Resources

Episcopal Relief & Development and ECLRD commissioned an independent endline evaluation of phase 2 of the project in Liberia. The purpose of the evaluation was to measure project achievements and capture key project learnings for further interventions. The key objectives…

This toolkit is funded as a part of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership project, which includes an initiative to identify and address concerns among religious leaders and faith-based communities around vaccination. From 2020…

The First South Asia Regional Strategic Faith Engagement Forum for Positive Change for Children (FPCC), Families and Communities was held from the 8th to 10th May 2022 in Kathmandu, Nepal. For a detailed experience of the meeting, please see Annex…

This book: Discusses the roles that mosques play in saving lives and reducing losses Shows the role of imams' flexibility to help communities in need Presents point of view to see religion differently in a much broader constructive array than…

Series 4: Resource Guide for Religious Leaders and Faith Communities Violence against children and women increases during emergencies, conflicts, and health crises. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Infection prevention measures that require staying at home have brought on a…

How do adaptations to COVID-19 inform strategies for enhancing local faith leadership in health and development? The changes COVID-19 imposed on faith actors' ways of working, while challenging, also released creativity and innovation. It opened new avenues for partnership with…

In many contexts, faith leaders are a key reference group within programs who have specific, recognized, and institutionalized power in a community. As power holders they are seen to hold considerable influence over the emergence of social norms, have a stake in maintaining or reinforcing existing…

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all countries irrespective of their state of development. In countries with traditional societies, religious leaders have been acknowledged as key stakeholders in community engagement activities, including disease prevention. A community-level prevention model was established in…

A step by step guide for implementing Transforming Masculinities projects This implementation guide has been developed to support the scale-up of Transforming Masculinities (TM), an evidence-based intervention developed by Tearfund to end sexual and gender-based violence and to work toward…

The current working paper is informed by previous ethnographic investigations of conjugal abuse in the Ethiopian Orthodox community in Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. The research evidenced the importance of religious beliefs and experience in understanding the life of the…

The current working paper is part of project dldl/ድልድል working paper series that aims to disseminate key project findings to a wider audience, in an effort to improve understanding among Ethiopian Orthodox Church clergy and theologians, state agents, and non-governmental…

Baseline Study Case Study: Lebanon In mediation processes, usually an outsider and impartial third party mediator is sought. In certain contexts, especially in traditional and high-context societies, an insider mediator who is intrinsic (geographically, culturally and normatively) to the conflict…

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a huge global impact on the well-being of communities. While the impact varies from country to country, millions of people have lost family members, friends or neighbours as a result of the virus. Restrictions have…

2020 G20 Interfaith Forum Policy Brief Modern Slavery and human trafficking Summary, November 4, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic amplifies the urgent need for G20 leaders to combat modern slavery on the local, national, and international levels. Now more than ever,…

Faith leaders are well-positioned to address violence against children, but the extent to which they do so is unclear. This mixed-method study examined faith leaders’ child protection practices, attitudes towards child rights, and views around physical punishment in Senegal, Uganda,…

Since 1946, local faith communities have been at the heart of CWS responses to forced displacement. When we conceived of this research in 2019, it was because of our conviction that local faith communities remain as essential in welcoming the…

Desde su fundación en 1946, la participación de iglesias cristianas locales han sido parte fundamental en las respuestas de CWS a situaciones de desplazamiento forzado de personas. Cuando a comienzos de 2019 concebimos esta investigación, lo hicimos con la convicción…

When the world thinks of the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, the faces that come to mind are those of doctors, nurses, health ministers, and politicians. But also essential in the battle to end the pandemic are an invisible population of…

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FAMILY PLANNING RECOMMENDATION PAPER The ICFP forum brings us together to learn, share and find innovative ways to improve the quality and coverage of our family planning work in order to meet the reproductive health needs of…

International Care Ministries (ICM) - Philippines How this story represents an international-local faith partnership in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL): International Christian faith-based poverty alleviation organisation & partnerships with local pastors in Philippines. International Care Ministries (ICM) is a…

Contextual Bible Study Manual on Young People Africa is a "young continent.". The majority of the continent's citizens are young people. Churches in Africa must reflect this reality in their planning, activities and programmes. Unfortunately, however, young people tend to…

The December 18, 2020 event was hosted by the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLI) and co-sponsored by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD)…

