deeply connected: the choices we make, individually and collectively, shape not only our work but also the direction of the sector as a whole. We invite you to join this effort, and to share your own journey toward dignity with us. Our collective progress depends on the courage to learn, share, and grow together.