Faith and Development
Helen Stawski
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Office
Brussels 28th May 2013
Recent interest in Faith and
Development
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Research into faith
and development
Recognition of faith
assets
Contribution to MDGs
Conferences and
dialogues
Faith literacy
Funding streams
Archbishop Rowan Williams meeting Dr Margaret Chan Director General of
the World Health Organisation
Faith “assets”
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Influence and trust: 75% of Africans report that
religious leaders are the people they trust most
(Gallup 2005)
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Reach: There are roughly 100,000 faith-inspired
organizations working on health and development in
Africa – less than 1% international NGOs (TBFF 2012);
vast, uncounted congregational networks
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Delivery: Christian Health Networks account for
between 30-60% of health services in some African
countries (Chand & Patterson 2007)
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Research
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Religions and Development (DFID)
Berkley Centre Washington & World Bank
International Religious Health Assets Programme
(Cape Town)
Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local
Communities
Faith at the UN -University of Kent
UN internal mapping processes
UN Alliance of Civilisations
Special additions of journals e.g. Refugee Studies
Centre Faith in Humanitarianism- Autumn 2011;
Development In Practice – Summer 2012
Faith literacy and dialogue
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UNFPA (2010) Culture Matters
UNICEF (2011) Partnering with Religious
Communities for Change
UNAIDS (2011) FBO Strategic Framework
Wilton Park (2011) Faith and Development
UNHCR (2012) High Commissioner’s
Dialogue on Faith and Protection
DFID (2012) Faith Partnership Principles
Definitions of LFC/FBOs
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Local worship communities (e.g., churches,
mosques, synagogues, temples, etc.)
Denominational leadership (e.g., bishops, clerics,
ayatollahs, lamas, etc.)
Scholars, theologians and religious educators
Mission workers
Youth faith or inter-faith groups
Women of faith networks
Faith-based or faith-inspired organizations
Denominational, ecumenical and intra-religious
institutions, umbrella organizations & networks
Inter-faith institutions
UNICEF 2011
Trends in Development
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Focus on local and sustainable
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Towards new partnerships
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Effectiveness and efficiency informed
by data & value for money
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New development goals post- 2015
Social Capital of LFC/FBOs
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Presence
Influence
Knowledge
Mobilisation
Communication
Physical assets
Participation
Types of participation
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Participating in policy dialogues
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Post MDG dialogue
National transitional dialogues
Participating in service delivery
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Health
Education
Relief
Learning Hub: What is the impact of faith groups on
HIV and Maternal Health, with special
HIV/AIDS and attention to PMTCT and skilled
birth attendants?
Maternal Health
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Hypothesis: Faith communities shape the
HIV response through both attitudes change
and service provision
Data Point 1: 98% of religious leaders surveyed in
Kisumu, Kenya believe that their communities are
influenced by what they say about HIV and health
behaviors (CIFA 2012)
Data Point 2: The Catholic Church estimates that it
alone provides 26.7 percent of all HIV care in the world
(Barragan 2006)
Data Point 3: The World Health Organisation estimates
that 1 in 5 HIV responses is faith-related (WHO 2006)
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Hypothesis: Maternal health services are
commonly provided by faith-based actors
Data Point 1: In Uganda, 50% of maternal health and
child services are provided through faith-based
institutions (USAID & Access 2007).
Data Point 2: 90% of faith-inspired health facilities in
sub-Saharan Africa offer maternal and newborn
services (Chand and Patterson 2007)
Data Point 3: Faith groups provide 70% of nursing and
midwifery training in Malawi and Uganda, and between
30 to 55% in Tanzania and Zambia (Pearl, Chand, and
Hafner 2009)
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Hypothesis: Faith groups influence demand
for and uptake of maternal and child health
services
Data Point 1: Faith community engagement helped improve
the percentage of pregnant women who received a course
of IPT under direct observation from 43% to 94% in Kasese
District, Uganda (USAID & Access 2007)
Data Point 2: Faith-based interventions in Mozambique,
Kenya, Uganda, the DRC and India found that these
programs couple outreach to the broader communities with
clinical services (Chand & Patterson 2007)
Data Point 3: Religious and spiritual beliefs were seen to be a
key barrier to exclusive breast feeding from a 2010 barrier
analysis in Burundi (Francisco 2010)
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Resilience
Emergency Response – Basic Services
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First 36 hours – first response – in remote places ‘Pseudo state interlocutor’.
Promoting community resilience by building on existing
local resources.
