About the Mobilization of Local Faith Communities Hub
About the Mobilisation of Local Faith Communities Learning Hub
The Mobilisation of Local Faith Communities Learning Hub convened in 2013 as the Capacity Building for Local Faith Communities Learning Hub and completed work in 2018. The Hub began through sharing across member organizations about work and current methods to engage and mobilize local faith communities. After member consultations, the Hub in 2014 created a Theory of Change.
Key Question: What mechanisms & methods are there for engaging and mobilising local faith communities in development and humanitarian aid?
Many thanks to Christo Greyling, World Vision International for his previous leadership in the Mobilisation of LFCs Hub.
Previous Hub Work
Theory of Change
After consultation with Mobilization of LFCs Hub, members suggested nine factors that predict change in capacity in a community:
Personal transformation of faith leaders
Using scripture as unlocking and key
A combo of technical and practical and scripture
Champions/ facilitators – trained and supported
Local participation in analysis and monitoring
Linkage w advocacy
Intertwined envisioning by LFCs and communities
Building momentum overtime – learning from others, showcasing, continual refreshment
“Right” balance of local asset-based work with external support – harnessing existing community resources
Considering these factors, they created a Theory of Change to examine assumptions about what success looks like and how we contribute to change; and specifically analyzed the role of faith, drawing on any existing evidence base.
Throughout the process, the members looked at both similarities and differences. The theory of change diagram captures the core underlying beliefs that the group hold in common. The narrative explains the diagram, detail and highlights areas of debate and the need for further learning and testing.
Background on Large-Scale Approaches to Local Faith Capacity Building
Examples from the JLI Mobilisation of LFCs Hub participating in large-scale approaches to Local Faith Communities Capacity Building:
Tearfund
100,000 congregations Umoja
Holistic Transformation people and communities
World Vision
Channels of Hope 175K FLs; reductions in stigma; increase in testing
Islamic Relief
Integrated development strategy starts with theology and focuses on the six purposes of religion: protection, faith, life, intellect, progeny (the future), wealth and human dignity. Dignity is at the center of the process and justice and rights are there to protect the purposes of faith
Samaritan’s Purse
$300 million 100 countries
Adventist Relief and Development
Community Partnerships Program in Papua New Guinea
Saddleback Church PEACE Plan
600 churches in Rwanda
International Care Ministries
5,000 local churches in the Philippines
Christian Aid
Brazil: Trains religious leaders in HIV AIDS awareness and prevention.
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 in addressing humanitarian and development issues.
This is particularly relevant in Southeast Asian countries, which are highly disaster prone and also where faith plays a very important part in the daily lives of people.
There are two major roles that faith can play in this scenario- a) changing behaviours and mindsets and b) influencing policy and planning. Faith leaders not only enjoy a high level of influence amongst the general public, but usually also amongst policymakers and legislators. They often have a large following and their messages are actually listened and adhered too, often ‘religiously’, quite literally. Being community-based, they are also amongst the ‘first responders’. In addition, their spiritual messages also hold the strong power of healing in post-disaster trauma situations. Faith can thus be instrumental at all stages of humanitarian work- pre and post, as well as during the emergency.
On October 16 -18, over 185 participants and 85 organisations gathered at the General Curia for the Society of Jesus in Rome, Italy for the Faith Action for Children on the Move – Global Partners Forum. The Forum was co-organised by a partnership of 14 organisations including; ACT Alliance, ADRA International, Anglican Alliance, Arigatou International, Islamic Relief Worldwide, International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLI), Mennonite World Conference, Micah Global, Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventists, World Evangelical Alliance, World Council of Churches, and World Vision International.
The purpose of the forum was to engage religious and faith-based organisations, communities and children to dialogue on issues facing Children on the Move. The forum also worked to build consensus and develop a high-level action plan around the three main themes:
Spiritual support for children and their caregivers to promote healing and resilience
Creating a continuum of protection for children on the move
Building peaceful societies, opposing xenophobia, racism, and discrimination
Local faith actors are deeply involved in assisting refugees around the world. Their place in refugee response, however, can be in parallel with and, at times, in disagreement with the efforts of international humanitarian organizations. Focusing on the interactions between local faith actors and refugees and local faith actors and international organizations, the lenses of hospitality and hostility are used to analyze the tensions between these types of actors. Through a review of the literature and interviews with 21 key informants, Dr Wilkinson shows processes of marginalization. This occurs to the extent that local faith actors lose their positions of host to the dominance of the international humanitarian system, and feelings of hostility ensue. This demonstrates to international actors why they might be ill received and how they can approach partnerships with local faith actors in more diplomatic ways.
To maximize the significant opportunities presented by the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), the international community must recognize the experience and capabilities of faith actors (FAs) and break down existing barriers to partnerships to enable a more comprehensive, effective, and durable response.
While the GCR does acknowledge that: “Faith-based actors could support the planning and delivery of arrangements to assist refugees and host communities, including in the areas of conflict prevention, reconciliation, and peacebuilding, as well as other relevant areas,” the critical and comprehensive role that FAs play – as well as their potential for efficient service delivery – warrants a fuller and more nuanced examination.
This policy brief provides a set of recommendations based on evidence concerning the multiple roles that faith and faith actors play across different stages and spaces of forced displacement. The brief is aligned with the GCR’s sections on Arrangements for Burden- and Responsibility-sharing and its three Areas in Need of Support (Reception and Admission, Meeting Needs and Supporting Communities, and Solutions)
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 public health counsels are then followed by suggested sermons on the topic.
Facilitator’s Manual (Portuguese)
Formação de Voluntário do PIRCOM
Conversando com Famílias sobre Malária
Manual do Facilitador para os Coordenadores Provinciais e Líderes Religiosos
Learning from the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary’s effective responses to the EVD crises in Liberia and Sierra Leone 2014-2016
The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic which struck West Africa in 2014 presented unprecedent-ed challenges for the international humanitarian response. Learning from the successes and failures of the response effort is important for designing future crisis interventions.
Previous research on Ebola in West Africa suggested that human behaviour is a major factor in determining the spread of the disease. Understanding and influencing changes in behaviour at individual and community level can thus be an important factor in its prevention and containment.
The studies reported in this Learning Brief focus specifically on the work of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary (MSHR) in Liberia and Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis from 2014 to 2016. Misean Cara staff members travelled to both countries in 2016 to gather data on the Sisters’ Ebola response initiatives from multiple sources. The data sets were analysed and reports written up in 2017 (Misean Cara 2017a, 2017b). This Learning Brief synthesises the findings and conclusions from both studies.
