Resources

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

The leadership of the Church in the Philippines has historically exercised a powerful influence on politics and social life. The country is at least 80% Catholic and there is a deeply ingrained cultural deference for clergy and religious. Previous attempts in the last 14 years to pass a reproductive health law have failed because of the opposition of Catholic bishops. Thus the recent passage of the ‘Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012’ (R.A.
10354) was viewed by some Filipinos as a stunning failure for the Church and a sign of its diminished influence on Philippine society. This article proposes that the Church’s engagement in the reproductive health bill (RH Bill) debate and the manner of its discourse undermined its own campaign to block the law. The first part of the article gives a historical overview of the Church’s opposition to government family planning programs. The second part discusses key points of conflict in the RH Bill debate. The third part will examine factors that shaped the Church’s attitude and responses to the RH Bill. The fourth part will examine the effects of the debate on the Church’s unity, moral authority, and role in Philippine society. The fifth part will draw lessons for the Church and will explore paths that the Church community can take in response to the challenges arising from the law’s implementation.

When it comes to dealing with population growth, there are a number of misconceptions about the position of the Catholic Church. Official teaching during the twentieth century gradually moved toward the acceptance of limiting family size and endorsed the concept of responsible parenthood during the Second Vatican Council. One cannot, therefore, justifiably claim that the church is against birth control. It is an entirely different matter, however, when it comes to the practical question about how a couple might go about regulating fertility. Since the publication of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, an intense controversy has taken place within the church about the use of artificial contraception. Behind that controversy lies an important methodological issue. For, the traditional teaching to which Paul VI returned in his letter was based upon the presumption that it is possible to morally judge a physical, material act without any consideration of the persons who performed that act, the circumstances within which it took place, or the reasons why the act was chosen. This behavioural approach to morality stands in some contrast to the way that other moral questions are dealt with. Inflicting pain or even taking a person’s life, for instance, can be justified for a good reason when one acts in a virtuous manner to instil discipline or safeguard justice. Until this methodological controversy is addressed, the problem of using artificial means to regulate fertility will not be resolved. A helpful key for solving the methodological ambiguities is to use moral language in a consistent and understandable manner.

More than 100 representatives of diverse Christian faith traditions, UNAIDS, WHO Stop-TB and HIV/AIDS Departments, UNITAID, the Global Fund, Vatican offices, governments, the medical and scientific community, and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See gathered in Rome, on 25-26 February 2014. Their aim was to identify opportunities and challenges in expanding access to HIV treatment globally and strengthening the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in the provision of such services.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

This report summarizes the USAID | Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1 project titled The Role of Religious Communities in Addressing Gender-based Violence and HIV, which was designed and implemented by Futures Group International and Religions for Peace. Recognizing the importance of collaborating to prevent and reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV among women and girls, the Initiative partners formulated the project to improve the capacity of religious leaders and faith-based organizations (FBOs) to respond to GBV and its links to HIV.

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.’

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.

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/

A Technical Brief for the Capacity Project describing faith leaders’ impact in low-income settings.

The extent of faith-based organizations’ participation within the overall health systems of developing countries is unclear. Recent reports state that faith-based organizations play a substantial role in providing healthcare in developing countries, cited in some publications as up to 70% of all healthcare services. The data behind these numbers are sometimes difficult to pinpoint and seem at odds to national and regional survey data.

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

!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 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.

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.

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

A report discussing the differences between international development agencies and FBOs, and how they can work together and overcome their differences.

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.

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.

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

An overview of Catholic responses to HIV including challenges and successes

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

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

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

Exploring partnerships between Christian and Muslim FBOs.

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”

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…