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Why stories need to serve dignity, not our narratives

Lorreen Ajiambo 26 November 2025

Stories are powerful.

They move hearts, inspire action, and give human texture to the data that drives decisions. But stories can also distort, oversimplify, or take credit where it isn’t due. At IDinsight, we believe storytelling should never outshine the people at the center of our work. Our commitment is to tell stories that affirm dignity, respect consent, and amplify, not replace, evidence.

We’re not the hero of the story

Every story starts with a choice: who is the protagonist? Too often in the social sector, we cast ourselves as the changemakers, positioning the organization or project as the hero. But in truth, the changemakers and communities we work alongside are the ones driving transformation. Our role is to support and learn from them, and to tell their stories in ways that reflect their voices and perspectives.

When we share a story, we ask: Would this person recognize themselves in what we’ve written? If the answer is no, we need to start again. Accurate storytelling demands humility: crediting partners and participants for their agency and expertise without inflating our role in bringing about change.

Our influences: We have learned from the work of Wellcome Trust, especially on lived experience. We admire the work of Fairpicture, Africa No Filter, and the Dignified Storytelling initiative’s ten principles. Amid the cruel cuts to international development aid that have shaped much of our sector in 2025, we valued those efforts to put ordinary stories of the least powerful alongside hard data, such as that by Ground Truth Solutions. Above all, we endeavour to keep learning from those our research seeks to support.

Stories are not a substitute for impact

Anecdotes bring data to life, but they cannot stand in its place. At IDinsight, we only use stories about impact when other evidence gives us high confidence that a program has achieved meaningful impact. Our Impact Improvement Team validates this before any anecdote is shared publicly. This ensures stories are grounded in data, not driven by desire for good publicity.

When used responsibly, stories become amplifiers, illustrating what impact looks like in real lives and communities. They help funders, policymakers, and partners understand the human side of evidence. But when stories are shared without verification, they risk misleading audiences and undermining trust in the very work we aim to advance.

This year, the Communications Team and Dignity Initiative worked together to affirm these long-standing principles and translate them into clear, formal guidance for all our project teams.

Consent and consequence

Storytelling is not neutral. Sharing someone’s personal experience can have real and lasting consequences for their privacy, safety, and dignity. That is why every story we collect requires informed consent (distinct from research consent) and must include a clear explanation of where and how the story will appear. We offer participants the opportunity to review their story before publication and to withdraw consent at any point. Ethical storytelling means being as careful with people’s stories as we are with their data.

Dignity-affirming storytelling is everyone’s responsibility at IDinsight, not just the communications team’s. Whether in field visits, presentations, or client briefings, we have a collective duty to ensure that the stories we tell reflect truth, context, and respect. Each story needs to honor the individual, complement the evidence, and uphold our values of honesty, humility, and impact.

We encourage our peers across the sector to treat stories not as tools of persuasion, but as acts of partnership and care.

Case study: the lives of Kanyi Wyban and Vix Jensen

In the 2022 Dignity Report, the Kenyan writer, musician and activist Kanyi Wyban told us his story. In 600 words, he conveyed several lifetimes’ worth of pain and pride. In publishing this, we considered how we would place his expertise alongside other leaders of dignity, many of them with more degrees and professional status than life has allowed Wyban to acquire. We considered fair compensation for his work. We spoke directly about whether this would be a respectful experience for him. Since then, we have continued to work with him – most recently in his own work to collect stories illustrating dignity in his home neighborhood of Mathare. We have always tried to quote from him in ways that relay far more than just his pain.

In this year’s Dignity Report, we hear from Vix Jensen. Once again, we aspire to ensure that this is an enduring relationship of respectful collaboration, that expresses Vix’s full expertise and energy, in addition to the difficulties she has faced in a world not designed for her body.