Resources

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…

In July 2015, The Lancet published a series on faith-based health care. The Executive Summary states that “this Series argues that building on the extensive experience, strengths, and capacities of faith-based organisations (eg, geographical coverage, influence, and infrastructure) offers a…

On May 28-30, 2012, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) organized a regional consultative forum in Limuru, Kenya, PEPFAR and Faith-Based Organizations: Partners in Sustaining Community and Country Leadership in Global HIV/AIDS. In collaboration with the Centers…

This report presents findings from a mapping initiative that aimed to capture how faith-based organizations respond to violence against women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region. As a collaborative initiative between UNFPA and the Asia-Pacific Women Faith and Development Alliance (AP-WFDA), it sought to identify examples of strategies used by faith-based organizations. The report brings together the experiences of 58 organizations collected through an online survey, supplemented by in-depth interviews conducted with selected agencies. Importantly, the survey results represent only a small proportion of the faith-based organizations addressing violence against women and girls across the region.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is the recommended immediate psychosocial response during crises. As PFA is now widely implemented in crises worldwide, there are increasing calls to evaluate its effectiveness. World Vision used PFA as a fundamental component of their emergency…

In 2005 Dybicz concluded his review with: “This is how far best practice research has reached: interventions based upon theory” (p. 768). The interventions which Dybicz wrote about were aimed at serving children and adolescents living and working in the…

Tearfund commissioned some research in January 2011 on ‘The current situation regarding sexual violence in Burundi, the role of the church and possible avenues for intervention.’

At an event on June 25, 2014, USAID unveiled an action plan “Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths” to save the lives of 15 million children and nearly 600,000 women by 2020 – a milestone in President Obama’s goal to joint the world in ending extreme poverty, hunger and child death in the next two decades.

The action plan delineates how 24 priority countries will dramatically accelerate progress in maternal and child survival.

Over 70,000 Burmese refugees have resettled in the United States in the past decade. While Burmese adolescents quickly acculturate into American society, their perspectives on health are not well-known. The purpose of this study was to identify adolescent Burmese refugee…

June 24-28, 2019 Les Pensières Centre for Global Health, Annecy, France 2019’s gathering began with a welcome to the Forum from the President and Founder of the AHIMSA Fund, Jean-François de Lavison. He thanked sponsors and participants from 46 countries,…

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has offices in 17 countries across Asia, the most disaster- prone region of the world. ADRA recognizes the importance and urgency of increasing resilience to disasters through an inclusive, integrated community-managed disaster risk…

Church of Uganda Training Handbook CHURCH OF UGANDA A TRAINING HANDBOOK FOR RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND CHURCH INSTITUTIONS CHRISTIAN-BASED APPROACH TO: Maternal and Child Health Sexual Reproductive Health HIV and AIDS Gender Gender Based Violence Family Planning This hand book offers…

Written Statement from the Anglican Consultative Council, July 2019 The global Anglican Communion is playing a significant role in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals and “leaving no one behind”. Globally, Anglicans and Anglican agencies are delivering health and education…

The aim of this annotated bibliography on ‘Religion and Development’ is to lend a hand to practitioners in humanitarian and development work: ‘Where can I read and learn about how to take religion, religious communities and religious actors seriously in…

This annotated bibliography is a companion piece to the full report “LOCAL FAITH COMMUNITIES AND IMMUNIZATION FOR COMMUNITY AND HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING”

With antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the rise and becoming a growing global health concern, the WHO released a Global Action Plan in 2015 to address the issue. Although faith-inspired organizations (FIOs) play a critical role in health care globally, the…

This document examines whether and how FBOs’ approaches to development work are unique to NGOs engaged in similar activities in the same contexts.