Policy Brief 03/2020 This policy brief reports on preliminary findings of the online survey Religious Leaders’ Perspectives on Corona. It is the first survey comprehensively exploring the development and relief efforts of religious leaders worldwide as well as their social…

An evaluation was conducted of a three-year intervention focused on violence against women and girls (VAWG) and implemented in the conflict-affected north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country with high rates of VAWG. The intervention addressed VAWG,…

Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) and Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) COMMUNITY-BASED FAMILY PLANNING PROJECT ENDLINE EVALUATION From December 2017 through June 2019 In December 2017, Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) was awarded a one-year cooperative funding agreement from…

Five years have passed since the global community through the United Nations adopted 2030 Agenda 2030 for sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents the closest the global community has come to…

The COVID-19 lockdown has revealed –across the entire world –the challenges of parenting and shown how many parents are eager to learn simple strategies that can make a big difference to their daily family life, wherever they live. As a…

Becoming One is a religious couples’ counselling programme designed to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV). It is delivered by Faith Leaders who teach communication skills, emotional regulation, shared control over finances, sexual consent and pleasure. Couples attend 12 in-person group…

This toolkit is published by ACT Alliance EU, Caritas Europa, EU-CORD and Islamic Relief Worldwide  to give EU decision-makers a concise practical tool to encourage engagement of local religious leaders and faith communities in pandemic response and the post-recovery phase.…

This article draws on anthropological field work conducted during the West African Ebola outbreak (2014-2016) and reports of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis to discuss the role played by religion in infectious disease control.While much separates Ebola and Covid-19, the religious…

Religious leaders and institutions have been a vital part of the global response to HIV and AIDS since the early days of the epidemic. However, the faith-based response to HIV must be scaled up significantly if we are to end…

Series 3: Resource Guide for Religious Leaders and Faith Communities Certain groups of people are at greater risk of complications and death. These include the elderly and those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. People…

Series 2: Resource Guide for Religious Leaders and Faith Communities Ensuring trust, mental health, spiritual guidance, and social support are essential during a pandemic, when people are coping with intensified levels of fear, uncertainty, loss, and anxiety. Based on their…

Series 1: Resource Guide for Religious Leaders and Faith Communities During a global crisis people tend to turn to their religious leaders and faith communities for social, emotional, spiritual, and material support. National and global institutions, including religious, political, and…

PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE SPEECH FOR THE CLOSING CEREMONY By Rev Dr Felix Chingota, Chairperson of PAC On 15th November 2019 at Linde Motel, Mponela, Malawi Malawi WorkRock page

Speech by Chief Information Officer - Mrs Grace Kwalapu at Closing Ceremony of WorkRock in Mponela Malawi WorkRock page

This is book is about a church where members are physically separated from one another due to specific heath concerns and safety regulations. Yet the church is still called to be a social institution, where people engage, support, and care…

For use by all Seventh-day Adventist Churches Pastors and Elders may use these guidelines as they lead their churches in various countries as well as in radio and television interviews and social media. They can also serve as sermon guidelines…

This resource was published in May 2020 as part of Tearfund’s ​Guidance for churches on how to support older people during the Covid-19 pandemic​. Click here to read the full manual with references Click here to view the poster Contexts…

The aim of this guide is to share key information relating to older people during the Covid-19 pandemic and to prompt meaningful thinking about and engagement with older people in churches and communities . Churches are in a good position…

Given the challenges faced with ongoing efforts to contain the spread of Ebola that arise as a result of incompatibilities between some religious and cultural practices and prescribed scientific methods, it is high time we explore ways in which traditional…

This is a living document. It is up-to-date as of April 2020. We expect that new resources will be issued and can be used in addition to this document in the future. This document was produced in a short time…

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published on-line advisory materials on government engagement with religious leaders to help address Covid-19. Guidelines for Governments Working with Religious Leaders to Support Public-Health Measures. Read it in French or Portuguese An associated…

Local faith-based organisations (FBOs) and faith leaders played important roles in the Ebola response in DRC. Unfortunately, however, the international and national response was slow to recognise their contribution. Funding and decision-making on the response centred on UN and host…

This book explores the interplay and dialogue between faith communities and the humanitarian-development community. Faith and religion are key influencers of thought and practice in many communities around the world and development practitioners would not be able to change behaviors…

