What’s Next for Dignity?

This year, the IDinsight Dignity Initiative was at the 79th UN General Assembly. We convened the event ‘Making Respect Real in Development’. Our speakers were Rakesh Rajani of JustSystems, Cate Oswald of Partners in Health and Anshu Gupta of Goonj, moderated by Becca Gong Sharp, CEO of IDinsight. Please do watch the recording below.

Together they laid out a practical vision of what it takes to build cultures of dignity in development. We heard from them about fathers, teachers, first pairs of shoes and systems, and the common, sacred thread of human relationships that run through all of those.

“The research and global development communities must prioritize dignity and respect in our work, moving beyond mere mission and values statements. The Dignity Initiative at IDinsight offers measurement tools designed to help organizations integrate recognition, agency, and equality into their actions and practices.” – Becca Sharp, CEO, IDinsight

We heard that cultures of dignity are possible, and there are steps we can all take towards them.

So what do we do next? How do we make this real, and have some real progress to talk about in a year’s time?

One thing for implementing NGOs: Begin figuring out how you’re doing on dignity by taking the free Dignity Self-Assessment Tool, a 15 minute diagnosis exercise. If you’re ready to go deeper on this journey, let’s talk.

One thing for funders: Every leader on dignity has had to worry if doing so will cost them. Support them with your trust and patience. There is work that needs funding on a dignity coalition, and I know for certain shovel-ready impactful partnerships and studies.

One thing for researchers: Pick a question from the consensus research agenda on dignity and feed it into your studies. Especially, help us figure out what works on dignity.

One thing for everyone: Keep talking dignity – with us of course, but also with this budding community. Support one another to take practical steps. The Dignity Report 2024 will be out in December, our annual round up of progress (read 2023’s here). You can also keep up with developments in dignity by signing up for our newsletter here.