In the early 1990s, whilst working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Ogadan desert, Dr Robert Sadleir negotiated with a clan elder seeking 100 camels in compensation for a tribesman's accidental death. Since then, Dr Sadleir has been interested in how human life is valued.

In November 2017, he founded a non-profit association, the Initiative to Value Human Life (IVHL), which seeks to understand and improve public policy approaches to valuing human life and apply them to international development. IVHL is also interested in developing methodologies to better value future lives for intergenerational sustainability. Recently, IVHL was a pavilion partner at the Basel Peace Forum, where it raised the question: “Can civilian deaths in conflict zones be reduced by valuing lives better?”

Swiss National Radio interviewed Robert Sadleir for Echo Der Zeit. The programme, in Swiss German, is available here.