The Philippines is a deeply religious society, and institutions and beliefs permeate social, economic, and political institutions. Religious actors are thus deeply engaged in development, from debates and ideas about directions to politics and on the ground implementation. A large…

“We can no longer be silent as we are called to uphold human dignity for all creation” Faith Communities Respond to Gender-Based Violence Our Southern Africa region is struggling with the epidemic of gender-based violence. It is perpetrated in our…

“We will walk every step with our Children” Southern African Faith Leaders Commit to Respond to Teenage Pregnancy We, the faith community in Southern Africa (African Traditional Religion, Baha’i faith, Christian and Muslim) view children as whole human beings who…

En Francais: NIGER PLAN D'ACTIONS The Action Plan details the steps to take on promoting child care and well-being in Niger from January to December 2020. The topics include health, education, child protection, child nutrition and hygiene and clean environment…

En Francais: ARGUMENTAIRE RELIGIEUX HARMNISE RELATIVE A LA PROMOTION DES DROITS L’ENFANT (FILLE ET GARCON) AU BIEN-ETRE This religious document relating to the Rights of the child (Girl and Boy) and their well-being, is the result of a commitment by…

Monitoring the objectives of the project indicated in the message addressed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI to the Islamic Conference of Environment Ministers to “consider the possibility of setting up an Islamic academy for environment and sustainable Development to…

Christians are not alone in wanting a better world. In this respect, we stand alongside countless people of other faiths in wanting to see justice, freedom and well-being for all. However, despite the strong presence of faith in the world,…

9-13 December 2019 Local faith actors and religious leaders with UNICEF Niger, Religions for Peace and the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities convened the Niger WorkRock in Niamey, in the conference room of the Radisson Hotel Blue de…

The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities conducted a survey with faith leaders across the world to gauge their levels of awareness and understand the challenges that they face, in order to develop the right tools and knowledge resources to better…

EARLY ADOPTERS’ WORKROCK CAMEROON 2-6

DECEMBER 2019

Cameroon’s WorkRock was attended by 50 UNICEF staff, government officials and different actors from the faith community. The Minister for the Promotion of Women and the Family opened the WorkRock, which continued with a variety of speakers representing faith communities and the government. The remaining four days focused on a new way of working with UNICEF and local faith actors and religious leaders. The meeting resulted in the development of a Journey of Change from their experiences and learning, corroborating with the global framework.

EARLY ADOPTERS’ WORKROCK LIBERIA 25-28 NOVEMBER 2019 The ‘Faith for Positive Change for Children’ (FPCC) global initiative aims to build a new form of partnership between UNICEF and faith-based actors, enabling them to work together in a more effective, systemic,…

EARLY ADOPTERS’ WORKROCK MALAWI 11-15 NOVEMBER 2019 The ‘Faith for Positive Change for Children’ (FPCC) global initiative aims to enable UNICEF and faith-based actors to work together in a more sustainable, systemic, integrated and scalable way to impact children’s lives.…

EARLY ADOPTERS’ WORKROCK SOUTH SUDAN 7-11 OCTOBER 2019

UNICEF South Sudan was the first of five early adopter countries in Africa (with Malawi, Liberia, Cameroon and Niger) to host this ‘WorkRock’ – a term that shows that this is not ‘business as usual’ but about figuring out a new way of working together, based on strong foundations in evidence. With the help of the South Sudan Council of Churches and Islamic Council, it brought together 65 faith leaders and organisations, government officers and UNICEF staff.

In 2018, the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR) at Coventry University was contracted by World Vision to conduct three in-depth, qualitative analyses of Celebrating Families, focusing on implementation in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Tanzania. These were commissioned to…

Introducing the Network for Dialogue: EMPOWERING INTERRELIGIOUS AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE FOR THE SOCIAL INCLUSION OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES The Network for Dialogue was initiated in 2018 by the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) in order to bring faith and civil society…

This scoping study explores the programmes and initiatives of local faith actors (which can include formal and informal religious leaders, worship communities, faith networks, and local and national faith-based organisations) in their response to modern slavery and human trafficking in…

This scoping study explores the programmes and initiatives of local faith actors (which can include formal and informal religious leaders, worship communities, faith networks, and local and national faith-based organisations) in their response to modern slavery and human trafficking in…

Violent extremism is a global issue. Whether it has political, ideological, racist or religious roots, the problem of youth radicalisation affects African and European societies in the same way. The common response of using coercive hard power to counter violent…

Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework (KASF) 2014/15 – 2018/19 embraces a multi-sectoral approach to HIV programming and emphasizes the importance of participation and accountability in every sector in the HIV response. This calls upon communities to respond to HIV within their…

One of the most powerful influencers of individual behaviours, social norms and collective action at community and societal level is religion.
To maximize opportunities for more positive and impactful influence towards improving child and family wellbeing, UNICEF (Communication for Development Section and Civil Society Partnerships Unit in NYHQ), the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities and Religions for Peace in 2018 embarked on a new global Initiative on Faith and Positive Change for Children.

For over five decades, USAID has partnered and collaborated with civil society actors, of which faith-based, faith-inspired and local community organizations play a vital role towards achieving developmental goals. The United States writ large is an extraordinarily generous country. Faith-based…

G20 Interfaith Forum Japan 2019 7-9 June 2019 Faith actors, reflecting their deep moral convictions, vast global networks, daily lived experience with communities across the world, and their witness for the most vulnerable and those left behind, call the leaders…

This note on the 2019 G20 Interfaith Forum highlights what happened, with some analysis of key points. This ambitious effort aimed to bring together a “network of networks”, linking religious actors working on global issues within the broad framework of…

The Key Roles of Faith Actors in Meeting Needs of Refugees and Forced Migrants Presented by Jean Duff, JLI President

A decade ago, talk about religion in public spaces was largely limited to discussions about either theology, or terrorism - or both. Today, the role of religious organizations - whether churches, mosques, temples, or faith-inspired NGOs delivering critical development and…

Religions for Peace worked with the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities to devise a guide to action for religious leaders and faith communities. This guide includes introductory information on global responses to refugees and migrants, reflections on…

Since the time of Christ, caring for the sick and the poor has been a core distinctive of authentic Christianity. The response of Christians during many of the great plagues of antiquity played an important role in the spread of…

The UN Environment Foresight Briefs are published by UN Environment to, among others, highlight a hotspot of environmental change, feature an emerging science topic, or discuss a contemporary environmental issue. This is an opportunity to find out what is happening…

Everyone has a role to play in the movement to end child marriage. In this brief, we explore the role of religious leaders and highlight key approaches to support civil society organisations who are considering engaging with them in their…

The articles that compose this publication come from presentations at the Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Training for Faith-Based Organizations and articulate both the religious aspect, grounded in theology, and the human rights dimension, with its standards and working methods. The…

JAKARTA, INDONESIA, March 5 2014. The Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) has issued a fatwa, or edict, requiring the country’s 200 million Muslims to take an active role in protecting threatened species including tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans. The fatwa,…

In India, the issues of energy access and climate change are inextricably linked. If the 200 million people in India without access to electricity receive their energy from clean renewable sources, India will make a vital and positive contribution to…

This report results from a year-long study researching and analyzing gender based violence within Muslim Canadian Communities. Specifically, it looks at how the concept of honour and shame can have both negative and positive consequences with regard to either encouraging…

The OSCE, which already engages with religion in a number of contexts, should promote greater ‘religious literacy’ and regard religion as a potential resource for security-building. This means engaging with religion, and with religious leaders, institutions, congregations, and communities, to…

Policy brief based on the experiences of young members of the Anglican Student Federation in South Africa. Focuses on what role, if any faith has played in the construction of gender norms. It looks at the importance of context, rural…

Child marriage results from the interplay of a variety of factors and happens across countries, cultures, ethnicities and religions. There is no single religion that is solely associated with child marriage. But as religious leaders often hold considerable power and…

Since the dawn of history, faith has provided a foundation from which social norms develop - an estimated 83.6 percent of the world’s population considers itself affiliated with a faith. This underscores the critical role that religious leaders can play…

The G20 Interfaith Forum, explores religious dimensions of both key G20 policy concerns and priority agendas of religious communities. Leaders from networks that include religious leaders, religiously affiliated aid organizations, and scholars present proposals to G20 leaders. This document highlights…

In Africa, more than four in every 10 women of reproductive age want to avoid pregnancy. However, 47% of African women who do not want to become pregnant either use no contraceptive method or use traditional methods, which typically have…

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a form of gender injustice which affects millions of girls and women in the world and is deep rooted in social gender norms and practices. GBV is a leading cause of death, illnesses and disabilities of…

