Ethics policies

Ethics policies

World Vision Australia is committed to the highest standards of legal and ethical behaviour to ensure alignment with our values, and enable our mission to transform the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children and their communities.

To maintain these standards and enhance our vision of life in all its fullness for every child, World Vision Australia has adopted a suite of ethics policies designed to protect our staff, our donors and our beneficiaries and reinforce a culture of openness, honesty and integrity across the organisation.

Code of Conduct Policy: Sets out the standard of behaviour required of all World Vision Australia staff, contractors, volunteers and Board of Directors.

Child and Adult Safeguarding Policy: Our policy regarding safeguarding children and vulnerable adult beneficiaries from harm.

Conflict of Interest Policy: As stewards of donor funds, our staff and directors are required to conduct themselves in an ethical manner and exercise objectivity in decision-making in performing their duty to World Vision Australia. Every effort must be made to avoid conflicts, whether actual or potential, between the interests of the organisation and the person's own interests. This policy requires that potential conflicts of interest are disclosed, considered and managed appropriately.

Gifts, Benefits and Hospitality Policy: This policy creates an environment and culture to support individuals and World Vision Australia to maintain high levels of integrity and public trust. The policy outlines our position on responding to offers of gifts, benefits and hospitality, and providing gifts, benefits and hospitality. 

Financial Wrongdoing and Corruption Control Policy: This policy helps develop a culture that educates and supports employees in the prevention of financial wrongdoing to ensure robust stewardship over donated funds. 

Protected Disclosure (Whistleblower) Policy: World Vision Australia is committed to the highest standards of legal, ethical and moral behaviour. A key part of supporting ethical standards in World Vision Australia is enabling people to speak up about unethical or unlawful conduct.

Complaints Policy: How we listen and respond to concerns and Complaints received from our supporters, beneficiaries, partners and the general public.

Disability Inclusion Policy: This policy outlines our commitment to protect, promote and uphold the rights and freedoms of people living with a disability and articulates how inclusion will be prioritised in our programs and workplace.

Environment and Climate Change Policy: This policy sets out our approach to contributing to improved environments while avoiding and managing negative environmental impacts that may be caused by our operations in Australia and overseas.

Transparency Policy: Our vision of life in all its fullness for every child can be achieved only as we collaborate with children, their families and communities; local, national and global partners; and our supporters and donors. Collaboration is founded on trust and our Accountability Reports (published annually since 2007) are part of our commitment to building trust through being transparent about our operations and contributing to shared standards and learning amongst civil society organisations.

Non-Development Activity Statement: World Vision Australia is committed to ensuring that it accurately represents its activities to the people we work with, our donors and the public. This statement guides World Vision Australia and our partners to make a clear separation between our development and humanitarian and non-development objectives and activities.

Modern Slavery Statement: World Vision Australia has a zero-tolerance stance on acts of modern slavery. We are pro-active in taking steps to prevent modern slavery occurring within our supply chains and operations. As one of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations, we also tackle modern slavery by using our scale and influence within the World Vision Partnership to address the entrenched, systemic issues that lead to poverty. Click here to view World Vision Australia’s Modern Slavery Statement for the Financial Year 2022/23.