Resources

This publication aims to support humanitarian actors’ engagement with religious leaders with the goal of generating greater respect for humanitarian norms in armed conflict. It relies on socio-legal research conducted over a period of three years as part of the…

What is the role of local faith actors (LFAs) in the pursuit of SDG 16, the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all…

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…

Mindanao State University-Sulu (MSU-Sulu) partnered together with the ICRC to produce the book’s translation into Tausug, a major language spoken in the Sulu archipelago and Zamboanga, among other places. Pana’ta offers guidance on important topics, such as ways to attend…

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…

This Working Paper discusses inequalities caused or exacerbated by religious diversity in displacement and how humanitarian action can be aware of and responsive to this. It is based on interviews with Shi’a Hazara refugees from Afghanistan and local, national and…

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…

Localisation, as it aims to shift power in the humanitarian system, will involve the increased inclusion of local faith actors, those national and local faith-affiliated groups and organisations that are often first, and last, responders in crises and have been…

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…

CREID WORKING PAPER Volume 2021 - Number 10 - November 2021 This paper focuses on inclusivity of religious minorities and religious diversity in humanitarian response. Questions on inclusion of religious diversity will usually arise during assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of…

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…

Large-scale health emergencies like COVID-19 oftentimes result in widespread humanitarian impacts. Due to their long-standing relationships and involvement within local communities, along with extensive networks and support from faith-affiliated institutions, faith-based NGOs carry a unique advantage in reaching the most…

Network Paper Number 84 May 2021 Discussions in the run-up to, during and subsequent to the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) recognised that the humanitarian system as we know it is not suited to meet the tasks and challenges at…

Building Bridges of Faith Against Domestic Violence Working Paper 2 This working paper series is published as part of project dldl/ድልድል, which is dedicated to the development and strengthening of religio-culturally sensitive domestic violence alleviation systems in Ethiopia, Eritrea and…

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,…

Islam aur Takreem-e-Insaniyat ke Usool (Islam and Humanitarian Principles) is a new Urdu publication jointly produced by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Islamabad and the ICRC. Based on discussions held during a two-day National Round Table arranged by IPS…

A new Kiswahili language publication called “Utangulizi wa Sheria ya Kimataifa ya Kibinadamu ya Kiislamu” (“Introduction to International Humanitarian Law in Islam” / “muqaddimah fi ‘l-qanun ad-duwali al-insani fi ‘l-islam”), a reference work that was authored in Arabic by Professor…

On March 11, 2021, JLI held a webinar where Dr. Riham Ahmed Khafagy (Assistant Professor, Department of International Affairs, Zayed University) presented her paper ‘Faith-based Organizations: Humanitarian Mission or Religious Missionary’. In her presentation, Dr. Ahmed Khafagy compared the British…

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,…

Church Agencies Network - Disaster Operations Date published: 27 MAY 2016 This Roadmap was developed to: Provide a strategic framework for Church agency collaboration in the humanitarian and disaster risk management realm Create an internal understanding of our intention in…

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…

This Call to Action lays out a series of goals and actions to achieve greater inclusion of local faith actors (LFAs) in humanitarian action. The Call to Action is informed by the rich conversations that took place before, during, and…

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…

The ‘Compendium of Good Practices on Conducting MEAL in Partnerships with International Actors and Local Faith Actors’ bridges the knowledge gap on how international and local faith actors practice MEAL in a diverse range of development and humanitarian contexts. It…

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)…

You are invited to participate in a new E-Course on Faith Sensitive Humanitarian Response: Mental Health & Psychosocial support. The purpose of this new 1.5 hour training is to give the learner an introduction to faith-sensitive response to humanitarian emergencies,…

Joint webinar on the two-year pilot scheme of a ‘Bridge Builder’ model, developed by a consortium of partners: Tearfund UK, Tearfund Belgium, Tearfund in South Sudan, RedR UK, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Islamic Relief in South Sudan, the Joint Learning Initiative…

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…

Dr. Olivia Wilkinson, JLI Director of Research, presented at the USAID summit on October 6, 2020 in applying secular-religious understanding to a humanitarian response.  

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.…

A joint JLI - WFDD - Berkley Center Initiative on COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic intersects with long-standing food security and nutrition issues, especially in East Africa. Has the agenda on food security shifted with the coronavirus crisis, and if so,…

A joint JLI - WFDD - Berkley Center Initiative on COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic intersects with the long-standing humanitarian crisis around the borderlands between the United States, Mexico, and the northern triangle countries of Central America. How is the pandemic…

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…

The report highlights findings from our research and recommendations from the pilot of the Bridge Builder Model for humanitarian organisations and donors seeking ways to increase localisation in humanitarian response. This is a two-way, capacity-sharing model aimed at bringing together…

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…

This new report –published during Christian Aid Week –warns that without immediate and decisive action, Covid-19 could trigger a grave disaster for people in the poorest countries and communities, who are ill-equipped to cope with the ruinous effects of the…

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…

This article examines the engagement of Indonesian Islamic civil society organisations in the international arena by paying particular attention to the role of the Islamic modernist movement, Muhammadiyah. Beyond its vibrant religious and social activism in the domestic context of…

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…

Number 77 March 2020 This edition of Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with Anne Harmer, focuses on the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Although at the time of publication the outbreak appeared to have ended,…

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…

JLI Director of Research, Olivia Wilkinson This book investigates the ways in which the humanitarian system is secular and understands religious beliefs and practices when responding to disasters. The book teases out the reasons why humanitarians are reluctant to engage…

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…

A Review of the Literature This report provides an overview of the key themes and existing knowledge on the topics of the Triple Nexus, localization, and local faith actors. The intersection of these topics is particularly important to contemporary aid…

This report presents findings from field research conducted in South Sudan on the intersection of operationalizing the triple nexus (humanitarian-development-peace nexus), localization and, the particular role of local faith actors (LFAs). The report is based on twenty-one interviews with NGO…

This book gives an in-depth analysis of the role of faith in the work of Tearfund, a leading evangelical relief and development NGO that works in over 50 countries worldwide. The study traces the changing ways that faith has shaped…

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…

In this study, we examine the experience of international Christian humanitarian aid workers and who work in South Sudan. From interviews with thirty people in east Africa and north America, we derive a relationship between Christianity as our participants understand…

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…

The Seminar on Role of Faith Actors in Implementing the Global Compact on Refugees, that took place in Beirut on June 18, 2019, sought not only to bring together leaders and faith-based organisations from the three main sects together, but…

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…

Over the past seventy years, World Vision has grown from a small missionary agency to the largest Christian humanitarian organization in the world, with 40,000 employees, offices in nearly one hundred countries, and an annual budget of over $2 billion.…

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