Mozambique’s Interfaith Program against Malaria (PIRCOM) developed the volunteer, Christian and Muslim sermon guide. They provide basic facts about malaria prevention and health seeking behavior, providing scriptural texts in support of the actions that a family should be taking. These…

Guião de Promoção e Protecção dos Direitos da Criança para os Líderes Religiosos Para a promoção da Saúde, Educação e Protecção da Criança Guide to religious leaders for the promotion of health, education and child protection in Portuguese The involvement…

2015-2017: A Program Model Case Study Partners: Episcopal Relief & Development and the humanitarian arm of the Episcopal Church of Liberia Two-year evaluation of program in Liberia   Program Website on Episcopal Relief & Development

This is a comprehensive report of the GNRC 5th Forum. It is a summary of all aspects of the Forum, including the speeches, papers presented, contributions and transcripts of messages delivered at the Forum. Includes remarks from distinguished guests during…

The declaration, known as an Affirmation of Welcome, is the first to involve UNHCR and a spectrum of faith-based groups. It sets out principles to guide faith leaders in providing welcoming environments for refugees and displaced people, and those without citizenship, including through promoting community understanding and tolerance, and combatting xenophobia.

The idea for a joint declaration emerged from a meeting hosted by UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in Geneva in December 2012 with religious leaders and faith-based NGOs.

Taking place between February and April of this year, drafting of the Affirmation involved a coalition of leading faith-based organizations and academic institutions. The text draws upon principles and values of welcome shared by religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.

The Partnership Note sets out broad guidance for UNHCR staff to engage with, reach out to, and partner with faith actors in the context of forced displacement. It describes UNHCR’s understanding of the range of faith actors and the role they play in humanitarian responses. The Note also flags the challenges of partnership and highlights instances where we would not normally engage owing to humanitarian and human rights considerations. More importantly, it contains examples of good practice and lessons learned from existing partnerships in the field and highlights principles that are a point of departure for dialogue and cooperation with faith actors and communities, while setting out actions and activities to put these principles into practice. The Partnership Note may be used as point of departure for conversations on many issues between UNHCR and faith actors. It can also help guide you, as partners, to establish dialogue across faiths and with a range of humanitarian actors.

Voice for Change Stories of Learning From 2013 to 2017, UK Aid supported the implementation of a programme called Voice for Change (V4C), which sought to address social norms and improve gender equality in four states in Nigeria: Enugu, Kaduna,…

The objective of the Khutbah Guide is to increase knowledge on MNCH and to assign them on providing Khutbah on MNCH issues for Friday worship. The guide encourages Religious Leaders to also use this knowledge for premarital and duple counselling,…

Developing Effective Partnerships Between Faith and Secular Actors to Challenge Discriminatory Gender Norms and Secure Rural Women’s Rights Co-hosted by: Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN in New York, the ACT Alliance, DanChuchAid and UNFPA in partnership with Christian Aid,…

Frequently, community based strategies include engagement with local faith leaders. However, there have been few systematic attempts to document how faith leaders themselves define their roles in these initiatives. This study examined local faith leaders and their spouses, in flood…

Local Faith Communities in Urban Displacement: Evidence on Urbanization and Localization Brief Author: Olivia Wilkinson Design: Stacy Nam Key points: Local faith actors should be recognized as legitimate “local,” “civil society” actors A greater familiarity with the structures of local…

One in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence from their partner; this includes at least 90 million Catholic women. The mutual love and honor promised in marriage is not understood; hearts are broken; bodies and spirits are…

Guidelines for church leaders in areas where disasters (earthquakes, fires, flood etc.) are common. Chapters include:  Introduction Chapter 1 – The local church and disasters Chapter 2 – Organising ourselves Chapter 3 – Risks, needs and capacity assessments Chapter 4 – Displaced people…

Ending Corporal Punishment of Children- a handbook for  multi-religious gatherings This resource, which has been written in collaboration with religious leaders and faith-based communities, is based on the premises that the major religions profess respect for the inherent dignity of…

Maximizing a Health System Approach for an Improved Epidemic Response Recommendations from IMA’s Experiences Containing Ebola Outbreaks in the DRC IMA World Health’s work on the frontlines of strengthening fragile healthcare systems often brings us in contact with new infectious…