This guide was updated in 2024. The updated version is available here in English and here in French.
Este guia é para apoiadores do diálogo Mente- Coração: líderes religiosos e suas instituições, bem como funcionários de organizações e agências com o objetivo de influenciar mudanças positivas para crianças, famílias e comunidades.
Neste guia, você encontrará uma mistura de atividades que refletem sobre as escrituras, apresentam fatos e envolvem as experiências de vida e as emoções das pessoas. O diálogo Mente Coração geralmente envolve uma atividade física para aprofundar a discussão, incluir vozes diversas e fortalecer a aprendizagem por meio da experiência. Nossas discussões habituais podem nos prender a padrões de pensamento e reforçar as relações e estruturas de poder desequilibradas existentes, mas adicionar um elemento visual e físico ajuda as pessoas a se tornarem menos constrangidas e defensivas, se envolverem mais ativamente e perceberem coisas novas. O diálogo Mente-Coração cria um espaço para parcerias mais igualitárias à medida que todos contribuem, catalisando assim o pensamento inovador e colaborativo.
Ce guide s’adresse principalement au personnel de l’UNICEF qui souhaite s’engager de manière plus stratégique avec les acteurs de la foi, notamment pour le changement social et comportemental et le plaidoyer de haut niveau, mais aussi pour des efforts programmatiques plus importants.
Ce guide sera également utile à un ensemble diversifié de partenaires du développement et de l’aide humanitaire (ci- après dénommés partenaires du développement), y compris ceux du système des Nations Unies au sens large, étant donné que son contenu est basé sur plusieurs années de production de preuves et d’analyse de la programmation et des ressources sur l’inclusion de la foi et le changement social et comportemental.
Este guia destina-se principalmente a funcionários do UNICEF que pretendem se envolver mais estrategicamente com agentes religiosos, particularmente para mudança social e comportamental, bem como defesa de agendas de alto nível, mas também para esforços programáticos mais amplos. Este guia também será útil para um conjunto diversificado de parceiros de desenvolvimento e humanitários (doravante referidos como parceiros de desenvolvimento), incluindo aqueles no sistema mais amplo das Nações Unidas, uma vez que seu conteúdo é baseado em vários anos de geração de evidências e análise de programação e recursos no engajamento da fé e na mudança social e comportamental.
Evidence suggests that gender-transformative approaches that promote critical examination of prevailing norms of femininity and masculinity can contribute to improving gender and health outcomes by addressing MOMENTUM —Lessons From Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations in Very Young Adolescent Programming 2 the root causes of gender inequality (Woog and Kågesten, 2017). However, most gender and SRH interventions tend to focus on older adolescents (15–19 years) and adults, neglecting VYA populations (Igras et al, 2014). Given evidence that early adolescence is an optimal time to intervene before harmful attitudes are ingrained, coupled with the dearth of organizations and programs targeting VYAs, MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership (MOMENTUM) sought to strengthen local partner capacity to apply effective programming addressing gender and SRH challenges facing VYAs.
The Toolkit aims to help equip faith actors to engage actively in the protection of children from violence in early childhood and the promotion of children’s holistic well-being by supporting parents, caregivers, educators and communities to nurture children’s spiritual development and take an active role in addressing violence in early childhood.
Specific objectives
- Create spaces and opportunities for faith actors, parents, caregivers, and educators to reflect on the importance of the spiritual development of children in the early years and identify the benefits for children’s holistic development and well-being
- Encourage self-examination of religious and spiritual principles, teachings and practices that affirm the dignity of the child and challenge those that can be used to condone violence against children in child upbringing
- Provide tools for building caregiving practices and skills for nurturing spiritual development of children, as one key avenue for contributing to the protection of children from violence in the early years
The Toolkit addresses the importance of the spiritual development of children for their protection from violence and holistic development and well-being. The Toolkit is developed around the following shared understandings among Consortium members.
- Respect for the human life and dignity of the child is a fundamental principle found in all major religions and spiritual traditions, as well as in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Child dignity is affirmed by addressing the holistic development of children.
- Spiritual development is a central aspect of the holistic development and well-being of children, contributing to positive development outcomes. Spiritual development is one of the most under-researched and under-invested areas in child development. Individuals whose work is inspired by religious, spiritual, or faith-based traditions, teachings, or experiences.
- Early childhood plays a critical role in the development of children, including in the formation of values, attitudes and prosocial skills. The spiritual development of children
greatly contributes to these foundational aspects.
- Evidence demonstrates that exposure to prolonged stress, violence and conflict in early childhood, or “toxic stress”, can be detrimental to young children’s health, wellbeing, and psychological functioning, memory and learning, impairing their progress through socio-emotional developmental milestones.
- Parents, caregivers and educators are the main influencers of children during the early years, and religious and spiritual communities have great influence with these key influencers in many communities around the world.
- Religious and spiritual communities play an important role in promoting social norms that affirm positive attitudes, behaviors and practices in child upbringing, and in challenging those that condone violence against children.
- Facilitating the engagement of religious and spiritual communities in child development programs requires respect and understanding of their faith, religious and spiritual principles, beliefs, traditions, and practices.
- Multi-level, multi-stakeholder and holistic early childhood development services that include the spiritual development of children play an important and under-estimated role in fostering social cohesion and contributing to improved social and economic outcomes in communities.
In November and December 2021, over 80 Inter-Religious Council (IRC) and Faith-Based Organization (FBO) nominees from eight countries were trained as national Mind-Heart Dialogue teams and equipped to support the Faith and Positive Change for Children (FPCC) initiative. Facilitators were from diverse faiths and included male faith leaders, women of faith and youth. They will support their IRC to set up a Multi-Faith Advisory Committee on Children (MFACC) that brings faith leaders, FBOs and UNICEF together to find shared priorities and partner for positive change for children. They will integrate Mind-Heart Dialogue into the internal structures and mechanisms of the MFACC; and be deployed to facilitate Mind-Heart Dialogue according to their priorities.
Even from four-days of training, there is evidence of attitude change among participants. The process is not primarily to train people in an approach or an intervention, but rather to shift mindsets and create an experience that participants can replicate. Participants clearly expressed what made Mind-Heart Dialogue different and were eager to integrate it into other work and facilitate as a team. They shared testimonies of personal shifts in behavior within the training, and many immediately used activities in the spaces that they could easily access, demonstrating their confidence, ability and commitment to the approach.
View the JLI FPCC page
