About Us
Our Vision
To improve the quality of individual lives, strengthen families and communities, and contribute to the building of successful pluralistic societies by enhancing capacity and driving innovation in research.
Our Mission
To generate and disseminate new knowledge through basic and applied research for the purpose of:
Informing/influencing policy, services, practices, and advocacy
Developing educational programmes at multiple levels of study to prepare a wide range of human development professionals.
Our Values
All children matter
IHD is committed to the pursuit of research and interventions that consider the developmental needs, challenges, strengths, and potential of ALL children: girls and boys; children developing typically by whatever yardstick any given society uses; those developing atypically as a result of conditions of disability, disease, or social disadvantage; those whose developmental trajectories are threatened by conditions of social strife, conflict or war, natural disasters, and material poverty.
Gender equity matters
Globally, but particularly in our part of the world, cultural conventions and historical circumstances continue to perpetuate the deprivation of girls and women in many spheres of life, IHD will uphold the core value of gender equity and actively promote gender mainstreaming in all aspects of its work. In its faculty development and mentoring initiatives, the Institute will make career advancement for women faculty a major priority. In the realm of research, every research study will be viewed as providing an opportunity for investigators to employ designs and methods of data analysis that make it possible to discern gender differences with implications for beneficial policies and interventions.
Context matters
It is impossible to understand human development fully without understanding the social and cultural contexts in which it unfolds. The Institute will advance inquiry and knowledge applications that are meaningful, appropriate, and relevant in local contexts.