Reflections on missionary and wider faith-based approaches to development
Misean Cara is an Irish and international faith-based missionary movement working with poor, marginalised and vulnerable communities in more than 50 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Its 91 members are drawn from the breadth of the Irish missionary movement; between them have a presence in over 100 countries worldwide, and implement an estimated 4,000 projects annually. They do not necessarily see themselves as development workers in the commonly understood sense of the term, but they do the work of development and humanitarian relief. Informed by their identity as missionaries, inspired by the Gospel, and responding to God’s call to work for a better life for all, they adopt a particular approach to the work that they do.
Conceptual Framework and Current Development Context
July 2018
The missionary approach to development interventions is driven by the Christian inspiration and ethos of the global movement of missionary organisations1 (see Figure 1, above). Specific features of the missionary approach make it unique within the development sector, while it also incorporates other features that are common to a wider range of international development agencies. The ultimate aim of the missionary approach is to enrich and transform the lives of poor, vulnerable and marginalised people across the globe
This is a case study of the violence of May 2008 was by far the most devastating event of its kind since apartheid ended in 1994 in South Africa. Although not exclusively, a considerable number of foreign nationals were attacked and killed. They lost their belongings as their houses were burnt and property looted. Media reports revealed that by the end of May 2008, 62 people had been killed and thousands of people displaced. Although the violence manifested itself in xenophobic attacks, the underlying causes of the violence go beyond xenophobic tendencies and also include poor service delivery, high levels of unemployment, poverty, corruption and competition for resources chand/or opportunities.
This essay examines local and international Christian efforts on Mount Kilimanjaro to educate children. A prevailing idea among people who live on the mountain is that children engender trust and trade. This idea is illuminated through the adage ‘Take the gift of my child and return something to me’ and is embedded in the concept of Chagga trust. The latter is both an ethical mode and a social entity. Local ideas of children and trust partly overlap with but also differ from American evangelical missionaries’ views of children as needing to be safeguarded. Analysis of differences reveals that while religious missions have long played a role in providing education, the dynamics of privatization have changed the manner in which local leaders and international missionaries interact. Previous interactions were regular and routine; today’s are fewer, more contractual, and more formalized. The analysis presented here broadens and qualifies existing research that simply states that evangelicalism and the privatization of education helps the poor.
Published: 2018Author:Amy Stambach and Aikande C. Kwayu
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 response (Ager 1999; PWG
2002). Humanitarian work was focused principally on addressing material needs, implicitly judging non-material needs as of lower priority in acute emergencies and more challenging to address, being subject to local cultural variation (Harrell-Bond 1986). Now, however, MHPSS has been firmly
established—viewed within a broader framing of the psychosocial well-being of communities impacted by crisis—as a key sector of humanitarian response (Mollica et al. 2004).
The place of MHPSS within prioritized humanitarian action has been noticeably codified since the establishment—and widespread endorsement—of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergency Settings (2007). These guidelines specify a “minimum response” to a range of mental health and psychosocial issues, which are conceived of with respect not only to health but also to broad cross-sectoral concerns in such areas as water and sanitation, food and nutrition, and education. With these IASC guidelines now translated into many languages, and key principles from them adopted within the revised Sphere Standards (Sphere Project 2013) governing humanitarian response, MHPSS activities may now be considered “mainstream.”
Published: 2014Author:Joey Ager, Behailu Abebe and Alastair Ager
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 historic roots and are unquestionably a vital part of communities at all levels. They have shaped Nigerian social and political approaches, notably in health and education, and play significant political and economic roles, both within Nigeria and internationally. Nigerians look to religious leaders for moral direction and practical support. Religious actors are significant for virtually every development challenge facing Nigeria, from governance structures to gender relations, regional balance to community resilience, and educational curricula to climate change. This report provides an overview of Nigeria’s religious landscape in relation to major development issues. Supported by the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), the report is part of a broad effort to explore these questions in the context of five countries.
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 shared allegiance to institutions, beliefs, history or identity (Samuels et al. 2010)—are often central to local processes of identity and connection that comprise the social fabric of communities disrupted by disaster or conflict. Although their role in individual and community resilience is thus potentially of major significance, until recently there has been little attention paid to appropriate means of engaging with LFCs in the context of responses to humanitarian situations, including processes of displacement. However, there are some indications of the international humanitarian community acknowledging the case for more effective engagement with faith-based institutions, especially with regard to their potential reach into local communities (e.g. DFID 2012). Notable in this regard is the convening of the recent United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Faith and Protection (UNHCR 2012).
UNICEF defines religious communities as ‘both female and male religious actors and …systems and structures that institutionalize belief systems within religious traditions at all levels from local to global’ (2012: 7). In turn, UNAIDS identifies three levels of faith-based communities: ‘formal religious communities with an organized hierarchy and leadership’, ‘independent faith influenced non-governmental organisations… and … networks’ and ‘informal social groups or local faith communities’ (Samuels et al. 2010). Religious and faith-based communities therefore comprise diverse actors and networks situated across diverse sites. As defined for the purposes of this study, local faith communities—such as congregations, mosques and temples—are those whose members reside in relatively close proximity, such that they can regularly meet together for religious purposes, often in a dedicated physical venue. Within more secularized societies, a wide range of local, civil society structures will not be religious in nature. In such contexts, LFCs may be meaningfully distinguished from other local groups, allowing for some conceptual distinction between the capacities brought by locality and those brought by faith-engagement. However, in the majority of humanitarian settings, with high levels of religiosity and with faith-related structures comprising the significant majority of civil society, such a distinction may not be particularly meaningful (El Nakib and Ager 2014).
UNICEF and other child rights organizations* have a long history of partnering with religious communities of all faiths on a wide range of issues that affect children. Religious communities are uniquely positioned to promote equitable outcomes for the most vulnerable children and families. Their moral influence and extensive networks give them access to the most disenfranchised and deprived groups, those that international organizations and governments are sometimes less able to reach effectively. They are also grounded in philosophical frameworks that shape their call to community service into long-term commitments to achieving peace, justice and social equality.
Several key elements of the Convention on the Rights of the Child – the most widely ratified and comprehensive legal instrument for the protection of child rights – reflect values shared with the world’s major religious traditions. These include:
• A fundamental belief in the dignity of the child.
• An emphasis on the family as the best place for bringing up children.
• High priority given to children and the idea that all members of society have rights and duties towards them.
