United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week
Dialogue on Faith, Peacebuilding & Development
Palais des Nations, 5 February 2016
Panel 2 : Perspectives on Faith and Development
Introduction
I wish to thank UNITAR, in particular Mr. Alexander Mejia, for inviting the Permanent Mission
of the Order of Malta to participate in to-day’s Dialogue on Faith, Peacebuilding &
Development. I have been asked to “add the humanitarian perspective to the development
perspective” by sharing with you “what the Order of Malta is doing to support development
and also its role in the preparatory process leading up to the World Humanitarian Summit”.
Allow me first to say a few words about the Order of Malta’s vocation and its position in today’s international humanitarian architecture.
A lay-religious Order of the Catholic Church, the Sovereign Order of Malta is a 900-year-old
institution, with a mission of care for the poor, the needy, the excluded, the displaced, and
the sick. It is impartial, neutral, apolitical and it does not pursue any economic interest which
is why it enjoys the trust of populations and governments. As a subject of international law
that exercises functions of sovereignty, the Order is recognised as such by more than 100
States in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin and Central America and by the
European Union, with which it maintains diplomatic relations. Of these countries, 29 are
members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation with whom we have long-standing
ongoing humanitarian projects. It maintains Permanent Observer Missions to the United
Nations and its agencies, to the African Union and with the principal international and intergovernmental organizations. The Order - which since 1834 has its headquarters in Rome - has
its own Government, an independent magistracy, issues its own passports and stamps.
To-day, the Order of Malta is extended across the world as never before. On the operational
level, it is a transnational, global and decentralized structure which develops socio-medical
and humanitarian projects in 120 countries on all continents. Day-to-day, its broad spectrum
of social projects provides a constant support for forgotten or excluded members of society.
Its outreach increases continuously, responding to needs for humanitarian aid. The nearly
14’000 Members and 80’000 permanent volunteers of the Order of Malta are driven by the
Christian mission of preserving human dignity by assisting and helping those in need,
regardless of their religions, their beliefs and their origins, as coded in the Order’s
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Constitution. A mission that has remained the same albeit adjusting to the different needs
throughout the centuries.
Humanitarian and Development activities
We know that we cannot achieve sustainable development or disaster risk reduction goals
without reaching the millions caught up in humanitarian crises. During a meeting at the World
Economic Forum in Davos last month, the UN Secretary-General emphasized the main themes
of the Sustainable Development goals, i.e. “leaving no-one behind” and “moving from
delivering aid to ending need”. He also called for “bridging the humanitarian and development
divide. We cannot just put all this development aid to humanitarian or humanitarian aid
towards development. This has to work together”.
The Order of Malta shares the Secretary-General’s view that we should aim for a closer
integration of development assistance and humanitarian aid. Five of the 17 SDGs already
shape our current priorities in humanitarian action:
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SDG 1 – end poverty
SDG 2 – end hunger
SDG 3 – ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
SDG 6 – ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for
all
SDG 16 – promote peaceful and inclusive societies
Our ambition is to improve health, to strengthen resilience, as well as to provide protection
and rapid response to emergencies. We work globally with a long-term commitment to
disaster relief, recovery and rehabilitation, in full respect of the humanitarian principles of
impartiality, independence and neutrality and of international humanitarian law. We provide
assistance in cases of conflict such as in Syria as well as natural disasters, the latest being
Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Recognizing that many disasters remain relatively
unnoticed by the public, so called “forgotten crises” are of special concern for us. We
therefore run long-term programs in Myanmar, Pakistan, South Sudan, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and recently in the frame of the Burundi crisis. Sector-wise, we have
specialized in health; water and sanitation; nutrition and food-security; and disaster risk
reduction., thereby paying particular attention to the concept of ‘resilience’. We consider
issues related to vulnerability - such as poverty, climate change, and natural disasters - as
interrelated problems and seek to address them by combining and linking different program
elements. Further, we aim to improve the capacity of communities to resist shocks. By linking
phases of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction that follow a crisis or disaster we are
addressing both the humanitarian and development aspects. These situations offer windows
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of opportunity for rebuilding livelihoods and physical structures in a way that will increase
community resilience and reduce vulnerability to future disaster risks.
By serving those in need and placing them at the heart of our humanitarian and development
work we ensure that they lead a healthy life in safety and dignity.
