About CID

Cooking chapattis, Bangladesh. ADRA New Zealand.

The Council for International Development (CID) was formed in 1985 by a small group of aid and development agencies which identified the need to coordinate some activities and present a single voice on issues of common concern. Today CID has 90 members that include most of New Zealand's major Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that work in aid and development.

CID works to achieve effective high quality international development programmes which focus on the alleviation and eradication of poverty and works to enhance the capacity and participation of member agencies, the NZ Government and other sectors of the NZ community.

On behalf of its member agencies, CID:

• provides a forum for discussion of cooperative action on international aid and development issues;
  
• strengthens national and international links between organisations and individuals involved in international development;
  
• liaises with the NZ Government, NZAID (New Zealand Agency for International Development) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT);
  
• raises issues with political parties on international aid and development issues; and
  
• works to increase public awareness of international development needs and issues.

All members of CID must agree to abide by a Code of Ethics. These promote accountability and include a set of principles about development. These principles are that:

• development should be sustainable and encompass the social, spiritual, cultural and economic well-being of people;
  
• the poor should make decisions about their own development;
  
• the ultimate test of development policies is their long-term effect on the lives of the poorest sectors of society, especially women and children;
  
• sustainable development involves the use of all resources for the benefit of future as well as present generations;
  
• issues of justice, peace, human rights and the protection of the environment cannot be separated from development;
  
• the Treaty of Waitangi is fundamental to development in our own country, and to our perspective of development issues internationally;
  
• development education in Aotearoa/New Zealand is an integral part of all development programmes;
  
• in all promotional activity, Council members should ensure that the dignity of aid recipients is recognised and advanced.

CID gratefully acknowledges the following member agencies for the use of photos which are used in this site: ADRA New Zealand, Caritas Aotearoa, Christian World Service, Save the Children New Zealand, The Leprosy Mission NZ, UNICEF, VSA, World Vision New Zealand.