Resources

This “Best Practice” Report attempts to tell the story of the leadership exercised by the Catholic bishops of India, particularly through their national episcopal conference, and of the heroic and dedicated HIV-related service and teaching provided by Catholic Church-based organisations throughout the country.

The article attempts to demonstrate the key contribution by people of faith to the global HIV pandemic response. Special attention is paid to the work of the Catholic Church in this field in view of its vast infrastructure of education, health care, development and social service activities and of its exemplary efforts to coordinate an effective HIV response from global to grass roots levels. Independent evaluations and statistical data regarding the level and quality of faith-based engagement in this field are presented in order to demonstrate the basic premise of the article – i.e., that faith-based organisations
are lending exceptional energy, expertise, and experience in order to achieve the commitment of the international commitment to advance universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

This report reviews the work of faith-inspired leaders, communities, and organizations in worldwide efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Maternal mortality rates represent one of the most extreme cases of inequality in public health worldwide, but decades of global action have failed to remedy the gap between wealthy and poorer countries when it comes to maternal health. However, recent evidence that global maternal mortality is decreasing significantly, if gradually, has helped strengthen momentum and refocus attention on the issue.

This report reviews the work of faith-inspired leaders, communities, and organizations in worldwide efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Maternal mortality rates represent one of the most extreme cases of inequality in public health worldwide, but decades of global action have failed to remedy the gap between wealthy and poorer countries when it comes to maternal health. However, recent evidence that global maternal mortality is decreasing significantly, if gradually, has helped strengthen momentum and refocus attention on the issue.

Religious communities are critical players in the world of global development, but we know relatively little about their activities. The Luce/SFS Project on Religion and Global Development is devoted to closing that knowledge gap. It explores the role of religious groups and ideas in donor and developing countries and points to areas for greater religious-secular cooperation in the development field. The project supports faculty and student research and publications, development related courses, and an on-line databases that captures the activities of religious actors engaged in development activities worldwide.

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.

On March 24th and 25th, 2014, the International Interfaith Peace Corps (IIPC) in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Senegal cohosted an international summit entitled Vaccinations and Religion: Issues, Challenges, and Prospects. The summit brought together more than 80 African Muslim government officials, medical professionals, and religious leaders to identify the challenges associated with vaccination in resistant and hard-to-reach communities in Africa in order to issue a declaration in support of disease prevention and help raise awareness within Muslim-majority communities about the necessity and importance of vaccination. Ultimately, the goal was to identify strategies to increase vaccine acceptance in their domestic constituencies.

This series focuses on assessing the role and market share of faith-inspired providers and on assessing the extent to which they are involved in and benefit from public-private partnerships. The purpose of this series is three HNP discussion papers is to round up various analytical perspectives and emerging research on faith engagement in health in Africa from a range of researchers and practitioners from the north as well as the south. The series is structured into three volumes: a first volume on the role and market share of faith-inspired providers and public-private partnerships, a second on satisfaction and the comparative nature of faith-inspired health provision, and the third on mapping of faith inspired provision and the extent to which faith-inspired providers reach to the poor.

As African governments, donors, and a wide range of organizations increase their efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and set the agenda for the post-MDGs era, the role of non-state providers of health care is gaining new attention. In Africa, the largest non-state networks of providers are often faith-inspired. But how important is the role of faith-inspired institutions (FIIs) in health care provision in Africa? How substantial are their market share and reach to the poor? How affordable are the services provided by FIIs to households? How satisfied are households with these services? What are some of the interesting and innovative experiences that have been documented in terms of FIIs providing quality services to underserved populations? Beyond facilities-based care, which types of non-institutionalized initiatives emerge out of communities of faith that are generative of health? How can these initiatives be mapped, understood and leveraged for better health and development? The objective of this edited series of three World Bank HNP Discussion Papers is to gather tentative answers to such questions.

Channels of Hope training approach described in French by Malian Imam.