Dignity and development

This paper looks at the idea of ‘dignity’ and forms part of Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace’s series on ‘defining key concepts’ in development and philanthropy. The 1948 Declaration of Human Rights enshrined dignity as the central goal of development, yet the term is not clearly defined, which makes it difficult to pursue and impossible to measure. Different people and organizations committed to the pursuit of dignity are likely to have different understandings of the term. The aim of this paper is to come up with a clearer definition of dignity and to begin to explore approaches to measuring it. We hope this will help people working in the field to improve their practice and increase the impact of what they do.

Authors: Barry Knight & Chandrika Sahai, edited by Caroline Hartnell

Published by: Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace

Published: October 2018

Download: ‘Dignity and development’