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Programmes
Case Studies
For some time, the WFDD has been collecting case studies
of religious/spiritual organisations or groups which are working on
“development”. Working together with the Vikram Sarabhai Foundation in
India we began in India and Sri Lanka but now have broadened our
collection to many other countries as well. Our aim is to demonstrate how
religion/spirituality can lead to a different vision of development and a
different way of working from those of “mainstream” development
institutions, by providing insights and inspiration, motivation and ethical
guidelines for work with grass-roots groups.
The WFDD conference held in Canterbury in July 2002 on
the contribution of religious communities to the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers highlighted the importance, too, of writing up some case studies
which would show how religious beliefs are being related in practice to
work to overcome material poverty.
The WFDD does not deny the negative influence that many
religious groups have had on development work with the poor, whether
manipulated or not by political parties and movements, but this makes it
all the more important to show how others have been faithfully working to
make life better for some of the poorest people in the world.
The case studies are intended to inspire not only the
aid agencies and others working on development but also the many religious
organisations which are not yet as far along the road in their work with
the poor as these movements we are highlighting.
WFDD is commissioning some case studies but we would be
happy to receive unsolicited manuscripts for consideration. Where a case
study is proposed but not yet written up a preliminary outline would be a
useful basis for discussion.
Please see
Outline for general guidelines also
translated into French as
Grandes Lignes and into Spanish as
Trazado General.
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Case studies collected
- The National Forum
of Fishworkers is a study of what began as a Christian
initiative but, for clear theological as well as political
reasons was then turned into a secular mass movement in India,
though many of the participants would say that "secular
spirituality", which goes beyond any particular religion, is
still a driving force behind the movement.
- Sarkan Zoumountsi is a Muslim association based in Yaoundé,
Cameroon. It is deeply-rooted in the community though interestingly its
organisers have consciously adopted a NGO-like structure. It is an example
of an organisation which has remained faithful to the rules of Islam,
despite this proving a disadvantage on occasion both for finding financial
support and for making broader alliances.
The study is available in the original French:
Sarkan Zoumountsi
As well as in an English translation:
Zoumountsi English
Tokombéré: A Human Development Project founded on faith
In 1959 Father Simon Mpeke (“Baba Simon”) set out as a missionary to
live among the mountain dwellers of northern Cameroon (known as “Kirdi” or
“unbelievers”). He soon found that the Kirdi “knew God already” but he
stayed with them and set up a health project, learning from them and
sharing his Christian faith. Under the subsequent leadership of Fr.
Christian Aurenche, a medical doctor, this has become a large integral
development programme, covering not only health but also youth,
agriculture, women, literacy and small enterprises. Founded on faith,
and on “a vision of the world and a way of viewing people”, the
Tokombéré Project owes its success to the fact that it has always
been in the hands of the Kirdi themselves.
The study is available in French:
TOKOMBERE:
Un Projet de développement de l'Homme fondé sur la foi
The
Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK) is a voluntary organisation working among the
Soligas, a tribal people in southern India. What began as a precarious venture
in a hut thirty years back now has a radius of over 60 km, taking in its ambit
a tribal population of 20,000. VGKK’s work in the areas of health, education,
cottage industries, community organisation and environmental preservation
incorporates the Soligas’ nature worship and Hindu philosophy.
The
Barli Development Institute for Rural Women was set up in the city of Indore,
Madhya Pradesh, by members of the Bahá’í community of India in 1983. It provides
residential courses for tribal women in, among other things, literacy, tailoring,
agriculture, nutrition and health and crafts-work. However, the emphasis on personality
development and values has been the key to the empowerment of the 1,300 women who have
been trained there, 96% of whom are using the income-generating skills they learnt at
the institute. They have not only improved their own lives but have become agents for
social change in their villages.
The
Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a contemporary endeavour of the Ismaili Imamat
to realise the social conscience of Islam through institutional action, bringing
together a number of institutions built up over the last four decades, sometimes earlier.
Their mandate is to improve living conditions and opportunities and to help relieve
society of ignorance, disease and deprivation without regard to the faith, origin or
gender of people served. They operate predominantly in Asia and Africa.