• A holistic notion of the child and a comprehensive understanding of his or her physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.
Aside from the potential benefits that religious actors bring to partnerships, spirituality and religion can have a profound influence on children’s development and socialization and have the potential to reinforce protective influences and promote resilience. The beliefs, practices, social networks and resources of religion can instil hope, give meaning to difficult experiences and provide emotional, physical and spiritual support. Impact can be far-reaching when child rights efforts are grounded in the protective aspects of religious beliefs and practices in a community.
In spite of the positive roles religious communities can play, it is important to acknowledge there are sometimes concerns about working in partnership with these groups. Although the fundamental values of all the major religious traditions uphold the dignity and right to well-being of children, some beliefs, attitudes and practices associated with religions promote or condone violence and discrimination against children. Whether these are actual religious tenets, or religion is misused to justify harmful beliefs and practices, they can violate a child’s physical, emotional and spiritual integrity. There may also be apprehensions that faith-based organizations will pressure aid recipients to convert or only provide aid to those with similar religious views.
* In this guide the term ‘child rights organizations’ refers to non-religiously affiliated NGOs and networks. Child rights organizations that are affiliated with religions are included here under the term ‘faith-based organizations
Unskilled migrant workers and their families represent a crucial human resource in Sabah (Malaysia) as cheap labour, but also as religious believers. Christian organizations belonging to various denominations have started to cater to this community in recent years by providing educational services. Based on an ethnography of two schools led by charismatic South Korean missionaries and patronized by a Lutheran church with roots in Sabah, this article argues that ‘salvation’, as it is understood and practiced through education in these institutions, falls short of empowering migrants as a whole and rather contributes to reproducing their subordination as a community within Sabahan society.
United Nations Strategic Learning Exchange on Religion, Development and Humanitarian Work under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, in Amman, Jordan
The Strategic Learning Exchange (SLE) is a partnership effort stewarded by the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development, together with the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO), the King Abdullah Center for Dialogue (KAICIID), World Vision International (WVI) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Jordan). This SLE focused on the religion and role in addressing the SDGs with special focus on MENA region.
Chapter exceprt from Jörg Haustein & Emma Tomalin, ‘Religion and Development in Africa and Asia’ in Routledge Handbook of Africa–Asia Relations ed. by Pedro Carvalho et al. London: Routledge, 2017, pp. 76-93
A Thematic Paper for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security
Prepared by the Soka Gakkai International
September 2017
As a global movement of Buddhists dedicated to peace, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) has worked on the activities for abolishing nuclear weapons issue for more than a half century, often with the engagement and even leadership of youth. In 2007, the SGI launched the “People’s Decade for Nuclear Abolition”5 (herein after referred to as the People’s Decade), a grassroots campaign aimed at rousing international public opinion against nuclear weapons and expanding the network of people who share the common goal of eliminating them from our planet. Largely initiated and led by youth, numerous activities, including workshops, symposia, exhibitions and petition drives, have been conducted over the years around the world under the banner of this campaign. The campaign has been raising awareness among the general public about the dangers of nuclear weapons while also empowering youth as protagonists who can contribute meaningfully to nuclear disarmament.
As this year marks the 10th anniversary since the launch of the People’s Decade, it is an opportune time to reflect on findings gleaned through the campaign and contribute them to the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security.
Guidance on mental health and psychosocial programming
This guidance has been developed in phases. A desk review looking at the literature relevant to faith-sensitive psychosocial programming, followed by fieldwork in LWF and IRW country offices (Kenya, Jordan and Nepal), led to initial draft of the guidance, closely aligned with the existing IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (2007). This draft guidance was then reviewed by a wide range of humanitarian actors and others and was pilot tested in a variety of settings.
This process is based on Tearfund’s experience in the Philippines, in response to Typhoon Haiyan (2013). Typhoon Haiyan (locally named Yolanda) hit the Philippines on 8 November, 2013. Humanitarian assistance focused on some of the hardest hit areas in the Eastern Visayas region – Tacloban, Leyte and the nearby province of Samar. The typhoon also moved towards Central and Western Visayas. The majority of affected areas experienced storm surges, coastal flooding and strong winds. This included Cadiz City in the province of Negros Occidental.
Their experience in Cadiz City may be different from your area and would encourage you to adapt this process to suit your needs.
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 affected areas of Malawi, who had been oriented to child protection issues through World Vision workshops aimed explicitly at relating protection concerns to religious teachings. Many participants reported that attending a workshop had been transformational in terms of their perspectives regarding the protection of children.
The key child protection issues identified by participants included child marriage, lack of attendance at school, child labour (including forced labour), harsh physical punishment and sexual abuse. Many faith leaders − and their wives − became active in addressing child protection issues as a result of the programme, although the form of this action varied widely and was significantly influenced by their varied status and capacities
KEY IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Faith leaders can be effective community based advocates for child protection both embedded
within, and equipped to challenge, shared religious beliefs and practices
Faith leaders are not a homogenous group and strategies to engage with them need to reflect their
widely varying status, resources and capacities
The wives of pastors and women who are leading ministries are a particularly powerful resource to
engage with local child protection issues
Can a Protestant Christianity education program teaching about health, livelihoods, religious values impact poverty?
New working paper published from groundbreaking randomized control trial (RCT) to measure impact of faith and religion in the Philippines. This trial was an initiative between Innovations for Poverty Action and International Care Ministries lead by researchers, Dean Karlan (Northwestern University), James Choi (Yale University) and Gharad Bryan (London School of Economics and Political Science). The study study of International Care Ministries; program, an evangelical faith-based organization in the Philippines, is the first randomized trial of whether religious values education–can affect individuals’ wellbeing (includes health and economic outcomes) within the context of a broader poverty alleviation program.
The key question: Higher religiosity is associated with improved health and well being. Does increased religiosity also cause these outcomes to improve?
Abstract from working paper
To test the causal impact of religiosity, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of an evangelical Protestant Christian values and theology education program that consisted of 15 weekly half-hour sessions. Researchers analyzed outcomes for 6,276 ultra-poor Filipino households six months after the program ended. The study finds significant increases in religiosity and income, no significant changes in total labor supply, assets, consumption, food security, or life satisfaction, and a significant decrease in perceived relative economic status. Exploratory analysis suggests the program may have improved hygienic practices and increased household discord, and that the income treatment effect may operate through increasing grit.
