Our Manifesto
Anchored in Human Prosperity
We understand that global development and global affairs is complicated and nuanced. But regardless of the complexity of politics, economics, and social norms, we deeply believe in the fundamental human rights and human dignity of all people. To us, this is non-negotiable. All people deserve peace, justice and equality, period. This fundamental belief anchors our work and keeps us grounded in the larger purpose we are here to serve.
Embrace Uncertainty As Progressive Innovators
We take risks and believe in a world that can be through understanding the current system. Given the complexity of the issues we face, we are committed to addressing issues holistically, understanding we need to build power and align across multiple movements and sectors to disrupt systems. Innovation and welcome change, challenges, and failures as we adapt and learn.
Honor Individualism, Through Togetherness
The world is made up of 7+ billion unique humans. While we strive to embrace diversity, we honor the uniqueness of our individual human experience. It’s in embracing diversity and difference that we can thrive, together. Diversity is critical to ensuring that conversations are infused with new ways of thinking, enhanced creativity, new knowledge, and a deeper understanding of difference. In promoting quality and embracing diversity, the Humanity Lab ensures that individual voices of people are valued and that all people have access to opportunity, regardless of their background, geography and differences.
We Honor History, While Transforming Systems
While the needs of the world are dire and urgent, we understand that true change is progressive, incremental and takes time.
Embracing Dignity and Unleashing Agency
For too long, global communities and individuals are tokenized in development. We believe that those impacted by global issues are closest to the source of ‘truth’. In lifting the voices and enhancing the impact of those closest to the problems we are working to solve, we can build the trust needed to create progress. In creating space for community engagement, we are able to unleash the agency, passion and potential of stakeholders who have systematically been overlooked, marginalized and ignored. We believe in the wealth of potential that exists in human capital. We live by the phrase: “people don’t need to be empowered, they need opportunity.”
Fundamentally, We Are Advocates and Humanists
We have the culture of a grassroots movement that fundamentally believes in the importance of social justice and human dignity. Social Justice and Community Resilience - We create space to increase opportunities for those who are least well off, politically, socially and economically
Human-Centric
Responsible and accountable human progress can only be built if it is anchored in Integrity, Empathy and Compassion. Sadly, words that are often left out of the language used by the industries that drive global development, international affairs, politics, business and innovation. In aligning our work with human values, we are committed to ensuring our work is principled, holistic and built on the hard work of many social innovators that came before us.
Break Silos and Inspire Collaboration
We understand how industries and systems work. Because of our track record in working with organizations, businesses, governments, UN, etc etc we have the power to build. We believe in collective responsibility where we co-develop our shared value through partnerships and meaningful engagement. We can only achieve this by acting with Integrity by assuming best intent and anchor ourselves and others around human prosperity