This case study looks at the conditions which led to the formation of
Engaged Buddhism
in South East Asia, with a focus on Siam. In the light of several initiatives inspired
by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and Sulak Sivaraksa, it shows how Engaged Buddhism attempts to
renew ancient wisdom using Buddhism as a guideline to confront contemporary suffering
in an inclusive way.
Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, the founder of the
Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri
Lanka, understands "development" in terms of an "awakening". The movement
is strongly underpinned by Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist monks play an
important role. The movement relies on large numbers of volunteers who work
in "camps" to build roads and schools etc. in rural areas, but it is the
villagers themselves who are responsible for their own community programmes.
Sarvodaya has reached over 11,000 villages.
The study we have from Awacatán, in the north western
highlands of Guatemala,
brings the view point of the women themselves, expressed in their own way.
It tells of collaboration, in circumstances of extreme poverty, among Catholics,
Presbyterians and women who follow the traditional Mayan spiritual tradition
and it reveals how fundamental their faith and spirituality are to their work
and to keeping their hope alive. However, the story of the theological
differences which arose among the members of the Central American Church
points out, too, that faith can be an obstacle as well as an encouragement for
those who want to change their circumstances for the better.
The study is available in the original:
Awakatán Spanish
As well as in translation:
Awakatán English
Santi Sena is an organisation run by Buddhist monks in Cambodia.
It was set up to serve both Buddhism and the most vulnerable members of
Cambodian society (the large majority of whom are Buddhists). It is a
demonstration of the important role of monks in society, not only for
"chanting and blessing" but also in contributing to the improvement in the
quality of life of widows, orphans, physically and mentally disabled people
and, in general, communities which were destroyed by the thirty years of
civil conflict in Cambodia. The aims of Santi Sena as well the methodology
it uses are based on Buddhist philosophy.
Community AIDS Response (CARE) is a Christian-inspired South African NGO
working with people living with HIV and AIDS. The case study tells of the motivation
of the people who set it up and of their struggle with, as well as support from other
Christians. The combination of spiritual, emotional and physical care is the hallmark
of the work.
The case study of the
Addis Ababa Muslim Women’s Council (AAMWC) is a story of the courage and persistence
of a small group of Muslim women who took advantage of a favourable change in the
constitution of Ethiopia to press for changes in areas of deep concern to them.
Determined to sort out whether practices such as female circumcision were attributable
to cultural tradition or to the law of Islam, they carried out their own research
and have been the catalyst for debate leading to change among their own Muslim
authorities. In addition, they are carrying out extensive awareness raising work at
the grass roots level and have begun some development programmes for women
and orphans.
The Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN) brings together individuals, groups and
Muslim associations in Asia and subscribes to a progressive and enlightened approach
to Islam. It engages in human resource development and facilitates forums for
individuals, whether Muslim or of other faiths, who are working for the eradication
of poverty, environmental protection, human rights, social justice, interfaith and
inter-cultural dialogue and communal harmony and peace. This case study tells us
about the work of AMAN itself as well as about two of its member organizations:
Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP), which works with rural communities in Bangladesh,
and the Cambodian Islamic Youth Association.
Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian spiritual cult of Nigerian Yoruba origin.
Despite constant discrimination and even persecution of those who practise it,
it has been kept alive particularly in the North Eastern state of Bahia, since
African slaves were brought to Brazil. This case study shows how the terreiro,
or Candomblé centers, are not only places of spiritual worship and celebration but
also centres of socio-economic and cultural work, mostly in very poor neighbourhoods.
The high priest or priestess plays a crucial leadership role in motivating people
to organise and claim their rights as citizens as well as in securing the provision
of some basic education and health services.
The study is available in the original Portuguese:
Candomblé
As well as in an English translation:
Candomblé English
The Indonesian movement
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) is the world’s largest Muslim association. This study
tells how, basing their work on the teaching of the Prophet, the two women’s
associations, of the NU, Muslimat NU and Fatayat NU, managed to change the
orientation of the Indonesian Government’s family planning programme. They
also persuaded their own Muslim authorities that family planning should be
allowed for the purpose of creating family welfare.
