From July 7-9, 2015, a highly significant conference in Washington, D.C. brought together 130 attendees to discuss “Religion and Sustainable Development: Building Partnerships to End Extreme Poverty.” The conference was convened and co-hosted by the World Bank Group, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (implemented by GIZ), U.S. Agency for International Development, UK Department For International Development, GHR Foundation, World Vision, and the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities, a coalition of faith-based organisations and academic institutions.
Co-sponsors included the Catholic Medical Mission Board, Catholic Relief Services, Islamic Relief USA, Tearfund, American Jewish World Service, IMA World Health, and McKinsey & Company.
This conference attracted a unique combination of policy makers, multilateral and bilateral agencies, religious leaders, development professionals from faith-based organizations, and academics.
The goals of the conference were to connect frontline policy makers to the evidence base and expertise to support more effective partnerships with religious and faith-based groups in the common cause of ending extreme poverty and promoting sustainable development.
The conference process focused on reviewing the evidence base and developing specific recommendations for action to strengthen effective partnerships between religious and faith-based groups and the public sector. It sought to obtain leadership commitments to follow-on activities and to establish specific next steps.
IHP’s acting Director, John Blevins, and Sandra Thurman, Chief Strategy Officer, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, presented in a session on the challenges and opportunities of bringing effective faith-based partnerships to scale. Dr. Blevins presented an overview of the evidence and Ms. Thurman was part of the expert panel. Ms. Thurman also served on a panel during a meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) describing the role of faith-based organizations in responses to HIV both through PEPFAR and in earlier periods in the U.S.
Click here to view the webcast of the CSIS event»
The conference was set up to resource an open and vigorous discussion about the potential and challenges of faith partnerships with the public sector. It started with the launch of The Lancet medical journal’s series on “Faith-based Health Care.”
The issues of religion and sustainable development were debated from the perspectives of public sector leadership and religious and faith-based communities. Sessions also drilled down into the evidence base and key learning in relation to health systems strengthening, Ebola and HIV, sexual- and gender-based violence, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. The issues of religion and politics were also debated along with approaches to scaling up faith partnerships for development outcomes.
The participants considered these topics through the lens of the conference’s overarching themes: how to frame and communicate the case; how to build on a common foundation; how to overcome complexity in the plurality of faith actors, potentially through the role of intermediary entities; and how to strengthen the evidence.
Click here for more information on all of the conference proceedings»