About Us
L-R: Ambassador Chowdhury, Dr. Carely, Ms. Clarke
This initiative, with a mission to revitalize the international system based on core universal values, has been evolving since 2003. Beginning as the Wisdom at Work Association, it grew into the International Vision Collective and then the Global Vision Institute. It draws on the values - peace, justice, human dignity, equality, environmental sustainability – as promoted in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Millennium Declaration, the Programme of Action on Culture of Peace and related international instruments.
The GVI leadership team is comprised of Ms. Alisa Clarke, Founder and President; Dr. Joni Carley, Vice President; Dr. Jem Bendell, Mr. Mashood Issaka and Ambassador Anwaral K. Chowhury. GVI is tasked with supporting professionals in and around the UN system in creatively exploring and actively pursuing the realization of universal values in their lives and work. Its purpose is to nurture a network of professionals, a common vision, and a wider culture in the international community devoted to universal-values-based methodologies, policies, programming and practice.
The objectives of GVI are:
(a) Creating and sustaining a network – To provide a space for frank exchanges among UN staff, diplomats, civil society members, private sector actors and academics, participating in principle in their personal capacities. This will seek to encourage people to connect with their own personal sense and experiences of universal values, as the foundation for all work on values, and also to promote informal fellowship networks around which ideas and experiences on values can more easily flow.
(b) Building awareness, knowledge and skills – To facilitate sharing of experience and information, as well as values-based professional development. This will include forums for exchanges with relevant personalities; workshops, retreats and other development activities; and identification and dissemination of best practices, research and documentation on values promotion and application initiatives.
(c) Vision, mapping and action development - To collectively develop an evolving, comprehensive, actionable vision of a values-based international system. This will involve facilitating creative exploration of options for new ways of addressing issues, policies and mechanisms, and for relating and collaborating among actors, which is cognizant of growing global complexity, expanding human awareness and new technologies; as well as identifying and pursuing, individually and collectively, concrete action towards realization of selected options.
(d) To do all such other lawful and ethical things as may be incidental or conducive to the mission of the initiative and/or shall further the above objectives or any of them.