The Swadhyaya movement was founded in the 1950s as a grass roots movement
in India by Pandurang Vaijnath Athavale Shastri (affectionately and popularly
addressed as Dada). Dada believed that the idea of the indwelling God and
devotion to him, found in the Bhagavad Gita, could provide the inspiration
for eliminating the differences between human beings which were leading to
the disparities of wealth, social status, education and opportunity which
were causing such misery to so many people. Swadhyaya is first and foremost
a spiritual movement but out of the idea of a divine relationship and
gratitude to God, a series of social initiatives have arisen and alcoholism,
gambling, child abuse and domestic violence have gradually disappeared from
Swadhyaya communities. A sense of self-worth as well as gratitude to God have
also led to many collective activities which create community resources, such
as commonly owned fishing boats or plots of land that can be distributed for
the common good.
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Poverty Reduction Strategies
Workshops on Faith and Development
Workshops development from an Islamic, Christian and
Buddhist perspective: Two workshops on Islam, Christianity and Development,
co-hosted by WFDD in October and November 2003 in West and East Africa were
followed in December by a third on Buddhism and Development. The first was held in
Ghana (report also in
French) with the Religious Bodies Forum of Ghana,
the second was in Tanzania with the
Tanzania Interfaith Forum and the third was co-hosted with the Spirit in Education
Movement in Thailand.
These three workshops arose out of the WFDD meeting in Canterbury UK
in July 2002 to discuss the contributions of faith communities to Poverty
Reduction Strategies in some of the world`s poorest countries.
Case study workshop:
WFDD with Vikram Sarabhai Foundation held a workshop 9-11 February 2004, bringing
together people from eleven different case studies of spiritual and religious
movements working on “development”. The recorded discussion addresses questions
about how spirituality influences these movements’ understanding of “development”
as well as how they carry out their work.
Thematic Summary
Workshop notes
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Implementing the Millennium Development Goals
In recognition of the urgent need to improve access to health,
education, nutrition, clean water etc. for the poorest people in the world, almost
all governments have subscribed to the Development Millennium Goals (MDGs). These
include ensuring that by the year 2015, the number of people living in extreme
poverty and hunger will have been halved, all boys and girls will be at primary
school, the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases will have been reversed,
access to clean water will have been increased, maternal health will have been
greatly improved, infant mortality will have been reduced and the environment will
be being treated with more respect.
If the MDGs are to be achieved there is an urgent need to maximise
our varied contributions and co-operate with each other. Faith communities could achieve
a great deal more if they received further recognition and support. There is huge
potential still to be realised.
In response to a strongly supported suggestion made to the World
Faith and Development Leaders' Meeting in Canterbury in October 2002, WFDD intends to
play its part in maximising the contribution of faith communities to implementing the
vision, which inspires the MDGs, of a more just and peaceful world. Details can be
found in the section of our work plan headed 'Achieving the Millennium Development
Goals'.
The question put to the Leaders’ meeting and which WFDD will now
pursue is whether faith-based programmes can be 'scaled-up' if the necessary funding
resources can be made available by agencies like the World Bank. 'Scaling-up' could
mean a number of things. A programme could be vastly expanded, or replicated in
many other places, or draw in other faith communities as partners and so grow bigger
and stronger.
WFDD has two roles to play. One is to find out where programmes
exist which faith communities regard as suitable for 'scaling-up'. The other is to
put those communities in touch with the donor community, including the World Bank,
on the understanding that the Bank and others are willing to help prepare proposals
and secure funding. WFDD itself will certainly not be the arbiter as to which
programmes should go ahead but will try to facilitate good and productive working
relations between faith communities and development agencies.
The potential in all of this is exciting: an even bigger
contribution by faith communities to poverty eradication. But the dangers are
obvious. Good programmes can be ruined by resources they cannot absorb. Funding
proposals can demand changes in programmes which fundamentally alter their character.
Expectations can be raised and not met. Faith communities can be co-opted into
strategies they are not convinced about. And what happens if support for expansion
is only short-lived and what has been 'grown' cannot be sustained? So WFDD and its
networks must seize this opportunity with firm commitment but eyes wide open to the
pitfalls.
