About

History of IDEA

The International Development Ethics Association is a unique international, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary group of philosophers, development and environmental theorists, and practitioners. The aim of IDEA is threefold:

To apply ethical reflection to development goals and strategies and to relations between the “North” and “South”. Numerous groups are concerned with international development. Only IDEA, however, explicitly formulates and applies ethical principles to the theory and practice of global, national, and local development.
To effect ethically sound development policies, institutions, and practices. In the light of reasonable ethical principles, IDEA is committed to bringing about improvements in development and environmental policies, institutions and projects.
To promote solidarity, mutual support, and interchange among those development theorists and practitioners throughout the world who are seeking to implement ethically better development paradigms and strategies.

IDEA was initiated in Costa Rica in 1984. David A. Crocker, then of Colorado State University and visiting at the University of Costa Rica, and Luis Camacho Naranjo of the University of Costa Rica, organized a seminar on “Ethics and Third World Development,” as part of a World Federation of Futures Studies Conference. The 14 persons attending the seminar organized themselves as the Development Ethics Working Group under the leadership of David Crocker, who later become its first President, a position he held for 15 years until 2002.

In 1987, IDEA held its First International conference on Ethics and Development at the University of Costa Rica. The 30 participants, representing four nations, included academics, development policy makers, and representatives from several grassroots development projects. Denis Goulet (University of Notre Dame) gave the keynote address. Principal papers from the First Conference were published in Revista de Filosofia de la Universidad de Costa Rica.

Two years later, IDEA held its Second International Conference in Merida, Mexico at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan. More than 100 philosophers, social scientists, and development workers from 20 nations came together to consider the them “Economic Crisis, Ethics, and Development Alternatives.” The keynote address was given by Horacio Cerutti Guldberg (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). Congress delegates issued the
Merida Declaration: https://developmentethics.org/announcements/declarations-2/

In January 1991, IDEA’s North American chapter, together with Montclair State University and Colorado State University, sponsored a workshop on “Ethical Principles for Development Needs, Capacities, or Rights?”. The workshop, building on Paul Streeten’s 1970′s “Basic Human Needs” development approach, concluded that normative conceptions of needs, capabilities, and rights had important roles to play in a development ethic for the 1990s.
The proceedings were published as Ethical Principles for Development: Needs, Capacities or Rights? Edited by Ken Aman (Upper Montclair, New Jersey Institute for Critical Thinking, 1991).

IDEA solidified its African link when it organized several sessions, in which 12 members gave papers, at the World Conference of Philosophy, held in Nairobi, Kenya, July 21-25, 1991. The late Odera Oruka (University of Nairobi), an IDEA Board member, organized the conference and Johnny Washington (Southwest Missouri State University) organized IDEA participation.

IDEA held its Third International Conference on Ethics and Development in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 21-27, 1992. Seventy-five Honduran and 125 foreign philosophers, development and environmental scholars, policy makers, and representative of grassroots groups from 25 nations addressed the theme, “The Ethics of Ecodevelopment: Culture, the Environment, and Dependency.” Executive Board member Ramon Romero was the Conference Director.

IDEA’s Fourth International Conference on Ethics and Development was held in Santiago, Chile, October 25-28, 1995. The theme of the Conference was “The New Economic Order and Development: Ethical Challenges for the 21st Century.” The conference, organized by Cristián Parker, brought together a multi-national group to evaluate the present conditions and future possibilities of free-market liberalism in the context of development. Chilean ex-President Patricio Alywin gave the keynote address.

A follow-up workshop took place in November 1996. IDEA co-sponsored a regional Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland June 25-28, 1996, organised by Nigel Dower, the current President. The Conference addressed the theme “Ethics, Development, and Global Values” and pursued closer links with kindred organizations, such as the Ethics Working Group of the IUCN and the Development Ethics Study Group of the Development Studies Association (UK).

IDEA co-sponsored an International Conference on Ethics and Development in partnership with the Centre for Research on New International Economic Order (CReNIEO), in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India from January 2-9, 1997. The Conference theme was “Globalization, Self-determination, and Justice in Development,” with an emphasis on India and South Asia. The conference organizers were IDEA members Peter Penz (York University) and Deane Curtin (Bustavus Adolphus College), and CReNIEO Director K. Rajaratna.
Conference announcement.

IDEA’s Sixth International Conference on Ethics and Development was held in Honduras from June 19-22, 2002. The theme was “Poverty, Corruption, and Human Rights: Ethics of Citizenship and Public Service.” The conference was held in Zamorano, a stunning agricultural university near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This IDEA Conference aimed to understand the causal relationships between corruption and poverty, on the one hand, and corruption and human rights violations on the other, and evaluate it from normative points of view.
Conference details.