The purpose of this report is to document and discuss the asset-based work of Mukuru on the Move (MOTM), a program developed in collaboration between the Interfaith Health Program (IHP) at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA and St. Paul’s University,…

The Tropical Storm Beatriz that passed through the state of Oaxaca in Mexico left more than 150 landslides, mudslides and floods causing human casualties, material damages and leaving entire communities uncommunicative for more than 2 weeks. The drinking water was…

This article examines education policy for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, drawing on 44 stakeholder interviews conducted in March 2016. Findings indicate that the idea of children’s rights, enshrined in international conventions, combined with foreign aid, encouraged the creation of a…

This report is a compiled from two pieces of research commissioned by
Tearfund’s HIV & Sexual Violence Unit. The full reports and researchers are:
– Sexual violence in South Africa and the role of the church by Elisabet
le Roux at the Unit for Religion and Development Research at
Stellenbosch University
– Breaking the Silence (full report) by Robyn Curran, Bongi Zengele and
Solange Mukamana.

This report is part of an expanded partnership between the WHO and FBOs in facing health challenges, specifically HIV/AIDS.

In May 2012, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), in collaboration with St. Paul’s University (SPU) and Emory University’s Interfaith Health Program (IHP), hosted a consultation on the role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in sustaining country and…

The scale of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa presented unprecedented challenges for the international humanitarian community, and learning from the successes and failures of the response effort is important for designing future crisis interventions. Lessons…

Religious leaders, with their tremendous authority at the grass roots, are key to garnering community support for broad immunization coverage. This workbook, designed for communication and programme officers and their immunization partners, provides guidelines on forging alliances on immunization with religious leaders and groups. It also offers advice on options that can be taken when confronting resistance to immunization, illustrated by success stories from three countries.

People destabilized by armed conflict, including refugees, internally displaced persons, in particular, women and children are at increased risk of exposure to HIV infection (United Nation General Assembly 2001). The above quotation suggests that internally displaced persons in general and…

The Rohingya Refugee Crisis is a children's emergency. Over a five-month period, 655,500 people have fled widespread violence in Myanmar, 58 percent of which have been children. Since arriving in refugee camps in Bangladesh, many of these children have reported the…

War, conflict, political uprisings and other hardships displace countless families each year. More than half of the world’s estimated 19 million refugees are children (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2007). Some children grow up in refugee camps and…

A special issue focusing on both operational and ethical approaches to healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, along with several other articles on faith based partnerships and developing community health workers. Click here for full journal

The “Christian Sermon Guide to Save the Lives of Mothers and Newborns” is a tool for Christian religious leaders on how to guide their followers through a safe reproductive process from pregnancy through infancy. It presents the magnitude of worldwide concern with maternal and infant mortality but argues that the problem is solvable. The instructions include not only guidelines for safe health and sanitation practices, but also recommendations for how Christian leaders might instill these standards and values in their congregations through addressing the issues in the context of sermons with Biblical references included.

Lessons learned from the DRC, South Sudan and Kenya from faith-based communities in crisis situations. Non-faith humanitarian organizations need FBOs to develop emergency capacity for HIV. “Collaboration between faith-based communities and humanitarian actors when responding to HIV in emergencies”

Good health underpins social, human, and economic development, as well as security. The emergence and spread of drug-resistant disease destabilizes this foundation. Drug-resistant disease, also known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), occurs when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites)…

This paper examines the interplay between the destructive and healing forces within human communities, as reflected in the life of children. This work stems from over 30 years of being involved as a participant/near-miss survivor/therapist, in a society exposed to…

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…

Community-led Health and Wellbeing Project in partnership with the Diocese of Niassa in Mozambique since 2011. This project is funded through the Australian Government’s Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) as well as from donations from Anglicans in Australia. The goal of this project is that communities…

A joint JLI - WFDD - Berkley Center Initiative on COVID-19 March 11, 2020 Webinar The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges in both global health and religious practice today. How are religious institutions, beliefs, leaders, and practices…

COVID-19 has lowered global carbon emissions; but it hasn’t slowed climate change. Our response to COVID-19 has precipitated the discovery of a vaccine; but it has left the world with a staggering number of deaths. The pandemic of Covid-19 has…

This resource answers the following questions: Why are there different types of Covid-19 vaccines? How do different types of vaccines work? How does testing and approval ensure Covid-19 vaccines are safe? Are side effects likely after having a Covid-19 vaccine?…

The following resources are designed to support parish priests and staff in diocesan offices and health and social service agencies. You will find information about the COVID-19 vaccine for varied audiences, resources to support the preparation of homilies, relevant quotes…

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…

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…

This report reviews work from countries where UNFPA operates and discusses various cultural influences on advancing human rights, specifically reproductive rights.

