The Founding and Governing Code of Ethics of The Ikoku Foundations (the “Code of Ethics” and the “Ethics”) shall ethically guide, inform, and govern any and all activity involving, relating, referring, or otherwise pertaining to The Ikoku Foundations.

Therefore, persons engaged in any such activity are expected to uphold the principles delineated below.

— first, with respect to the Agreement you enter into with The Ikoku Foundations via the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics, the Codes and Polices, and The Ikoku Foundations User Agreement and Code of Conduct, you understand and adhere to the following:

— second, with respect to the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics, you understand and adhere to the following:

— third, given the aforementioned, your commitment to this understanding of ethics, of ethics principles, of ethics rights, and of their protections shall entail the following:

— and furthermore, by engaging in any activity involving, referring to, relating to, or otherwise pertaining to The Ikoku Foundations, any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of The Ikoku Foundations, any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of the divisions, series, subsidiaries, or affiliates, as well as any activities, affairs, areas, assets, offices, parts, properties, sections, or equivalent of the Products or Services, you accept and agree to the statements, terms, conditions, and requirements described in this section and in the Codes and Policies, regarding the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics of The Ikoku Foundations, in their entirety without modification, including as amended and updated from time to time by The Ikoku Foundations, and you further accept and agree to fully inform The Ikoku Foundations in writing of any knowledge you have regarding any activity subject to this Policy.

Along with the above principles, the Code of Ethics requires your adherence to correlative principles delineated below.

Mission. To carry out the founding and charitable mission and purposes of the The Ikoku Foundations in pursuit of the public good. To have all activities and operations support the mission and purposes. To have all who work for or on behalf of The Ikoku Foundations understand and be loyal to said mission and purposes. And to have the mission and purposes be responsive to the communities served by The Ikoku Foundations and be of value to the society at large.

Humanity. To have as core, central and essential to The Ikoku Foundations robust notions of humanity and the humane. To refrain from acts of cruelty and indignity to human beings. To ensure that the welfare of an individual person is not diminished, imperiled or sacrificed for the interests of the community, group, or state. And, for the above, to therefore abide by spiritual commitments and principles defined and delineated in the Founder’s Declaration of Trust of The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Charitable Trusts and the Codes and Policies.

Honor. To conduct and imbue with honor all activities within, with and with respect to The Ikoku Foundations. To serve The Ikoku Foundations under code of honor as well as ethics. And to promote through any activities relating to The Ikoku Foundations environments that value honor.

Integrity. To act with integrity in all activities within, with and with respect to The Ikoku Foundations. To ensure the organizational integrity of The Ikoku Foundations. And to foster at The Ikoku Foundations work that values integrity.

Respect. To hold the fullest and most humane understanding of respect for persons to be essential to the formation, management, and operations of The Ikoku Foundations. To treat people of The Ikoku Foundations as individual persons and human beings fully enjoying respect and its substantive ethical benefits, including autonomy, dignity, humanity, integrity and reciprocity. To also have the communities of The Ikoku Foundations — particularly those they help create, develop, foster, and support — emanate from and be informed by the above understanding of respect.

Meaningfulness. To ensure the mission and purposes, as well as activities and operations, of The Ikoku Foundations are meaningful. To therefore read, interpret and make decisions from codes, policies, communications and documents of The Ikoku Foundations by following the intent, meaning and purpose as well as the words with which they were written. To not misconstrue them for objectives contrary to those of The Ikoku Foundations, their founding, or the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku. And to confer — directly, respectfully, in writing — with the Founder where there is conflict, contradiction or question.

Control. To dutifully refrain from diminishing, interfering with or otherwise usurping the control of The Ikoku Foundations by the sole Founder and President, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku. To respect the decisions made by said Founder. And to acknowledge and abide by the administration and management of The Ikoku Foundations by said Founder.

Governance. To have a governing structure — appointed, approved and administered by the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku — that is responsible for setting the strategic directions of The Ikoku Foundations as well as oversight of their finances, operations, and policies.

Responsible Stewardship. To manage all assets and properties of The Ikoku Foundations both responsibly and prudently — as described in the Founder’s Declaration of Trust of The Chinyere and Chinelo Ikoku Foundations, and in fiduciary duties delineated in the constituting and governance documents of The Ikoku Foundations. And to also guide the official persons and communities of The Ikoku Foundations in accordance with this Founding and Governing Code of Ethics.

Independence. To hold independence to be crucial to the fulfillment of the founding and charitable mission and purposes of The Ikoku Foundations. And to have independence be central to a fundamental understanding of the role of philanthropy at The Ikoku Foundations: to address issues and inequities that have little chance of being adequately attended to, funded, or substantively supported via the expected or typical actions, operations, or processes of governmental and political bodies and offices; of established institutional entities; of established fields of knowledge, practice, representation, and expression; of for-profit industry, markets, and economic sectors; and of perennially low-resource and underrepresented communities and societies.

