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Katherine Marshall’s reflections on seminar: Poverty and Conflict: Faith as a Solution or Cause

The Challenge: religion’s different and complex faces

Harsh images from different corners of the world, as far apart as northeast Pakistan, Maiduguri, Nigeria, Mindanao, Philippines, and Sao Paolo, Brazil, suggest that much contemporary violence has religious faces. Yet peace is perhaps religion’s most beloved precept. For those who work for equity and a prosperous world nothing is so aggravating as to witness the human and physical ravages of war.

So what better time to explore how the different, seemingly alien, strands of religion and violence, conflict and development, development and religion, are woven together?

Lynda Chaulker’s opening reflections quickly came to the test to faith that war represents. For her, as for me and many others who love Africa, the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the continuing turbulence across the Great Lakes Region, are still profoundly disturbing: how could it have been? How did we all allow it to happen? Where was faith? Why did some religious leaders acquiesce or even contribute to violence?

Yes, alongside the horrors, are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, for children, on health, teaching and running schools, trying to assure enough food and to point to a better, more just life. Religion in many parts of the world, and especially in Africa, is dynamic, often exciting, full of life and music. Religion goes with trust, and caring. Above all it means hope.

These two faces of religion, linked yet different, destructive and life-affirming, dominated, often without words, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s third seminar on New Perspectives on Faith and Development.

The most ready answer, offered in different voices last week, was that religion is misused and abused. Politicians manipulate beliefs and fuel latent even sound asleep tensions that have more to do with personal feuds and economic competition than faith.  But that is only part of a complex story. The role of religion in contemporary life cannot be reduced to simplistic explanations. Without appreciating the extraordinary diversity of religious maps, communities, and beliefs, discussion will remain trapped in simplistic stereotypes.

Blind or Unknowing

My story is that I came to my decade long focus on building bridges between development and religion quite accidentally. James D. Wolfensohn, then President of the World Bank, and George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asked me to help with their project, to launch a robust dialogue among faiths and, still more difficult, between faith and development leaders. So the extraordinary panorama of religious work in development is overlaid on my long experience with development and grappling with the horrors of poverty and the real hope today that poverty CAN be brought to an end.

The World Faiths Development Dialogue, Wolfensohn and Carey’s seemingly sensible and modest initiative (it has to date not involved more than a handful of people) met a storm of questions, from inside the World Bank and above all from its board, representing 185 countries. They were troubled by the implications of partnerships involving religion. For some, this was simply low priority or someone else’s business; others saw religion as a force that actually opposed modernization and progress. Above all the well known religious doubts about changing gender roles and the rights of women and families to make reproductive decisions fueled questions about whether religion could play constructive roles in development, that went far beyond the specific issues of reproductive rights. But even more, many saw religion as essentially divisive, rife with politics, dominated by individual and group rivalries that, if engaged, would amplify tensions and conflict. So, the advice of many suggested: “leave it be”.

Happily, the wisdom of many laboring to advance development causes, especially leaders like Tony Blair, Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton and others, has helped many to cross those bridges of doubt. Sensible people today welcome the central premise of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation: that faith has profound wisdom, passion, experience, and assets to bring to the great enterprise of our time, ending world poverty.

But now we are facing two tough questions: the first is whether those people, in developing countries, development institutions, and faith institutions, responsible for framing development strategies, themselves have the knowledge and information they need to build strong partnerships. And the second is whether that knowledge is indeed available to those who seek it.

The answers to both questions are: Not really, and far from enough. The good news is that many agencies, DFiD, the World Bank, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, and the Dutch government among them, are keenly aware that faith institutions play essential roles and are exploring how to strengthen partnerships.  But the data is abominable still and evaluation of results is little and far between. Building knowledge is one of the priority areas that need concerted and thoughtful action.

At the Table or on the Menu?

There is something between chaos and unmanageable diversity in the aid community, and enormous efforts are going into aid coordination and harmonization. Competition and different perspectives are often great assets but when it is hard to sort out who is doing what in a country like Malawi or Tanzania and the government is frustrated in its efforts even to understand what international partners are doing, it is time to get a grip. There are many signs of this welcome change, including aid coordination groups and elaborate sector programs, for health, education, agriculture and other areas.

But the faith entities, except for the largest non-profit organizations, are rarely part of these processes, and as some have remarked, if you are not at the table (part of the dialogue) you end up on the menu. Bringing faith voices into the exchange is another important action priority.

The Poorest Among Us

Faith communities are present almost everywhere but their presence has special importance in the very poorest societies and in the group of countries that are most development challenged – weak and failing states. There, religious presence is a beacon of courage and a potential anchor for action. Focusing on roles that faith institutions can play as partners in conflict resolution, prevention, post-conflict relief, and above all peace-building, offers enormous scope for engagement.

Bottom Line

Paul Vallely opened the seminar noting that development is impossible without peace, that development is completely impossible when there is war and strife. This is profoundly correct.

But still more, there truly can be no peace in the world of today and tomorrow if global society remains deeply divided, so that billions look and see injustice. There is no real hope for peace unless those billions have reasonable hope, for education, jobs, strong families, and physical security.

And hope and development of potential is what development is about. It can and must involve all hands, those of public and private bodies, secular and faith. It is the challenge of our times.