The Syrian crisis has brought to the forefront the enormous challenges that families face in the context of war and displacement. To date, over 7 million people are internally displaced; at least half of those internally and externally displaced are…

Development in Practice has recently published a special edition issue on Faith and Health in Development Contexts- July 2017. See Full Journal Here Preview of Articles in the special edition: Guest introduction: faith and health in development contexts Christopher Benn Faith…

Food for the Hungry has partnered with USAID to implement a Title II DFAP to improve livelihood and health and nutrition of individuals within vulnerable households in Eastern DRC. FH’s creative social and behavior change communication techniques, and innovative market-oriented…

Katherine Marshall Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) organized a meeting on October 6 Summary of what is…

Preventable child deaths outrage everyone. Immunization campaigns save millions of children’s lives and therefore unite widely divergent communities. But the untapped potential for partnerships to extend vaccination coverage, especially involving religious actors, is large. Two critical challenges are important and offer great promise: extending newer vaccines (notably against rotavirus and pneumococcus) and reaching underserved populations (“the fifth child”). The support and cooperation of religious communities, at global and national levels, is essential for both—leaders and communities can help address challenges and prevent the grave problems that arise when religious leaders oppose vaccination (such as in Pakistan and Nigeria). In building partnerships there are four priorities: (a) informing populations and building trust; (b) focusing on underserved populations; (c) overcoming barriers to vaccination campaigns in tumultuous countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo where faith networks are especially vital players; and (d) helping through holistic health approaches to “connect the dots” among different public health and welfare efforts to meet the needs of people and communities.

Episcopal Relief & Development Nets for Life Program Have you ever wondered: how do mosquito nets get to the homes beyond the end of the road? Follow along to learn how Episcopal Relief & Development and its partners in Ghana,…

[et_pb_section admin_label="section"] [et_pb_row admin_label="row"] [et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text"] Lives and day-to-day work and relationships have changed due to COVID-19. Religious leaders and health care workers share how faith actors are addressing family planning during COVID in an ICFP Community Panel on…

Nigeria’s vibrant and dynamic religious landscape plays many roles in the nation’s life and development. It is also a factor, albeit a complex one, in conflicts and violence that many see as linked to religious divides. Religious institutions have deep…

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…

Accounts of humanitarianism regularly address the historical influence of religious traditions and commitments in shaping our understanding of this field. Whether focused on ancient writings regarding obligations to others, the religious views and backgrounds of key humanitarian figures of the…

This document reflects the efforts of two partners: CIFA and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) to set out both what the 10 promises mean specifically, and how faith communities are acting and could act to further the global effort. It builds on the June 2012 promises with an important addition: it extends the ideas and actions that were initially framed for children to mothers also. The promises themselves are technically rigorous (best practice as certified by UNICEF and USAID) but they are also understandable and, we hope, inspirational. The document was conceived in the spirit of the many faith institutions that subscribed to the Ten Promises, and grew from a sense that tangible evidence could support a much broader effort and new energy and vigor in carrying goals into reality.

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…

October 2020 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. Faith-based and community organizations’ invaluable programming reaches into every…

Andrew Tomkins, Jean Duff, Atallah Fitzgibbon, Azza Karam, Edward J Mills, Keith Munnings, Sally Smith, Shreelata Rao Seshadri, Avraham Steinberg, Robert Vitillo, Philemon Yugi http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60252-5/abstract

This draft background report was prepared as part of the Berkley Center’s global “mapping” of the work of faith-inspired organizations worldwide. The report serves as background for the consultation on faith inspired organizations and global development policy in South and Central Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 10-11, 2011.

