As a global organization with offices and partners in many countries and seeking talent from a variety of areas of expertise and settings, we recognize that a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture are critical to the success of our mission and programmes. Our teams gather an exceptional mix of expertise and embrace our cultural, ethnicity, gender, and other differences. Our culture is also rich and complex as it cuts across science and advocacy worlds, yet neither science nor advocacy alone define us. The first among our values is to be people-centred.

We are committed to creating a work environment that values human dignity and equality; we strive to drive innovation, performance, and productivity by empowering our diverse workforce to use their unique skills, ideas, perspectives, and qualities every day; and we support staff in realizing their full potential by removing employment-related disadvantages and barriers to participation, including through flexible working arrangements. We don’t tolerate any act of discrimination, which we see as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion, human rights, as well as organizational effectiveness.

Our Board of Directors and Executive Committee are sponsors of gender equality and geographic diversity at DNDi, and they encourage inclusion in all its forms. With diverse representation on our Board of Directors (12 nationalities from 5 continents*), we strive to ensure further gender diversity by ensuring that the candidate pool for each new board appointment includes both male and female candidates. Our Global Executive Team, with 13 nationalities from 5 continents*, guides the development and oversight of DNDi’s Integrated People Strategy in partnership with our Human Resources team.

* as of October 2022

In 2018, we established a Gender, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group with representatives in all our offices to help guide our actions towards achieving our vision of a workplace that is equally enabling for all, in all our diversity. Its first focus was to explore gender diversity issues and inform the development of DNDi’s proactive agenda for gender & R&D. Its current focus is to explore the broader diversity agenda, including a rich internal dialog on how DNDi might continue to help address structural racism in global health and R&D institutions as well as adopt best practices in preventing this complex mechanism of discrimination.

A respectful and harmonious workplace

At DNDi, we are committed to creating and maintaining a respectful and positive workplace for all employees. We strive to ensure that all employees are treated fairly, and that no employee is subjected to harassment of any kind.

Our staff are expected to contribute to building a harmonious workplace and working relationships based on team spirit, dignity, caring, fairness, respect, tolerance, equality, and understanding.

All are equally expected to uphold the dignity of all persons with whom they come into contact inside and outside the organization, especially those who are vulnerable, by ensuring that their personal and professional conduct is always of the highest standard.

DNDi staff, consultants, and contractors are guided by DNDi’s Code of Conduct; policies on the prevention of fraud and corruption, and conflict of interest; and by DNDi’s Guidelines for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct. We are implementing workshops for staff and consultants in all offices to ensure awareness and understanding of a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual misconduct.

Finally, we are accompanied by two independent, neutral, and impartial external people as Ombudspersons to help facilitate good communications, understanding, and trust inside the organization.