IDEA’s 2006 seventh congress, “Accountability, responsibility and integrity in development: The ethical challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and Beyond,” was held at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda engaged over 250 participants, about half of whom were from Uganda or Kenya. Among the invited speakers (several from global North, many more from South) were government officials from Kenya and Uganda; interaction with the diplomatic community was also in evidence.
Conference overview
Conference publication 1: Journal of Global Ethics vol.4 #3
Conference publication 2: OCLC entry and Table of contents

IDEA’s 2009 eighth congress, Ética del desarrollo humano y justicia global (Ethics of Human Development and Global Justice) was held in Valencia, Spain.
Conference website: http://www.uv.es/congresodesarrollo/
Conference program: may be found here
Conference publication: http://ethique-economique.net/Volume-8-Issue-1.html

IDEA’s 2011 ninth Conference on Gender, Justice and Development: Local and Global was held at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania. The IDEA Conference focused on the connections between gender and justice within development in both theory and praxis.
Conference website: http://www.brynmawr.edu/internationalstudies/idea/
The conference generated three journal publications:
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjge20/9/3
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/resw20/6/3#.VAt_iWRdVE8
http://ethique-economique.net/Volume-10-Issue-2.html

IDEA held a small workshop in advance of the 2013 Human Development and Capability Association meetings in Nicaragua, 2013. Panels of speakers on regional health and politics provided counterpoint to the offerings of HDCA. Site visits to two health clinics in the interior of Nicaragua completed the event.

IDEA’s 2014 30th Anniversary Conference occurred in its place of birth, San Jose, Costa Rica. The meeting introduced a new standing event to the IDEA congress, the David Crocker lecture, delivered by Luis Camacho. Twelve countries were represented among the forty-five registered participants, with further participation from university and national government officials. The final day of the conference occurred out of the city at an environmental education branch campus of the university.
Repository of papers: http://www.inif.ucr.ac.cr/congreso_inif/docs/MEMORIA.pdf
Conference website: http://www.inif.ucr.ac.cr/congreso_inif/
Matthew Regan, who attended and presented at the IDEA 2014 conference in Costa Rica, writes of the experience at: http://blog.chemonics.com/development-ethics-hiding-in-plain-site.

IDEA held a small workshop in advance of the 2015 Human Development and Capability Association meetings in Washington DC, in association with HDCA Ethics and Development, Human Rights, and Sustainability Thematic Groups. An activation day included work at Martha’s Table food bank and observations with the Anacostia Watershed Society. The subsequent conference day included two panels on, “Sustainability and Human Rights: Ethical Dimensions of an Urban Agenda.”
Meeting announcement: https://hd-ca.org/events/sustainability-and-human-rights-ethical-dimensions-of-an-urban-agenda

IDEA hosted sessions in 2016 at the North American Society for Social Philosophy (Ottawa) and World Social Forum (Montreal). In May 2017, in conjunction with University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management, IDEA held a panel discussion, “The role of philosophy in International Development.”

On 17-18 May, 2018 IDEA held a conference in Chişinău, Moldova, entitled
“Marginalized Peoples, Human Rights, and Development Ethics.” IDEA board member Stacy Kosko played a lead role organizing the conference, and Chloe Schwenke was the keynote speaker.
Chişinău Conference program: ROMANA ENGLISH

IDEA also held its 11th Congress in Bordeau, France June 25-27, 2018. Jerôme Ballet and Lori Keleher organized the event. Christine Koggel delivered the second David Crocker Lecture.
IDEA Bordeaux Congress program

IDEA held its 12th Congress in Medellín, Colombia July 13-15, 2022. Development in times of conflict was a conference first conceived by Alejandra Boni and Diana Velasco. Its program was realized by program committee leaders Alejandra Boni, Anna Malavisi, and Diana Velasco, with further development at the host institution, The Universidad Autónoma LatinoAmericana (UNAULA), by Alexandra Agudelo Lopez, and Eduardo Rueda of IDEA’s partner organization Red para la formación ética y ciudadana (REDETICA). A series of webinar presentations is indexed here. Included in that series is a reflection upon the history of development ethics by Anna Malavisi, Eduardo Rueda, and IDEA founders Luis Camacho and David Crocker.
IDEA 2022 conference Call for Presentations IDEA 2022 conference video site

– Eric Palmer