Global Integration Updates
Common Ground for the Common Good
Special News--May 2019
Being Faith-Based and Evidence-Based
Lessons from the Joint Learning Initiative
Strengthening Empirical Research and Essential Roles
of Faith-Based Organizations and Faith-Sensitive Programs
Image courtesy and ©2019 ENOD
Faith is not simply a strategic resource to leverage for a humanitarian or development project/agenda. Rather it is seen as a fundamental reality that underlies all of life, including humanitarian or development projects/agendas. Faith is not merely a component of one’s life/identity. Rather it is often the core part of one’s life/identity.
In this Update we feature the work of the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLI). JLI is "an international collaboration on evidence for faith groups’ activities, contribution and challenges to achieving humanitarian and development goals." It was formed in 2012, based on the conviction that "there is an urgent need to build our collective understanding of the potential of local faith communities." (website)
With over 85% of humanity professing a religious faith, it makes sense to research, learn from, and connect with the efforts of the faith-based community on behalf of human and planet wellbeing. Have a look at the information below about JLI as well as the links we have included for other faith-based resources. We encourage us all to consider strategic ways to partner as/with faith-based colleagues and organizations.
See also: Faith-Based Partners in Transformation: GI Update (August 2015).
Warm greetings from Geneva,
Kelly and Michèle
Featured Resources
Being Faith-Based and Evidence-Based
Lessons from the Joint Learning Initiative
Strengthening Empirical Research and Essential Roles
of Faith-Based Organizations and Faith-Sensitive Programs
"Religion and faith, as we know, have a central place for most people in our world—including many “persons and communities of concern,” staff, organizations, governments, and donors. Faith-based people are thus often mainstream contributors and partners--and not marginal players--when it comes to the efforts to transform the world. The emphasis on personal transformation (including virtue and moral integrity) is often an important added contribution from the faith-based sector." (GI Update August 2015)
Here is an overview about the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities, usually referred to as the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI). The material is from the website.
JLI is: "an international collaboration on evidence for faith groups’ role and contributions to local community health and wellbeing and ending poverty....It serves as an open source, non-partisan knowledge sharing platform for all sectors."
Its vision is the: “full and appropriate engagement of the capacities of faith-based groups in the achievement of the [Sustainable development Goals] through effective partnerships with public sector and secular entities, as well as among religious groups themselves."
Its three broad goals are:
"--Excellence in evidence: Serve as a knowledge partner to improve the quality, management, and accessibility of evidence.
--Excellence in communications: Communicate effectively to academics, policy makers, and practitioners.
--Excellence in advocacy: Encourage change in key areas of policy and practice through evidence-based policy on religious engagement in humanitarian and development."
JLI's main activities are via: "Learning Hubs, publications, and conferences to fully engage the capacities and assets of faith groups to realize a world without poverty. More than 500 stakeholders globally are members of Learning Hubs coming from policy, practitioner and academic sectors."
“Learning Hubs are multi-religious, interdisciplinary, collaborative learning platforms for practitioners, policymakers, academics and other experts to engage key stakeholders in religion and development. [They] focus on increasing the evidence of faith engagement to inform and improve policy and practice between faith groups, humanitarian, and development development communities. Leading experts from different sectors co-chair each Learning Hub.”
We Suggest--Next Steps:
--Visit the JLI website.
--Have a look at the JLI Resource Library, including list of the topics of interest to you, for links to hundreds of items!
--Consider ways to connect and contribute--collaborating together for empirical research and essential roles for faith-based organizations and faith-sensitive programs.
More Resources
See these materials on faith-based partnerships, perspectives, and contributions.
They include materials from faith-based organizations and colleagues.
A remarkable, inspiring documentary about the ordinary women, Christian and Muslim,
who united to pray, strike, confront a civil war, and wage pace in their country.
Watch the trailer. Watch the movie.
Building from Common Foundations:The World Health Organization and Faith-Based Organizations in Primary Care (2008). Geneva Global, World Health Organization (overview and guidelines)
Ending Extreme Poverty: A Moral and Religious Imperative (2015). Held at the World Bank
(joint inter-religious statement)
Laudato Si: Caring for Our Common Home (2015). Pope Francis
(encyclical on creation care)
Faith-Based Health Care (7 July 2015).The Lancet (special issue)
International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (organization/website)
UNHCR Faith and Protection Dialogue 2012
Faith-Based Partners in Transformation (August 2015). Global Integration Update
Progressive Pentecostalism, Development, and Christian Development NGOs: A Challenge and an Opportunity, (August 2015). Bryant Myers, International Bulletin of Mission Research
Setting Up Community Health and Development Programmes in Low and Middle Income Settings (2019, 4th edition) .Ted Lankester and Nathan Grills
There are of course thousands of faith-based organizations working in the humanitarian, health, peace, development, etc. sectors. A few examples, many gleaned from the list of members on the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance website: World Vision International, Million Village Challenge, HimalPartner, Medair, Tearfund, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, CBM International, World Relief, Sewa International. See also the list of member organizationsactively involved in JLI.
Final Thoughts
Kelly and Michèle
We believe that a variety of people must be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action. That includes people from all countries, sectors, and faith backgrounds, who are informed and skilled, and dedicated to the common good. Here are some suggestions oriented for faith-based colleagues, based on our recent plenary at the International Trauma Consultative (6 April 2019).
--1. Show up at the table—often. Better to be on time than invited.
--2. Learn the lingo, terms, major docs, reference them freely (e.g., SDGs, UDHR, and current ones). Get a grid for staying informed.
--3. Be aware of mutual (mis)conceptions: proselytization, partiality, prejudices, etc.
--4. Commitment to mutual learning and mutual resourcing. Its a two-way, actually multi-directional, street!
--5. Demonstrate relevance with action and research—how you “earn your stripes.”
--6. Develop personal relationships when possible, not just “functional” relationships.
--7. No apologies for one’s faith but no apologetics either, in general—one is not just a “faith-based” person (euphemistic?) but a Muslim, Hindu, Christian, etc.. Hold your head humbly high.
--8. Get dirty--its a difficult world--but don’t play dirty. Diligently maintain your moral health.
"The Lord is high above the nations" (Psalm 113:4)--and high above the United Nations. Paragraph 53 in the Sustainable Development Goals (Transforming Our World) states that "The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands." We understand this sobering comment in terms of the world community's moral responsibility to courageously and wisely act and the dire consequences of inaction. And from a faith-based perspective, our understanding is that humanity and the planet ultimately lie in God's hands. Acknowledging God and trusting God reaffirms our human dignity, as bearers of the imago Dei and as co-laborers in the missio Dei.
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications.
Global Integration is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based).
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