The role of local churches in humanitarian and development responses
Tearfund’s approach to humanitarian and development response is to work wherever possible
with and through the local church. This is because, as a Christian NGO, Tearfund considers
itself to have a specific calling to work alongside local communities of Christians to help bring
transformation to the lives of those living in poverty. Whilst acknowledging that the church
is a flawed human institution, and that no one is beyond reproach, Tearfund believes that,
at its best, the church is an organisation with the potential to help reshape the lives of the
communities it serves across the world.
This approach brings three key advantages to international development work, in that local
churches are:
The Forum on Localizing Response to Humanitarian Need was held on Oct 16-19 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Forum was organized as a follow on from the World Humanitarian Summit, responding to and reinforcing the localization of aid/Grand Bargain discussions, and designed to produce a body of evidence on questions of HOW to engage local faith actors, and actions to scale up their engagement as local partners.
142 people from 36 countries (see attendees) assembled to learn from Sri Lankan religious leaders and FBOs and from each other about local faith engagement in humanitarian response, and to discuss how to scale up engagement. About 40 local actors received a subsidy to attend.
The Forum would not have been possible without –
Our funders: GHR Foundation, USAID, World Vision International, Adventist Relief and Development, Church of Sweden, KAICIID, Islamic Relief USA, Episcopal Relief and Development, Soka Gakkai International, Finn Church Aid, Religions for Peace, World Evangelical Alliance;
Local Host Committee: Ven. Banagala Upatissa Thero (Co-Chair), Rev. Ebenezer Joseph (Co-Chair), Faizer Khan (Muslim Aid SL), Firzan Hashim (APAD SL), Dr. M. Saleem, Nagulan Nessiah (Episcopal Relief & Development, Kavitha Vijayaraj (Sarvodaya), Urmila Selvanayagam (World Vision SL) ; The International Planning Committee: ACT Alliance, Anglican Communion, Cadena, Finn Church Aid, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities, Network of Religious and Traditional Leaders, Muslim Aid, Muslim Charities Forum, Partnership for Faith and Development, Religions for Peace, Soka Gakkai International, Tearfund, World Council of Churches, World Evangelical Alliance, World Vision International ;
Partnership for Faith and Development: Jean Duff, Aeysha Chaudry and Cassandra Lawrence
Local Coordinating Team: Kevin de Silva (Bini Solutionz), Saabira Mohideen, Shevandra Wijemanne, Zainab Ismail, Nafli Mufthi, Sasmini Bandara, Rehana Dole and Vinu Wijemanna.
The brief summary report was published on 24th October 2017 as an immediate summary upon conclusion of the Forum. FULL BRIEF SUMMARY REPORT
The Full Summary Report on Forum Proceedings can be downloaded and viewed below can be used as a resource for examples of engagement and a source of information for future actions and advocacy.
Prepared by the Soka Gakkai International October 2017
In March 2011, the northeast region of Japan known as Tohoku1 was hit by a natural disaster of enormous magnitude: The Great East Japan Earthquake. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake, coupled with numerous aftershocks, a series of highly destructive tsunami waves and a nuclear reactor accident, claimed thousands of lives, while causing lasting damage to the
surrounding communities and survivors of the atrocity. Even today, more than six years later, many continue to live in temporary housing and endure ongoing uncertainty about the future.
The core activities of the SGA aim to promote awareness and understanding through dialogue to advance the following three themes:
Build a culture of peace and a world free of nuclear weapons
Strengthen ties of friendship in Asia through dialogue and cultural exchanges
Support post-disaster reconstruction efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake
This discussion guide and toolkit provides ideas and approaches to enable you to think through your research partnerships; to encourage you to critically engage with issues such as the roles different actors play in partnership; and what types of evidence are valued, used and produced. We intend that it will open up space for more voices, perspectives and knowledge to inform research design, implementation and communication.
Christian Aid co-led with the Open University on the production of this resource, drawing from a seminar series that brought together academics and NGO staff to reflect on their experiences of research partnerships. This consortium engaged with questions of participation and the politics of evidence in academic-NGO research partnerships. It was funded by the ESRC and this publication is one of the outputs of the series.
Published: 2017Author:Hilary Cornish (Christian Aid), Jude Fransman (Open University) and Kate Newman (Christian Aid)
From 2011 until June 2016, the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) program worked across eleven countries in Africa (Ethiopian, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), in three general sectors (food security, maternal and child health and water, sanitation and hygiene) and beyond. The A$83 million program has focused on empowering women, youth, children, people living with disabilities and others.
AACES has been recognised for three distinguishing features;
The partnership model for managing the program represented best practice, enabling greater impact along with learning and sharing of lessons
Use of a diversity of strategies including strength- based, rights-based and endogenous development approaches made a significant contribution to both impact and sustainability
Over 2.3 million poor women and marginalised people were positively impacted, representing substantive Value for Money
JLI Scoping Study On Local Faith Communities In Urban Displacement:
Evidence on Localisation and Urbanisation
Refugees & Forced Migration Learning Hub
By Olivia Wilkinson & Joey Ager
The aim of this report is to highlight evidence regarding the roles and impact that Local Faith Communities (LFCs) play in relation to urban refugees, with the aim of informing interconnected conversations around localisation and urbanisation.
The international community is increasingly committed to supporting local responses to displacement, at a time when the humanitarian system is overburdened, underfunded and in flux as the world reportedly faces the highest levels of displacement ever recorded – over 65 million people in 2017, who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, and persecution. In 2016 the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) resulted in the Charter for Change and a renewed call for meaningful support for the ‘localisation of humanitarian aid’ agenda. In part building on the UNHCR’s work following the High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Faith and Protection in December 2012, this includes recognition of the actual and potential roles of LFCs in offering protection, solidarity and assistance to displaced people throughout different stages and spaces of their journeys.
This evidence is therefore centrally relevant to two key debates in contemporary humanitarian policy and practice – localisation and urbanisation – whose outcomes will have a signifcant impact on the future of refugee protection.
The Organization of African Initiated Churches (OAIC) and International Care Ministries (ICM) have partnered up to learn from each other on monitoring, evaluation, and learning for organizations working through local faith communities. We spoke to Rev. Nicta Lubaale (OAIC) and Dr. Lincoln Lau (ICM) to find out more about their collaboration. See preview or click download for the interview summary
Christian Aid supports Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK) towards CHS Alliance membership
Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK), a community-led development organisation combating poverty in Bangladesh, has recently joined CHS Alliance. This is largely due to the hard work of Nahed Chowdhury, widely known as ‘Lucky Apa’ in the humanitarian sector in Bangladesh, in partnership with Christian Aid.
