First steps toward building respectful development: Three experiments on dignity in aid in Kenya and the United States

Dignity is frequently held up as an important value by those delivering and receiving global development aid. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework of dignity – the dignity chain–across the global development sector. We operationalize this framework through three pillars, which we label as representation, agency, and equality. We then assess empirically components related to development programs’ funding, design, and outcomes through three pilot experiments: First, we examine how US citizens value respectful development in their intended charitable giving. We find that potential, individual donors in our sample are not willing to compensate charities for costly efforts to affirm dignity. Second, we examine how US-based non-profit professionals perceive respectful development in their work. We find development professionals state willingness to take pay cuts or serve fewer recipients if that means enhanced dignity efforts of their organizations. Third, we examine what difference small acts of respect for dignity in the research process make to low-income study participants in Kenya. We find that low-effort actions of the kind that development professionals anticipate their organizations would support do not improve aid recipients’ altruistic behavior, self-efficacy, or well-being. Through these three small-scale survey experiments, we document a high stated commitment to the idea of dignity and uncover questions for further research about how to feasibility and effectively respect dignity across the dignity chain.