World Humanitarian Summit
The international humanitarian community is ill equipped to confront the proliferation of
armed conflicts and natural disasters and the multiple shocks of violent extremism that we
are presently witnessing and which affect more than 60 million people displaced and refugees
and a record number of 125 million needing urgent humanitarian assistance. The present
unsustainable humanitarian model is overstretched and underfunded and every new crisis
shows that it has not only reached its limits, but has overreached itself because of a wider
systems failure (lack of financial transparency, short-term earmarked funding, credibility and
accountability gap, divide between development and humanitarian activities, etc.). These
unprecedented challenges can only be addressed successfully by all actors working together
in a spirit of solidarity, cooperation and burden-sharing. The goal should be the improvement
of the humanitarian system in all its facets.
Against this background, the Secretary-General’s initiative to convene the first ever World
Humanitarian Summit in May with the aim of establishing a new “Agenda for Humanity”,
offers a unique opportunity to build an effective universal partnership for humanitarian action
and to work towards a universal approach to humanitarian values and principles.
The Order’s role:
As part of the global humanitarian system the Order of Malta is committed to contributing its
share to the five core responsibilities established so far: : prevent and end conflicts; uphold
the norms that safeguard our humanity; reach the most vulnerable and furthest behind first;
change people’s lives and move from delivering aid to ending need; and enable all of this by
investing in humanity. In this spirit we organized here at the Palais des Nations, last May, in
close cooperation with the WHS secretariat, a Symposium entitled “Religions together for
Humanitarian Action: reaching out to victims of armed conflict; the special role of faith-based
actors”. Assisting the poor is deeply rooted in the teachings of religions. It is widely recognized
that religion-based actors are a crucial part of the architecture of international humanitarian
activity due to the power of their conviction, their reach, their motivation, their longevity and
the fact that they combine technical care with an ethical and spiritual dimension. Participants
at the Symposium explored the relation between religion and conflict, the role of faith based
institutions and bodies in conflict areas and highlighted the importance and the added value
of religious institutions in humanitarian action. They emphasized the importance of
interreligious dialogue, including the establishment of quick and practical inter-religious links
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and expressed concern at the fast decreasing regard for humanitarian principles and the lack
of respect for international humanitarian law and human rights and called for innovative ways
to fight this tendency.
The key proposals that emerged from the Symposium cover three areas in which the faithbased community could improve the humanitarian system:
1. Dialogue, communication, common understanding: developing new approaches for
cooperation between faith-based actors
2. Power of local communities: build capacity of local religious communities, FBOs and
affected people
3. Bridge the gap: create concerted FBO action and a coherent approach to humanitarian
assistance and development
The Symposium also paved the way for the launch of a five point charter at a side event on
“The place of faith, faith institutions and faith-based organizations in a reformed humanitarian
system” during the WHS Global Consultation held here in Geneva last October and which will
be included in our proposals to the WHS. The main key points of the charter are:
1. Human dignity and the welfare of all people are the main objectives of our faith and religion.
Religion provides us with commitment, credibility, compassion and trust. Our principal role is
to serve other people.
2. We recognize the importance of promoting the fundamental rules and principles of
International Humanitarian Law.
3. We conform to the codes of practice and other norms of the international aid system. Under
no circumstances do we spread our faith and religion by proselytizing.
4. We will promote greater mutual understanding to reduce the risk of violence and conflict. We
will seek to identify supportive religious leaders to promote peace and reconciliation and to
fight religious fanaticism.
5. We recognize the paramount importance of local communities in humanitarian
responsiveness and action.
And finally, we hope that a tangible result of the Order of Malta’s engagement towards the
World Humanitarian Summit, will be a Special Event on Religion and Humanitarian Action to
be held during the Summit which should frame and strengthen the place of faith in a reformed
humanitarian system. Some 250 religious leaders and heads of faith-based institutions and
organizations are being invited to attend this event and the outcome of the discussions is
expected to feed into the final Summit document. We are presently working on this project
which is being prepared by the WHS secretariat and the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on
Religion and Development, in consultation with a number of religious and faith-based actors.
With 84% of the world population identifying with a religious group, a reformed international
humanitarian system can only benefit from religion’s peaceful, non-violent content as a rich
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source of reconciliation, social
empowerment and peace building.
tolerance,
devotion,
humanitarian
commitment,
In concluding allow me to quote from an article by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on
“Religion and Diplomacy”: “Amid the diversity of the world’s religions, there are common
denominators. They share fundamental concerns about the human condition, poverty, human
relationships and our responsibilities to each other. Many people talk about how we draw
strength from the example of our religious communities – but too few actually translate those
words into actions or policies. Leaders in public life need to recognize that in a world where
people of all religious traditions are migrating and mingling like never before, we ignore the
global impact of religion at our peril”.
Thank you for your attention.
Marie-Thérèse Pictet-Althann
Ambassador
Permanent Obseerver of the Sovereign Order of Malta
To the United Nations Office at Geneva
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