In the last years, within the framework of Shifting the Power, a project aiming to strengthen national humanitarian and development agencies, Christian Aid has supported Lucky and her NGO to apply the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and join CHS Alliance. Lucky has spearheaded GUK’s application process and guided other national agencies along the way.
The project is being delivered by a consortium led by ActionAid and the Catholic Agency for Overseas
Development (CAFOD), and including Christian Aid, Tearfund, Oxfam and Concern.
Despite the benefits of antenatal care, evidence from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that women often initiate these services after the first trimester of pregnancy and do not complete the recommended number of visits. This study examines the impact of mobilising faith-based and lay leaders to address the socio-cultural barriers to antenatal care uptake in northern Ghana in the context of a broader child survival project. A quasi-experimental design was used, and data were analysed using a difference-in-differences approach. The results presented in this article indicate the potential for faith-based and lay leaders to promote uptake of maternal and child health behaviours.
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 reduction (DRR) approach with a common focus: reducing the vulnerability of communities and contributing to sustainable development.
Behind closed doors – voices against gender-based violence, human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
Launched at an event on Wed 28th June 2017 in the House of Lords hosted by Baroness Butler-Sloss and presented by the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford, of CCARHT in Cambridge.
This report was initiated in the autumn of 2015 to address the situation of women in relation to human trafficking and modern slavery. The project aimed to produce a final report on the challenges and opportunities facing the churches and the particular contribution which the Pentecostal Churches can play in relation to women at risk within their networks and the communities they serve.
The research project was funded through a legacy gift of the Leicester Free Church Women’s Council, and thus the focus of the report was specifically on challenges in these areas of exploitation experienced by women and children within the Pentecostal traditions.
Published: 2017Author:Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford, Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Human Trafficking
Since the 1980s, programs of humanitarian assistance in Africa have for the most part operated along neoliberal lines. Faith and Charity examines how that approach has changed relationships between religious action, humanitarian assistance, and social change. Exploring the logics of economic liberalization, including the reduction of government spending and the rise of the private sector, the authors look at how these changes have also transformed the attitudes of individuals towards society and the economy in ways that privilege individual achievement over any kind of collective well-being
Published: 2017Author:MARIE NATHALIE LEBLANC AND LOUIS AUDET GOSSELIN
Channels of Hope (CoH) is an interactive, facilitated process to create a safe space for faith leaders and faith communities to learn, share and debate. It reaches to the root causes and deepest convictions that impact attitudes, norms, values and practices toward the most vulnerable. The process is grounded in guiding principles from participants’ holy scriptures. CoH is more than just workshops or education, it is life transformation. It is designed to move the heart, inform the mind and motivate a sustained and effective response to significant issues. CoH does not proselytise or change people’s doctrine, but equips faith leaders to apply their sacred texts to key social issues and encourage other faith leaders to do the same.
CoH mobilises and builds on the existing competencies of community leaders, especially faith leaders and their congregations, to respond to some of the most difficult issues affecting their communities. Through this process, they are exposed to additional capacity-building efforts that may strengthen their own responses.
This report was commissioned by a consortium of UK-based international non-governmental organisations: ActionAid, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB and Tearfund.
Partnerships with national and local actors have long been identified as a source of problems in international humanitarian aid. Major evaluations of numerous high profile humanitarian crises – most notably that of the Indian Ocean tsunami – have identified insufficient investment in, and commitment to, such partnerships as the biggest hinderance to effective performance. The reality is that efforts to work with national and local actors do not play a central role in the majority of international humanitarian work. This amounts to a longstanding systemic issue for the sector as a whole, which has persisted despite the efforts made by individual agencies to invest time and effort in this area.
This study is the first output of a research project commissioned by five UK-based international humanitarian non-governmental organisations (INGOs) – ActionAid, Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB and Tearfund. The main purpose of the project was to look at the current and future potential of partnerships with national non-governmental organisations (NNGOs) in humanitarian response, based on lessons from across the commissioning agencies in four major emergency settings. The project is part of an ongoing effort to build the future of humanitarian assistance, which has already seen publications in 2011 from Christian Aid and Oxfam GB. The research process involved interviews with INGO and NNGO staff, workshops and meetings with INGO representatives, and a review of relevant documentation.
Published: 2013Author:ActionAid, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB and Tearfund.
This Powerpoint presenation titled “Sarvodaya’s contribution to the SDGs
2015/16 and beyond” was presented at Sarvodaya’s Annual General Meeting on 17th December 2016. The presentation highlights and discusses some of the main goals of the SDGs that Sarvodaya works in.
Founded 59 years ago in Sri Lanka, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement is a social development organisation. Coined by Mahatma Ghandi, Sarvodaya means the awakening of all and the Movement is inspired by Buddhist principles.
This scoping research conducted by Oxfam America in Partnership with Harvard Divinity School, combining a literature review and interviews of more than 45 stakeholders, set out to examine the varying approaches and effectiveness in local humanitarian leadership by secular and faith-inspired international humanitarian NGOs, their varying approaches to partnering and engaging with local faith actors, and their religious literacy.
Local humanitarian leadership is built upon the premise that humanitarian action should be led by local humanitarian actors whenever possible, yet this research finds that secular humanitarian INGOs do not engage systematically with local faith actors in their local leadership work. It also found that neither secular nor faith-inspired international humanitarian organizations have a sufficient level of religious literacy to enable them to understand the religious dimensions of the contexts in which they work and to effectively navigate their engagement with local faith actors.
To read the report from the website click also here.
A blog post with reflections on the topic can be found here.
Published: 2017Author:TARA R. GINGERICH, DIANE L. MOORE, ROBERT BRODRICK, AND CARLEIGH BERIONT
The Government, Global Poverty and God’s Mission in the World declaration emerged as one result of a two-day consultation sponsored by Bread for the World Institute, Micah Challenge, and the Center for Applied Christian Ethics, and held at Wheaton College, May 18-19, 2010.
The consultation involved a cross-section of roughly 80 invited evangelical Christian leaders in relief and development, church mission and advocacy, academia, and the media, with representatives from the Global South as well as Europe and North America. The purpose of the consultation was to strengthen the church’s understanding of how Christians should approach, inform, and develop their positions on U.S. foreign assistance policy. The consultation evolved to include broader reflections on U.S. (and other nations’) trade, aid, debt and other policies affecting global poverty.
