Resources

Published in Consultation with Senior Scholars The current coronavirus pandemic has spread rapidly across the globe, completely changing people’s lives. This also includes the Muslim community, who have been affected in a variety of ways. In writing this booklet, we…

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) play a crucial role in increasing access to maternal and newborn health (MNH) services worldwide. In developing countries, faith-based health care facilities provide a significant percent- age of health care services. With networks that reach even the…

Religion plays an important role in many FP2020 priority countries, where faith leaders influence health-seeking behavior and faith based organizations (FBOs) provide a notable share of healthcare information, services and supplies. FBOs are seen as credible and trustworthy through their…

The global Anglican Communion has played a significant role in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals and the successor goals, the Sustainable Development Goals. In many parts of the world, provinces, dioceses, parishes, agencies and individuals connected to Anglican communities…

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

In Africa, more than four in every 10 women of reproductive age want to avoid pregnancy. However, 47% of African women who do not want to become pregnant either use no contraceptive method or use traditional methods, which typically have…

Guião de Promoção e Protecção dos Direitos da Criança para os Líderes Religiosos Para a promoção da Saúde, Educação e Protecção da Criança Guide to religious leaders for the promotion of health, education and child protection in Portuguese The involvement…

More than 200 million women in the developing world want to avoid pregnancy but currently are not using family planning. Family planning can contribute to reductions in maternal and child mortality and improve health and wellbeing. Christian hospitals, clinics, and…

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

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…

The Access - Infant and Maternal Health (AIM Health) program is a five-year initiative of World Vision Ireland. AIM Health focused on the nourishment of mothers and children, protection from infection and disease and overall essential health services. Based off…

Food for the Hungry partnered with USAID to implement a Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) in support of the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) working closely with local partner Organization for the Relief and Development in Amhara…

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…

As part of a USAID-funded global Strengthening High Impact Interventions for an AIDS-Free Generation Project, IMA’s role is to engage faith communities to increase community knowledge, and demand for and access to HIV services.

This report provides a thorough overview of the contributions of faith-based health systems and health facilities to the provision of HIV services in Kenya. The substantial contributions of faith-based health systems to healthcare services have been well-established; however the scope…

The goal of the Tangiraneza “Start Well” Innovation Child Survival Project (ICSP) was to reduce morbidity, mortality, and improve nutritional status of children under five and pregnant women in Nyamagabe District, Southern Province, Rwanda. The project’s objective was to improve…

Channels of Hope research findings presentation- Building the evidence base on the role of local faith leaders to critical issues to enhance outcomes towards SDGs *Presentation for Dec 2016 Mobilization of Local Faith Communities Hub meeting Christo Greyling

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…

This report on the observations of field staff working in a variety of countries where girls are commonly married before they are fully physically or emotionally grown. The report illustrates the causes and human costs of early marriage in 15 countries…

This is an overview by women and men of faith and human rights actors, on the relationship between human rights and their respective faith traditions. These authors straddle the worlds of religious leadership, while  advocating for gender equality and human…

The Faith Alliance for Health commits from 2016-2020 to strengthen national and local faith networks of faith leaders and organizations to build their influence to bear and use their assets to eliminate preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents. This…

This brief highlights potential areas for dialogue and action that build on common concern for families and social justice. It draws on the Georgetown University Berkley Center/World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) 2011 review of faith and maternal health.

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.

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 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.

Global disparities in maternal and newborn health represent one of the starkest health inequities
of our times. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have historically played an important role in providing
maternal/newborn health services in African countries. However, the contribution of FBOs in service delivery
is insufficiently recognized and mapped.

A summary of the HIV AIDS and Maternal Health JLI F&LC report.