Nongovernmental, Nonpartisan, Nonpolitical, Nonreligious, Private. To hold the nongovernmental, nonpartisan, nonreligious and private nature and status of The Ikoku Foundations to be essential to fulfilling the founding and charitable mission and purposes of The Ikoku Foundations. To have such nature and status be a central basis for efforts to promote the public good across the complex affiliations, associations, states and nations that constitute Africa, its global diasporas, and connected or shared societies in which the communities of The Ikoku Foundations reside. And as with independence, to have the above nature and status help The Ikoku Foundations do work exactly where corporate, for-profit, governmental, political, religious and other institutional entities have found it most difficult.

Ethics, Freedoms, Liberties. To take as centrally important the practice of ethics as the examination and analysis of how to determine and do good. To also hold as centrally important the recognition and safeguarding of autonomy, dignity, humanity, and respect as well as the basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties, and rights accorded to all human beings. And to furthermore hold the robust protection of minority rights to be essential to the fulfillment of the founding and charitable mission and purposes of The Ikoku Foundations.

Informing, Consenting and Ethical Research and Care. To associate with, engage in, and support only activities that meet the most robust definitions of informing, consenting and ethical research and care. And to have The Ikoku Foundations associate with, engage in and support only care, research and equivalent activity that abide by the most robust and humane interpretations of applicable guidelines, laws, and regulations, including the Belmont Report, the Declaration of Helsinki, the Nuremberg Code, the United Nations Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights.

Informing, Consenting and Ethical Education and Training. To also associate with, engage in, and support only activities that meet the most robust definitions of informing, consenting and ethical research and care. And to have The Ikoku Foundations associate with, engage in, and support only care, research, and equivalent activity that abide by the most robust and humane interpretations of applicable guidelines, laws, and regulations.

Confidentiality and Privacy. To foreground the most robust protections of confidentiality and privacy as central inspirations for the formation of The Ikoku Foundations. To consider the confidentiality and privacy of personal biospecimens, data, and information as basic, civil and fundamental rights, and to further consider the privacy of personal life, including but not limited to aspects of life pertaining to body, conversation, home, mind, and thought, as absolute basic, fundamental and natural freedoms, liberties, and rights — all of which are to be guaranteed, safeguarded as well as essential to the fulfillment of the founding and charitable mission and purposes of The Ikoku Foundations.

Reasonable Transparency. To also provide, where required, reasonable and timely information to the communities served by The Ikoku Foundations. To be responsive in a timely manner to reasonable requests for information. And to have such published information accurately and honestly reflect policies and practices.

Accessibility. To endeavor that the sites, spaces, and attendant communities The Ikoku Foundations creates, benefits, fosters, reaches, and serves become reasonably available to those who abide by this Code of Ethics, and the Codes and Policies, regardless of disability or notions of human, cultural or social difference.

Inclusiveness and Diversity. To maintain a founding policy of promoting inclusiveness and diversity in the working environments and communities of The Ikoku Foundations. To take genuine and meaningful steps to promote inclusion in recruitment, hiring, promotion and retention, and in the communities to be reached, served and benefitted by The Ikoku Foundations.

Review and Evaluation. To periodically review and evaluate for mission alignment and effectiveness at The Ikoku Foundations. To develop consenting, policy-abiding and lawful means for such review and report — expressly approved and administered by the Founder, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku. And to in this manner distill and incorporate lessons learned.

Legal Compliance. To remain knowledgeable of and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and international conventions, subject to full access to and benefit of legal, financial and other professional counsel that is not compromised by the efforts of any individual or entity, private, governmental or otherwise.

Duty to Report and Inform. To ensure that the work of The Ikoku Foundations reflect their founding and charitable mission and purposes by honorably carrying out a duty to promptly report and fully inform the Founder and Original Trustee, Alvan Azinna Chibuzo Ikoku, of any apparent violation of or incompatibility with the charitable mission or purposes, the Code of Ethics, the Codes and Policies, the Declaration of Trust, or equivalent codes, policies, or instruments of The Ikoku Foundations.

No Violation or Incompatibility — Finally, under no circumstances shall any action, activity, decision, operations, resolution, or their equivalent of or with The Ikoku Foundations, including any conducted while meeting any fiduciary duties or standards of care or conduct, be in intentional violation of or incompatible with the following:

And furthermore, by engaging in any activity engaging, involving, referring to, relating to, or otherwise pertaining to The Ikoku Foundations, any part or section of The Ikoku Foundations, any part or section of the divisions, series, subsidiaries, or affiliates, as well as any part or section of the Products or Services, you accept and agree to the terms, conditions, and requirements described above, in the Code of Ethics, and in the Codes and Policies, in their entirety without modification.

Please send any questions or concerns you may have concerning the Founding and Governing Code of Ethics to policies@ikokufoundations.org.