We'd be glad to hear from any of you in the network if you are
involved in scaling-up or even prepared to contemplate it.
The
Development Gateway web site could be of help in this work. Governments and other donors turn to it to
find out what exactly is being done in any particular country or region and what might
be worth supporting. So there is something to be said for faith communities supplying
information about their programmes along with everyone else.
'Supplying information' can however be quite technical and
complicated in itself and, where professional staff who are well used to this
kind of thing are in short supply, can soon appear to be far more trouble than it
is worth.
WFDD is working with the Development Gateway to produce a
straightforward, uncomplicated form which faith communities can complete without
too much effort so that more information about their programmes is made available.
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Poverty Reduction Strategy Conference
In July 2002 the WFDD hosted a conference in Canterbury,
England, to find out how far religious communities have been involved in
the drawing up of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and to discuss
ways in which WFDD might encourage them to become more engaged with the
process of consultation about development policies in their own countries.
The PRSP are country-based strategies being drawn up by
governments together with civil society as a pre-requisite for receiving
debt relief and concessionary loans from the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. They thus provide a meeting point for religious communities
and the International Financial Institutions at the country level.
16 people from 15 different countries participated in
the conference, as well as consultants from Eurodad, the UK Department for
International Development and the World Bank. The discussion broadened out
far beyond the PRSP, with particular focus on the link made by faith-based
communities between spirituality and development.
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WFDD Contribution to WDR 2004 "Making Services Work for Poor People"
Every year the World Bank publishes a World Development
Report (WDR) on a different topic. The topic for 2004 is Making Services
Work for Poor People.
The World Bank invited contributions from civil society on a
draft version of the report and held several consultations itself in different
parts of the world. WFDD sent delegates to three of them. Dr. Emma Tomalin
from the University of Leeds, UK, went to the consultation in London at the end
of 2002, Dr. Hanumappa Sudarshan, Director Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra
(Vivekananda Tribal Welfare Centre) in Karnataka, India, went to the one held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh from 22-23 January 2003 and Remigius Munyonyo, Senior Lecturer
Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda went to the consultation on 29 January 2003
in Kampala, Uganda.
WFDD then invited these three delegates, together with ten
other people, to a workshop at the International Education Centre of Canterbury
Cathedral from 22-23 February 2003. The aim was to gather together comments from
the point of view of different faith traditions as the basis for a WFDD
submission to the World Bank. In addition, WFDD had received about 40 comments
by e-mail from people from different continents, cultures and religious
backgrounds in response to a discussion paper on the draft WDR 2004, sent out at
the end of 2002.
The WFDD contribution was written up by Dr. Emma Tomalin and
submitted to the World Bank on 28 March (see WFDDWDR2004)
A WFDD staff member attended a further consultation on the
first full draft of the WDR 2004 in London on 2 April.
The participants at the WFDD workshop in Canterbury were:
- Revd. Karoly Beres, Director,
Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation, Novi Sad, Serbia
- Dr. Mohan Isaac, Professor of
Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro
Sciences, Bangalore, India
- Revd. Dr. Colin Jones, Provincial
Executive Officer, Archbishop of Cape Town’s office, South
Africa
- Arnold Mhango, Executive Director,
Christian Service Committee of the Churches of Malawi
- Remigius Munyonyo, Senior Lecturer,
Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda
- Dr. Patricia Nickson, Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom and Institut Panafricain de
Santé Communautaire/Church Mission Society, Congo
- Gill Paterson, writer and consultant on
health issues, UK
- Dr. Hanumappa Sudarshan, Director
Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (Vivekananda Tribal Welfare
Centre), Karnataka, India
- Abdoul Hamidou Sy, Director ACAPES,
Senegal
- Revd. Prof. Michael Taylor, Director,
WFDD
- Dr. Emma Tomalin, Lecturer, University
of Leeds, UK
- Wendy Tyndale, Researcher, WFDD
- Dr. Tsegaye Berhe Woldu, Director, Child and Family Affairs Organisation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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