This report summarizes and reflects on work that explored religious issues relevant for contemporary development challenges in several very different countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, Senegal, and Guatemala). All four countries face significant challenges of fragility, and development actors of many kinds, public and private, religious and non-religious, play critical roles. The country-level mapping work involved a combination of literature reviews, consultations with experts, and in-country fieldwork. This summary report highlights discussions at the October 2016 capstone conference at Georgetown University, which examined findings and conclusions of the three-year research program carried out with the generous support of the Henry R. Luce Foundation.
Building a Just World examines The Salvation Army’s contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the UN’s sustainable development programme between 2000 and 2015.
Using data collected by The Salvation Army during that period, this report aims to give a brief insight into the work being done in 127 countries around the world.
It also includes photographs, stories and an explanation of the Army’s holistic approach to addressing each MDG.
You can download or bookmark this publication here or read it here.
The Salvation Army also released the “Go and Do Something” report on mobilising for social justice, accessed here:
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 Teams carrying out safe, medical burials. This changed towards the end of 2014 when revised burial procedures were published and renamed the Safe and Dignified Burial Protocol. Confrontations with communities decreased and more requests by communities for the Burial Teams were noted.
The results of this study are expected to be used by national and international stakeholders to better respond to future epidemics in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.
Religious and faith-based organizations contribute substantially to international development as major donors to care for the most vulnerable.
Political pressure is increasing in some quarters to cut public spending on foreign assistance leaving religious and voluntary sectors to fundraise for aid. It is critical to understand faith-based entities are effective partners implementing government grants and are already secure substantial private resources for development assistance. Data are limited on the on revenues and expenditures of faith groups to international development. One publicly available source of data is the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) annual filings required of tax-exempt Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This report uses publicly available IRS 990 forms of 71 of the largest US faith-based NGOs engaged in international development and aid activities to quantify the private and public revenues and expenditures from FY2011-FY2015.
As the just released Hudson Index of Philanthropy 2016 shows, US private philanthropy significantly outpaces US Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a proportion of total US contributions to total economic engagement with developing countries ( 12% vs 9%), and religious organizations contribute 14% of the total of that private philanthropy.
The Center for Faith and the Common Good (CFCG) has updated its analysis of data on US FB NGO financing for international development to include FY 2015. See here for more information on CFCG
Published: 2017Author:Center for Faith and the Common Good
The members of Christian Connections for International Health span the globe. They have long-term working relationships with numerous faith groups, health systems and governments. They are uniquely placed to hear and voice the concerns of both health professionals and ordinary citizens. Here CCIH has gathered statements about family planning, its history, and its current strengths and weaknesses in several countries of the Global South.
The focus of this volume is on religious actors as important social actors or drivers of change, particularly as promoters of social change, democracy and development. It is an acknowledgement of the vital role that religious communities and similar organised groups and their leaders play in achieving goals that Western policy-makers and development agents consider important for the progress of many non-Western societies, which are also often poor.
Muslim Platform for Sustainable Platform launched—to exchange knowledge and facilitate collaboration on Muslim understanding of and approach to achieving the SDGs. See more information below and their website:
Jamie D. Aten and David M. Boan, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2016.
Dr. Jamie Aten is the founder and co-director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Associate Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (Illinois). Dr. David M. Boan is associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College and co-director of the college’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute.
Churches can play crucial roles in disaster resilience and response. This book addresses the question of how local churches can assist in disaster risk and recovery globally, particularly in high-risk regions. Some churches are located in areas prone to disasters. Others have members who, although not living in high-risk regions, strongly desire to help others in disaster crises. The authors aim to prepare those with servant hearts from both perspectives by introducing them to the need for disaster assistance, suggesting reasons churches should get involved, and proposing ways that the local church is uniquely qualified to assist due to its structure and trust within the local community. Specifically, “the purpose of this book is to help churches learn how to plan, launch and sustain disaster ministries” (12).
An Exploratory Study to Examine the Effectiveness of Community Based Ebola Virus Disease Prevention and Management Strategies in Bo District Sierra Leone
World Vision Sierra Leone and Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration on World Vision’s Ebola Response in Sierra Leone. Johns Hopkins University: Anbrasi Edward, Casey Risko, Hossein Zare, Meera Pranav, Tiffany Tran
World Vision Sierra Leone: Allieu Bangura, Michael Belmoh, Raymond Owusu
The unprecedented Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in West Africa was first reported in Sierra Leone in March 2014 and rapidly spread, revealing the failures of the region’s chronically fractured and under-resourced healthcare system. By March 2016, the WHO had documented a total of 14,124 cases of Ebola, including 3,955 deaths, in Sierra Leone – more than any other country.
World Vision was actively engaged in implementing preventive activities and case management in 25 of its Area Development Programs, which included 25 Chiefdoms in Bo, Bonthe, Pujehun, and Kono in Sierra Leone. Its Ebola response strategy was designed to work in close collaboration with the Government of Sierra Leone to reach a population of 1.6 million through the establishment and mobilization of an extensive network of community providers established, including teachers, paramount chiefs, and faith healers, over a twenty-year period. A review of district level EVD records indicated that not a single Ebola-related fatality was documented among the 59,000 sponsored children or family members supported by World Vision during the outbreak. Although the Ebola outbreak was successfully contained, the processes were not formally documented nor the impact of impact of World Vision’s effort was not formally documented or assessed. The remainder of this report is based on findings from a study commissioned to bridge this knowledge-to-practice gap by capturing community members’ perceptions of the effectiveness of specific strategies employed by World Vision in order to increase the evidence of what works in responding to similar outbreaks throughout the West Africa and beyond. This report is a collaboration between World Vision and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
From analysis to action: World Vision’s journey of rapid context analysis in humanitarian emergencies
This briefing explains one of the tools that World Vision has developed in order to assess contexts rapidly: ‘Good Enough Context Analysis for Rapid Response’ (GECARR). It shares some of the challenges, impacts and reflections that World Vision and others have observed when conducting context analysis in dangerous places. It highlights some key challenges involved when doing context analysis in fragile and conflict-prone contexts as well as some of the elements of effective context analysis that have been observed.We draw upon discussions with 20 key informants based on the ground and in headquarter offices including INGOs, donors, think tanks and consultants.
Published: 2016Author:Sarah Klassen, Sarah Pickwick, Johan Eldebo
This report provides an overview of the engagement with faith-based actors and faith-related activities by the members of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Engaging Faith-Based Actors for Sustainable Development
Published: 2016Author:UNFPA, on behalf of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Engaging Faith-Based Actors for Sustainable Development
This is a research project looking into localization and specifically reinforce the capacity of its local partners and share the essential aspects of humanitarian action with them. Trócaire aims to reinforce humanitarian aid in the least accessible areas (for geographical or security reasons), and improve ownership and resilience amongst the local population.
