Our Values

Vision, Mission, and Values

Our vision captures the change we wish to see in the world: equitable and resilient health systems that respond to people’s needs and emerging threats. Our mission is to help countries build and sustain resilient health systems by supporting local partners in implementing science-driven, scalable solutions. In our interactions with each other and with our clients, URC staff will stay true to our values to ensure transformative change through our project implementation by focusing on:

• Respect:  We respect ourselves, our colleagues, partners, clients, and stakeholders. We treat all people with dignity and acknowledge each individual’s worth and unique contributions.
• Integrity:  We uphold integrity in every action and decision. We are committed to doing what is ethically right in everything we do.
• Innovation:  We embrace new ideas and technologies to achieve the best results. We take calculated risks to spark creative, scalable, and transformative solutions.
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA): Diversity powers our success. We foster an inclusive culture of belonging and empowerment, encouraging everyone to show up as their authentic selves as we work together to create a more equitable world.  
• Collaboration: We work cohesively and collaboratively to create a sense of shared achievement in an environment of teamwork, learning, growth, and success. 
• Accountability: We deliver quality results by embracing ownership of our actions, understanding our impact, and earning trust and respect.
• Performance Excellence: We are dedicated to high quality performance as we partner with countries, communities, and people to build resiliency and localized development solutions.

Core Principles

• We are mission-driven and results-focused. URC strives to create a forward-looking culture in which headquarters and field staff share the responsibility for achieving measurable results.
• We work to improve the health outcomes of people worldwide. URC supports engaged, committed, and empowered staff to use their knowledge, skills, and creativity to help countries achieve improvements in health outcomes.
• We seek to have impact at scale. Impact at scale depends on the responsiveness and reach of interventions/solutions in addressing people’s needs in timely, accessible, and affordable ways. A country’s journey to impact at scale is not anchored in a “one-size-fits-all” approach because the route is often uncharted. URC helps countries anticipate the need for correction and adaptation through continuous, robust monitoring and learning.
• We focus on creating sustainable, systems-level change. Systems-level change is an intentional process designed to fundamentally alter the components and structures that cause the health system to behave in a certain way. To mitigate the consequences of malfunctioning systems and avoid providing inadvertent cover for their failure, URC strives to help countries identify root causes of problems and create integrated, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions to address them.
• We implement science-based solutions. URC promotes decision-making that is informed by the best available evidence. We focus on helping countries strengthen the continuum of integrated policies, strategies, activities, and services whose effectiveness has been proven or informed by research and evaluation.
• We work through and with local partners. By supporting local partners to navigate the dynamic public health landscape in their countries with proven tools and approaches, URC helps to extend the reach of high-impact interventions while increasing local ownership, accountability, and transparency.
• We believe solutions are more sustainable when governments, NGOs, civil society, and private sector entities are engaged. URC recognizes the need to mobilize a broad array of public, non-profit, and private sector partners and resources, elevate local leadership, and stimulate joint problem-solving to help countries advance on their journey to self-reliance.

Employee Support and Professional Development

URC’s employees are our greatest asset. We embrace our responsibility to personal safety and security, mental health, and professional development by providing a variety of services and trainings, including:

• Professional mental health counseling for emotional support. Mental Health America awarded URC the Bell Seal at the Gold level for exceeding workplace standards that promote positive worker mental health and wellbeing.
• Hostile Environment Awareness Training to increase the safety of employees traveling for business;
• An internal project management and leadership training program for staff across URC;
• Biannual all-staff gatherings to foster professional development, encourage team building, solicit feedback on how URC is performing as a company, and strategize about how URC can grow;
• An internal ethics hotline, available in multiple languages, on which employees can discuss troubling situations or business concerns. This is part of ensuring that URC provides an ethical, collaborative, and professional work environment; and
• Legal services for common issues, including will preparation, credit warranty disputes, or selling a primary residence.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The URC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee (DEIC) is a cross-functional company-wide working group of self-identified staff who volunteered to be a part of the committee. The mission of the DEIC is to encourage and take concrete actions to continue facilitating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment at URC, where the leadership and employees model behavior that enriches our organization, demonstrates respect for all persons, and supports opportunities for all staff, particularly those who are under-represented in positions of authority and responsibility, to further develop capacity, take on new responsibilities, and grow professionally.

URC is an early signatory and proud member of the Coalition for Racial and Ethnic Equity in Development (CREED). As an active member of CREED, URC is committed to working within our organization and with CREED partners to create positive change in our industry and put DEI at the forefront of all that we do – collectively and individually.

Watch each of the videos above to learn more about URC’s commitment to DEI in the workplace and its pledge to CREED.

The DEIC will identify DEI issues at URC; propose, guide, and monitor the implementation of actions to promote DEI at URC; and work closely with the organization’s leadership to integrate DEI into all aspects of the organization’s work. Members of the DEIC will serve as ambassadors of DEI in their respective organizational units within URC and support the mission of the DEIC as appropriate in their respective positions.