Collaborating for Sustainable HIV Community Care The Faith, Health Collaboration and Leadership Development Program (FHCLDP) is a multi-sector team-based model that builds partnerships among FBOs, HIV treatment programs, and civil society organizations. The collaboration supports sustainable, community-based HIV prevention and treatment services…

Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity, IHME’s fifth annual report on global health expenditure, depicts financing trends that underline the resilience of development assistance for health. This year’s updated estimates show that despite lackluster economic growth and fiscal cutbacks in many developed countries, total assistance remained steady, reaching an all-time high of $31.3 billion in 2013. While annual increases have leveled off since 2010, continued international funding is a sign of the international development community’s enduring support for global health.

Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Development Report, a Lancet Commission revisited the case for investment in health and developed a new investment frame work to achieve dramatic health gains by 2035. This report has four key messages, each accompanied by opportunities for action by national governments of low-income and middle-income countries and by the international community: 1) There is an enormous payoff from investing in health, 2) A “grand convergence” in health is achievable within our lifetime, 3) Fiscal policies are a powerful and underused lever for curbing of non-communicable diseases and injuries, and 4) Progressive universalism, a pathway to universal health coverage (UHC), is an efficient way to achieve health and financial protection

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlights the special difficulties involved in responding to infectious diseases in fragile state settings with weak healthcare systems. Governments and international organizations are mobilizing rapidly to support public and private emergency systems in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (as well as preparedness in neighboring states), but the needs and speed of the epidemic currently overwhelm available capacities (local and international). Challenges are exacerbated by the epidemic’s fast pace and changing dynamics. Informed predictions point to a continuing escalation of cases and to wide‐ranging, grave repercussions for economies and societies, including threats to basic healthcare and food supplies, across the region. The crisis demands immediate responses along many urgent dimensions but also points to underlying, longer term needs that call for new directions in development strategies. Networks of religious and faith‐inspired actors are a resource that could magnify the impact of urgent responses and recovery plans.

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…

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…

This brief presents the key results of a 2012 review, undertaken as a partnership between the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the World Faiths Development Dialogue. The resulting report, of which Lynn Aylward is the primary author, is entitled “Global Health and Africa: Assessing Faith Work and Research Priorities.”

HIV services provided in the country of Kenya and the percentage of those services provided by the faith-based sector.  This work was carried out as part of a Joint Initiative between the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the…

Reflections on Health and Healing for Churches on Commemorative World Health Days This booklet includes 15 reflections on international commemorative health days from Dr Mwai Makoka WCC Programme Executive for Health and Healing, who emphasises that he is not a…

Edited by Mwai Makoka A handbook to accompany churches in establishing and running sustainable health promotion ministries The World Council of Churches (WCC) defines health as a dynamic state of wellbeing of the individual and society. It is a state…

A background document used by the UNHCR on faith and development as it relates to refugees.

Recent global trends suggest an increase in natural and manmade disasters. The current pandemic is one such disaster that proves the need for heightened awareness on disaster and has highlighted the need for effective disaster management systems. Such disasters often…

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…

A review of research from Malawi, DRC, and South Africa regarding practices and opinions of sexual health and couple decision making.

“Created in Gods Image” Southern Africa Faith Leaders Support Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights for All We, as members of the faith community, believe that we cannot stand by and watch when our people are without information on Sexual and…

This Report, a product of the JLI F&Lc Learning Hub on HIV AIDS and Maternal Health reviews the available data on the nexus between faith, maternal health and HIV AIDS development work, against the framework of specific questions. The report summarizes the evidence, discusses opportunities and challenges, makes recommendations for practice and for further research.

This is a broad scoping review mapping and understanding the available literature on ‘religion and immunization’. The goal is to note where evidence and information can be found and to identify key areas for further research, engagement and partnership. An annotated bibliography accompanies the Report

This Scoping Study, a product of the JLI F&LC Resilience Hub, investigates evidence for Local Faith Communities’ contributions to resilience in disaster and humanitarian situations.

Julie Clague’s presentation to the UNFPA faith meeting for the UN General Assembly, September 2014: ‘A Call to Action: Faith for Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Post 2015 Development Agenda’. It offers a Catholic perspective on ‘Sexual And Reproductive Health And Reproductive Rights: Religious and Cultural Contexts for Development Effectiveness Post 2015’.