The sharpening focus on global health and the growing recognition of the capacities and scope of faith-based groups for improving community health outcomes suggest an intentional and systematic approach to forging strong, sustained partnerships between public sector agencies and faith-based organisations. Drawing from both development and faith perspectives, this Series paper examines trends that could ground powerful, more sustainable partnerships and identifies new opportunities for collaboration based on respective strengths and existing models. This paper concludes with five areas of recommendations for more effective collaboration to achieve health goals.
This document introduces the Channels of Hope approach to engaging Faith Leaders for challenging harmful practices and enacting social change in their communities, providing a summary of evidence regarding the effectiveness and impact of the five Channels of Hope programmes: HIV/AIDS, Gender, MNCH, Ebola and Child Protection.
‘Channels of Hope’ (CoH) is World Vision’s signature programme for catalyzing faith leaders and their communities to transform children’s lives in the world’s hardest places. It was first developed over a decade ago by the Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa as a compassionate Christian response to the devastating effect of HIV & AIDS. Since then CoH has evolved to address other difficult and often taboo issues that affect the rights and wellbeing of children and has been used in over 50 developing countries. Channels of Hope is both a methodology and a mobilization process.
The Eagle process envisions and equips the local church “to have a vision and passion for being salt and light in their community, enabling the church and community to work together to address common needs by using their own shared resources” (Eagle manual p3).
It aims to support communities in Uganda to take initiative and improve relationships (with God, each other and the environment), gender equity, livelihoods and health. Mothers’ Union Uganda is pioneering this approach so it can fulfil its mission to transform communities by promoting stable marriages, family life and children’s protection more effectively and sustainably.
Religious NGOs are important sources of humanitarian aid in Africa, entering where the welfare programs of weakened states fail to provide basic services. As collaborators and critics of African states, religious NGOs occupy an important structural and ideological position. They also, however, illustrate a key irony—how economic development, a symbol of science, progress, and this-worldly material improvement, borrows heavily from other-worldly faith.
Through a study of two transnational NGOs in Zimbabwe, this book offers a nuanced depiction of development as both liberatory and limiting. Humanitarian effort is not a hopeless task, but behind the liberatory potential of Christian development lurks the sad irony that change can bring its own disappointments.
This publication is Catholic Relief Services (CRS) training guide on partnership and capacity strengthening. The organization has a rich history of working productively with local organizations, including both Church and non-Church partners. The CRS Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Unit seeks to support Country Programs to strengthen these partner organizations’ capacity to further contribute to civil society and to enhance and maintain consistent quality services to the poor and those su ering injustice. This unit also supports Country Programs and partners to establish and sustain strong partnerships.
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 unique opportunity to improve health outcomes”.
The series includes:
Understanding the roles of faith-based health-care providers in Africa: review of the evidence with a focus on magnitude, reach, cost, and satisfaction – by Jill Olivier, Clarence Tsimpo, Regina Gemignani, Mari Shojo, Harold Coulombe, Frank Dimmock, Minh Cong Nguyen, Harrison Hines, Edward J Mills, Joseph L Dieleman, Annie Haakenstad, Quentin Wodon. For article click here.
Controversies in faith and health care – by Andrew Tomkins, Jean Duff, Atallah Fitzgibbon, Azza Karam, Edward J Mills, Keith Munnings, Sally Smith, Shreelata Rao Seshadri, Avraham Steinberg, Robert Vitillo, Philemon Yugi. For article click here.
Strengthening of partnerships between the public sector and faith-based groups – by Jean Duff and Warren Buckingham. For article click here.
Faith-based delivery of science-based care – by William Summerskill, Richard Horton. For article click here.
Stakeholder Health: Insights from New Systems of Health, was developed in 2016 with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a review of best practices in the areas of community health improvement, as well as clinical and community partnerships, spanning eleven chapters. The chapters range from a review of the social determinants or drivers of health to leadership for new partnerships between health systems and communities, relational information technology, community health navigation, financial aspects of partnering with community in a new ‘social return on investment’ model, leadership, implementing resiliency models integrated across hospitals and the broader community.
Published: 2016Author:Teresa F. Cutts and James R. Cochrane
Assessing Rural Transformations was a three year ESRC/DFID funded action research project investigating credible ways to assess the impact of development activities, particularly when the intervention takes place in the context of complex processes of rural transformation. Qualitative monitoring was conducted using a new qualitative impact assessment protocol, referred to as the QuIP.
This brief presents an overview of the QuIP in three steps: the background to the QuIP and its main aims; the data collection and analysis methodology; and QuIP in the context of other approaches to evaluation. Each section can be read independently.
Authors: David Boan, Benjamin Andrews, Elizabeth Loewer, Kalen Drake, Daniel Martison, Jamie D. Aten
Wheaton College, Humanitarian Disaster Institute, Psychology Department
Abstract: Distributive justice is an important theme in community and international psychology, overlapping with many related concepts of peace, equity, compassion, and more. Refugees, who often experience pervasive injustice, offer insights into the development of justice when they create a just community. The United Refugee and Host Churches (URHC) is a network of churches in Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kenya) and the surrounding Turkana community founded and operated by refugees and local Turkana people. Founded in 1996, this group addressed ongoing conflict and distrust in the refugee camp by establishing a system of procedural and distributive justice. This qualitative study identified and described the methods used by the URHC to restore a sense of justice and reduce conflict in the camp. The project team interviewed 23 URHC members and leaders and, from those interviews, identified eight core themes describing strategies used by URHC. We discuss each of themes in depth as well as the association’s work as an example of applied distributive and procedural justice. We then conclude by highlighting several implications, program impact, and recommendations for future research.
World Vision’s Mobilizing for Maternal and Neonatal Health through Birth Spacing and Advocacy (MOMENT) project focuses on improving maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH) by increasing community-led advocacy, political advocacy and US/Canadian funding for global health. The community-led advocacy, through Citizen Voice and Action, and its Channels of Hope models, focuses on engaging faith leaders to promote and increase MNCH and Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies/Family Planning (HTSP/FP) services to improve child survival and women’s health, prevent unintended pregnancies, and reduce child and maternal morbidity and mortality.
For example in Kenya-
The program trained 200 faith leaders with the tools to respond compassionately and practically to their congregations and communities with accurate information about HTSP/FP that can save the lives of women and children. They have organized over 360 church volunteers to spread the word in their communities. In 2015 alone, the faith leaders referred 4,288 women to family planning services. More than half (2,819) are now using a method of contraception that is right for them.
