“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.” -John F. Kennedy

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” –Seneca

Viola Allo, a Cameroonian-born ethnographer and writer based in California, joined our team to help us design a project sensitive to the needs of our beneficiaries. In doing so, she draws on her training in cultural anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork she performed in Nigeria and Cameroon. Much of her research and personal interest lies in issues faced by rural African women, so her contributions are invaluable to our effort.

As the Village Diary operations manual began to take shape, Viola suggested that we needed a section devoted to ethical considerations for the project. We decided from the start that our project would be guided by the highest standards of ethics in our conduct within the community. Few would disagree with such a sentiment. However, for a project such as ours—or any humanitarian or development effort, for that matter—what does this mean, practically?

To address this question, we began with an overview of International Development Ethics and studied the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Convention on the Rights of the Child and related documents. Viola added the American Anthropological Association’s Code of Ethics (PDF) and provided a sample consent form used in her fieldwork. These sources helped us frame the needs for an ethical approach in our work, but we still lacked a practical how-to guide.

Many hours and revisions later, Viola has crafted just such a guide. From her opening section on Ethics & Values:

“Our ethical standards reveal the conscience of our project and our efforts. Over time, the values we uphold for the project should become a part of our team’s moral code—a list of things we see as true, a core of philosophies and practices we will commit to, and a set of principles we will not compromise. These things will guide the decisions we make.”

She goes on to outline a code of ethics that includes key elements such as transparency, openness, privacy, confidentiality, context and respect. Viola outlines her concept of a “People First” approach:

“We will put the wellbeing of clients first. Project goals and progress are important but secondary. Our personal ambitions, too, are secondary. Our primary concern is the wellbeing of those we serve… We must strive, as best we can, to see those we serve as people we can learn from. They are the experts on their lives and worlds, and as such, they are our teachers.”

Using this as a foundation, Viola expands on ethical considerations for services offered to vulnerable individuals including women, children and victims of abuse. She then tackles the thorny issue of collecting information from these individuals, with a focus on informed consent, data collection methods and the roles of fieldworkers and custodians.

Since the Village Diary IT platform is designed to collect, store and disseminate information related to our beneficiaries, Viola’s guide also addresses ethics in computer and Internet data storage, transparency and sharing data with donors, guardians, sponsors, and beneficiaries.

Viola’s work on this topic provides both a core philosophy and a practical guide to ethics in service to others. Perhaps its greatest value is that it is applicable not only to our project; it may be used to inform an ethical approach for any organization engaged in humanitarian, aid or development work. In the spirit of transparency and collaboration, we’re offering Viola’s complete ethics guide in PDF format.

Download Ethics, Values and Serving Others (PDF) by Viola Allo.

As a working document, Viola and the Village Diary team value any and all feedback on it. If you find it useful, have comments or additions to it, feel free to post your thoughts below.