On World AIDS Day, the World Council of Churches launched Leading by Example: Religious Leaders and HIV Testing, a interfaith campaign that encourages religious leaders to inspire getting tested for HIV and especially to lead by example and have themselves tested for…

In the summer of 2007, focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted with Liberian refugee women living in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the means through which Liberian families were…

Health is wealth, so says the adage and this is an undisputed fact for the reason that the well being of a people can holistically add to their development generally. Local communities with little infrastructure seem to be more susceptible…

The term resilience has been widely used in recent years. Fundamentally, it refers to a person’s ability to adapt successfully to acute stress, trauma or chronic forms of adversity (e.g. Masten, 2014). However, there are various understandings of resilience. While,…

Resilience—the ability to anticipate, withstand and bounce back from external pressures and shocks—is an increasingly important construct in shaping humanitarian strategy by the international community (DFID 2011; UNICEF 2011; USAID 2012). Local faith communities (LFCs)—groupings of religious actors bonded through…

!is report has been produced as part of the Global Initiative for Faith, Health, and Development (GIFHD). GIFHD
seeks to serve as a bridge between faith and secular development communities, to give voice to the concerns and
capacities of the faith sector, and to advocate for the full engagement of the faith sector with governments, bilateral and
multilateral institutions, other civil society actors, and private philanthropy. !e Global Initiative is convened and
supported by the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA), a Washington DC-based organization committed
to building the collective capacity of the international faith community to increase its impact on poverty and disease.

This Strategic Framework for Action makes recommendations to further enhance the reach and efficacy of the faith sector’s considerable efforts to promote health and development. The report focuses on two areas of action thought to hold promise for increasing impact: (1) increasing large-scale collaboration both within and among faiths and with secular partners and (2) increasing large-scale mobilization of religious congregations for common action on health and development issues. Additionally, the report articulates to the secular development community how investment in and engagement with the faith sector can dramatically advance health and development efforts worldwide.

This third volume in the series focuses on ways to ‘map’ (in the different uses of that terminology) faith-inspired providers, and on assessment of their cost for patients and the extent to which they succeed in reaching the poor.

Coalition member, Tearfund has recently completed research looking at the social attitudes and practices of men in relation to gender. The research was completed in Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo, facilitated by the Anglican Church in each country. See all three reports here: http://www.wewillspeakout.org/resources/men-faith-masculinities/

The field of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in humanitarian emergencies has shown remarkable development over the last two decades.1 Mental health was once a notable omission from the health priorities to be addressed in the context of humanitarian…

Around 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in low and middle-income countries. Prioritizing adolescent sexual and reproductive health services and information can address these and other urgent 1…

The Heythrop Journal Special Issue on Faith, Family, and Fertility: On Faith, Health and Tensions An Overview from an inter-governmental perspective

This strategic FBO framework was developed to support and guide work already being undertaken globally, regionally and nationally by a diverse range of committed individuals
and organizations. The UNAIDS–FBO strategic framework is the result of an 18-month consultation process between the UNAIDS Secretariat and Cosponsors, many FBOs, networks
of people living with HIV, government representatives and technical experts during 2008–2009.

Religion is a powerful force in southern Africa, affecting all aspects of daily life and health (Anderson 2001, Chitando 2007a), particularly among rural women (Agadjanian 2005). Rural churches are a center for informal social interaction, shaping attitudes and behaviors of…

The purpose of this study is to assess the barriers and enablers to community acceptance and implementation of safe burials in Sierra Leone. The Ebola virus continued to spread in Sierra Leone partly because communities were initially resistant to Burial…

IHP, in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), has published this resource guide and toolkit.  The Model Practices Framework provides strategies to identify and engage faith-based organizations as partners in community health promotion and disease…

Rape as Torture in the DRC: Sexual Violence Beyond the Conflict Zone analyses evidence from 34 forensic medical reports written by specially trained doctors at Freedom from Torture and indicates that rape is being used as torture by state security forces in prisons across the country to stop women speaking out about politics, human rights and, in some cases, rape itself.

A review of efforts of faith based providers working to improve maternal health.