Child Focused Community Transformation (CFCT) is Food for the Hungry’s (FH) model for transformational development. At the heart of the CFCT model is the welfare of the most vulnerable population in most societies – children. The CFCT model grew out of FH’s Child Development Program and its love and care for children, FH’s expertise in multi-sectorial food security programs, and a desire to see children thrive in key relationships within healthy families and communities. This will permit them to reach their God- given potential while they grow.
This document is meant to give a brief overview of the Child Focused Community Transformation philosophy, goals and methods. Other more detailed documents are available and are referenced on page 12 of this overview.
Development Across Faith Boundaries investigates the dynamics of cross-faith partnerships in a range of development contexts, from India, Cambodia and Myanmar, to Melanesia, Bosnia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. The book demonstrates how far FBOs extend their activities beyond their own faith communities and how far NGOs partner with religious actors. It also considers the impacts of these cross-faith partnerships, including their work on conflict and sectarian or ethnic tension in the relevant communities.
Global interfaith network that brings together religious leaders and faith organisations of diverse faith backgrounds to focus on a common agenda of family health and wellbeing
The center, with funding from the GHR Foundation, published an evaluation and analysis of NIFAA’s early work in 2011, two years after NIFAA’s founding. The report demonstrated NIFAA “offers a sustainable and replicable model to address this pressing health issue” according to Andreas Hipple, Director of Programs at the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty.
Over an 18 month period, the Center for Interfaith Action (CIFA) engaged religious leaders in Ethiopia and Nigeria to change attitudes and behaviors surrounding the issues of early marriage (EM) and female genital cutting (FGC). Through interfaith models and toolkits, created from CIFA’s in-depth formative research in those two countries, religious leaders have been empowered as advocates for stopping these harmful traditional practices. The percentage of faith leaders involved in this project who opposed early marriage and FGC more than doubled as a result of CIFA’s intervention. Based on these compelling program results, CIFA is equipped to take anti-FGC and EM interfaith programs to scale in Ethiopia, Nigeria and other priority countries, and to leverage the powerful voices of faith leaders (FLs) to champion the elimination of these harmful traditional practices.
Published: 2016Author:Center for Interfaith Action
This excel spreadsheet contains all of the recommendations recorded by each of the discussion groups during the five working sessions of the conference: Health Systems Strengthening, Ebola & HIV, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, Humanitarian and Disaster Relief, and Large Scale Engagement of Religious Communities. These recommendations were recorded by the group facilitator and copied verbatim into this document. A synthesis of these recommendations may be found in the conference proceedings.
The contents of this report have been drawn from 40 interviews with senior development professionals held during February and March 2015. A small number of members of faith-based organisations
(FBOs) also took part. The exercise was commissioned by the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLIF&LC) to understand the key opportunities and challenges that could be addressed through the forthcoming conference on public sector partnering with FBOs.
Cover page and table of contents may be viewed at Emory University’s page on Religion and Public Health Collaboration here.
Book may be purchased at Oxford University Press’ website here
Description from Oxford University Press:
Frequently in partnership, but sometimes at odds, religious institutions and public health institutions work to improve the well-being of their communities. There is increasing awareness among public health professionals and the general public that the social conditions of poverty, lack of education, income inequality, poor working conditions, and experiences of discrimination play a dominant role in determining health status. But this broad view of the social determinants of health has largely ignored the role of religious practices and institutions in shaping the life conditions of billions around the globe.
In Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health, leading scholars in the social sciences, public health, and religion address this omission by examining the embodied sacred practices of the world’s religions, the history of alignment and tension between religious and public health institutions, the research on the health impact of religious practice throughout the life course, and the role of religious institutions in health and development efforts around the globe. In addition, the volume explores religion’s role in the ongoing epidemics of HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as preparations for an influenza pandemic. Together, these groundbreaking essays help complete the picture of the social determinants of health by including religion, which has until now been an invisible determinant.
Report of an independent mid-term evaluation of the Faiths United for Health program, a pilot program of the Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA) that uses an interfaith action approach to train Muslim and Christian religious leaders to educate and motivate Nigerians to undertake behavior change in the fight against malaria. This report details NIFAA’s promising early work to mobilize religious leaders to use their influence to increase usage rates of insecticide-treated bed nets, as well as increasing other action against malaria. Produced with funding support from GHR Foundation.
In December 2013, representatives from 12 faith-based organisations came together to explore and articulate a theory of change for faith group and community mobilisation. The process examined assumptions about what success looks like and how we contribute to change; and specifically analyzed the role of faith, drawing on any existing evidence base. A small working group then met together in July 2014 to draw together the theory of change. Throughout the process, the group was careful to surface both similarities and differences. The theory of change diagram captures the core underlying beliefs that the group hold in common, while the narrative explains the diagram, fills in more detail and highlights areas of debate and that need further learning and testing.
World Vision’s HIV and AIDS response strategy focuses on building the capacity of communities to prevent the spread of HIV and on providing care and advocacy for people living with HIV and for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The Channels of Hope (CoH) methodology, one of World Vision’s three core HIV and AIDS response models, is used to mobilise the infrastructure, organisational capacity, pool of current and potential volunteers, and unmatched moral authority of local churches and faith communities towards positive action on HIV and AIDS. Once they have been mobilised, World Vision works with churches and faith-based organisations to co-ordinate and equip sustainable, community-based HIV and AIDS programmes with an emphasis on reaching OVCs in need of care and support.
In the communities where WV works, many serious issues often limit improved child well-being (CWB). These might include violence against children, poor birth spacing, gender inequality, early marriage, wife inheritance, malnutrition, early marriage, gender-based violence, HIV infections, TB and malaria, trafficking, and more.
The central argument in the paper is that development is primarily about safeguarding and enhancing the dignity of human beings. Human dignity originates from God who has singled out humankind from other creations and favoured it in several ways. We are the only creatures that contain the Divine spirit which was placed in humankind by God during creation (Qur’an, 15:29). God has also distinguished humans from the rest of creation by endowing us with intellect (‘aql). Further, God has given humans the custodianship (khalifa) of the rest of creation on earth.
The success of integrated sustainable development (ISD) entirely rests upon a firm foundation of sound analysis of the following: Start-up assessment, Well-being and assets, Structural causes of poverty, Vulnerabilities to shocks and climate change, Opportunity analysis.
