Integrating Care and Ensuring Accountability in International Development

Providing expert advice to rethink, re-define and reimagine diversity, equity and inclusion culture and anti – racism practice in international organizations.

In 2018, at the onset of the #MeToo moment, many organizations sought to position themselves as thought leaders on various social justices issues specifically on the matter of race and diversity.

The international development and humanitarian sector was particularly hard hit because of its own self – congratulatory branding of being in the business of “doing good”.

As a result, the “doing good” sector was stunned by the cacophony of voices alleging sexual misconduct, racial discrimination and harassment in the workplace both domestically as well as in country offices all over the globe.

In 2019 and 2020, global movements such as Black Lives Matter began to offer clear evidence of need generating intense interest around, race and racism, white supremacy culture, critical race theory, white professional norms in the workplace and anti-black racism.

Although Black Lives Matter was a direct response to police brutality in the United States, these incidences fueled massive global protests challenging this system of brutality.

The movement sought to explain police violence by connecting it to powers of oppression that have long simmered under the surface of everyday life for black people and other people of color.

Organizations saw challenges to business models that maintained and elevated white norms as the standard bearer.

DiverseDEV was established in 2018 following the very public scandals about racial discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct to focus on mission driven institutions in the international aid and development communities.

DiverseDEV was created to provide analysis, training, thought leadership using a very specific and unique lens – that of a black woman with over ten years of experience in the international development sector.

To build resilient and sustainable strategies, organizations must understand how power, privilege, and history have impacted people differently.

To address deep disparities and systemic challenges, DiverseDev believes organizations need to examine failures of whole systems, identify tangible opportunities to improve their own diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and rebuild equitable structures at both the individual and system level.

This will take new approaches that move beyond compliance driven efforts that focus on equity and inclusion and transform these tools into strategic drivers to achieve social justice. We work with organizations to drive social justice at the individual and systemic level so people from all backgrounds can thrive.

DiverseDEV fully understands the importance that investing in gender equality, social inclusion and women’s empowerment can have in unlocking human potential on a transformational scale.

In order for societies to thrive, women and girls, men and boys must have equal access to basic services such as education, healthcare, and technology.

They must have equal control of assets and resources like finance, lands, and markets. And they must have equal rights and opportunities as peace-builders and leaders. We fundamentally believe that unless women and girls, men and boys, fully enjoy their human rights and are free from violence, progress toward development will fall short.

DiverseDEV will provide diversity, equity and inclusion and anti-racism training with a focus on fostering an inclusive work environment.

DiverseDEV will provide a roadmap that will institutionalize standards for equity behavior to global organizations, domestic institutes, foundations and international agencies that are seeking to embed equity and justice as core principles to advance their organizational mission.