Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

CEGA embraces an intellectual community enriched and enhanced by diversity along several dimensions. The following represent CEGA’s current diversity goals, which we reference when recruiting staff, interns, postdocs, fellows, faculty affiliates and advisory board members; as well as while designing events and communications; funding research; and engaging partners. We look at diversity along the lens of gender, race and ethnicity, geography, socio-economic status, and diversity of ability. Concretely, we promote diversity by measuring staff demographics year over year, measuring affiliate diversity, and putting into place strategies to improve the quality and reach of our recruitment processes. We work toward promoting diversity in development economics by investing in scholars from LMICs with our fellowships and research funding, organizing inclusive events in Sub Saharan Africa, and investigating the barriers and opportunities for meaningful inclusion through our Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR).

We seek to provide staff, faculty, students, partners, and grantees with equitable access to opportunities, information, and resources. Additionally, we aim to create and implement equitable practices and systems that confront and address bias and discrimination and treat everyone with respect. CEGA has instituted a compensation framework that ensures staff are compensated equitably and transparently. The vast majority of CEGA research funds are allocated through competitive requests for proposals (RFPs), applying transparent and objective criteria that take diversity goals into account.

CEGA strives to maintain a professional environment in which staff, researchers, partners, and others who enter our space (physically and virtually) feel heard, welcome, and empowered to be their whole selves. We strive to actively uplift the work and voices of underrepresented groups in our events, communications, and research portfolios. We measure staff perceptions of inclusion with an annual DEIJ survey, and a permanent working group addresses problem areas throughout the year.

Justice at CEGA involves doing our part to actively challenge and transform unequal power structures. We do this by treating historically marginalized researchers as equal partners and centering their voices in research and policy debates; ensuring that the burdens and benefits of research are equitably shared across populations; promoting (and enforcing), open, ethical and transparent research practices; and engaging in ongoing dialogue with staff and partners around power and privilege. Additionally, when possible, we prioritize research initiatives and studies that address persistent inequities and injustices in society.