Mobilising resources from within the community -Haiti
Nuns, Pakistan mosques.
Use of religious building for storage, information hubs.
Religious building for shelter and protection - Sri Lanka.
Challenge of quantifying contribution.
Ethos of service & culturally sensitive provision.
No data on hindering resilience through service
provision.
Psycho-social support
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LFCs provide a ‘psychological first aid’ - counselling, pastoral support
and solidarity with victims.
Individual religious beliefs and shared religious practice
/ritual/association promotes psycho-social resilience in unique ways.
Working through LFCs builds on existing coping mechanisms and
resilience in culturally appropriate ways.
At times religions promote fatalistic – disaster as punishment from
God –(must accept there is a huge variety of individual religious
experience across religions and cultures).
Fears religion will promote agendas at variance with the humanitarian
principles.
LFCs may not the requisite skills for counselling.
Durable Solutions
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Better attuned to the needs of a community than external actors
Familiar with local leaders, culture, practices and language
Often play a crucial role in fostering recovery, relief and
reconstruction
Registering asylum seekers and thereby assisting them to claim
their rights – Myanmar and Malaysia
Community peace-building – Kenya, Liberia, Philippines
Promoting sustainable livelihoods – Pakistan
Practical assistance and conflict mitigation returnees – Tanzania
Limited by lack of technical expertise in peace-building
Challenges of remaining impartial
Challenges to the humanitarian paradigm
Spiritual Capital
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Ritual
Prayer
Teaching
Definition of Spiritual Capital
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‘Spiritual Capital refers to the positive
benefits of spiritual, psychological and moral
development to individuals, organisations
and communities, [it measures] the amount
of knowledge and expertise related to
meanings, values and fundamental
purposes available to and individual or
culture.’
Zohar, D and Marshall, I (2004)
International Humanitarian Faith
Based Organisations
Challenges for our faith identity
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Dualism– secular and sacred
Different language/expectations in
development and theology
Huge diversity between FBOs–
theologically, missiologicaly and culturally
Risks of embracing faith identity –
unprofessional, bias
Promoting internal change
Is there a faith sector?
Imperative to understand faith
identity better…
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Focus on local and sustainable
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Towards new partnerships
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Effectiveness and efficiency informed by
data & value for money
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New development goals post- 2015
What strengths do we have as
churches?
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Global Networks of relationships
Longevity (not issue based)
Holistic view of development
Integrated view of mission
Engaged in moral discourse
Prayer
Hope in Christ
Faith Challenges
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Faith assets not fully engaged in development
 Under used (Global Fund survey)
 Under funded: 90% of congregation leaders involved in HIV advocacy
in Malawi have not received any external funding for their work (Trinitapoli &
Weinreb 2013); Over 50% of church projects surveyed by Tearfund in sub-Saharan
Africa were overwhelmingly run by volunteers from within the community, with
little or no external funding (Tearfund 2007)
Not mapped: WHO/CIFA Consultation 2010
 Not at the ‘planning table’
Secular concerns re: proselytizing; political and
legal issues; accountability; logistics
Evidence Gap: we need to tell the story better
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Cultural lens
UNFPA 2010
Strategies for building on social &
spiritual capital
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Mapping existing local contributions / best
practice
Research into resilience –including impact
of spiritual capital
Faith literacy/dialogue & faith partnership
principles
Piloting new innovative partnership models
Specifically tailored training
Changing policy
Ways forward
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Promote mutual literacy
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Build on shared positive values
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Recognise diversity within/between faith
communities
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Support participation and leadership of women
and youth – power dynamics
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Offer space for theologians & religious leaders
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Build evidence - niche, value and potential
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Include in national policy and planning
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Support capacity in technical competencies
Ways of working
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Seek to transform perceived barriers into
opportunities
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Create space – mutual listening & response
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Approach collaboratively to work through
differences and identify deeper common
ground
Why do we need to invest in
research?
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Faith groups are heavily reliant on anecdotal
evidence.
Given the suspicion of bias by faith groups–
independently verifiable data required.
The need for best practice and scalable
models for donors to invest in.
The need to connect discourse and
language.
Influencing ‘theories of change’.
Christian Aid
JLI F&LC Vision:
Robust
evidence and smart communications to transform the quality, effectiveness,
and impact of partnerships between faith groups and the development community
Collaborative learning platform
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that is cross sector, interfaith, cross discipline
Interfaith partnerships
Working with
International
organisations
Archbishop Rowan with
Michele Sidbe Director
General of UNAIDS
Thank You