Katherine Marshall: Keynote at IRD event at Emory University

Communities, Peace, and Development: Perspectives through a Lens of Religion Candler School of Theology, Emory University and International Relief and Development (IRD) September 29,2010 Katherine Marshall, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University WFDD

Presentation Outline
Two parts, with a brief introduction (definition issues, where they matter)
6 Stories reflecting personal “lessons” linked to communities and development
A challenge and a puzzle: fragile states and religion
Some lessons and challenges
How to draw on complex experience?
Harmonization challenges
Peacebuilding and development
Fragile states, peace and governance: bringing religion into the conversation

Caveats and Approach
Religion/faith/spirituality is a huge subject, comprising large and complex worlds: never forget diversity
Terminology is fraught: religion, faith, spirituality, secular, are all contested terms
Ethics and values are intertwined in the debates, with special sensitivities around human dignity, respect for life, human rights and responsibilities
Religion and culture: where does one end, the other begin?
“ Development” is also a complex world of institutions and ideas, in flux and with many different approaches; add peacebuilding to the mix
My perspective: a practitioner, with a strong interdisciplinary focus, experience in intersecting worlds

Navigating Tensions around Religion

Stories and Communities
Reflecting on some enduring lessons from development history
Top down (leadership) is necessary at times but it carries huge risks;
Engagement, participation, and ownership by communities are keys to success.
“ Country driven” and “empowerment” are mantras of the hour.
But we need to dig into some of the deeper questions the terms raise: empower whom and how? Tough issues and choices.
What has religion to do with it and to offer ?

Six tales: 1. Mauritania, camels and donkeys: Rediscovering and seeing with new eyes

2. Madagascar: Ranching in Tsiroanomandidy: cultural blindness, politics, and change

3. Rwanda and the Mutara Project
Rational policy
Cursed by the bishop
Seething tension
Theme of land
Poisonous relationships behind civility

4. Botswana, Tribal Grazing Lands Policy
Keeping eyes on the poor

Making it meaningful
Building tools
The enigmas of economics
Complexities of consultation, participation, empowerment

5. Aceh: The tsunami and peace

6. Peace, Religion, and Women

Moral: the centrality of gender

Fragile States

The Challenge
The “Bottom billion”
Least developed
Fragile States
Failing States
LICUS = Low income countries under stress
Poorly performing states
Collier’s paradigm change: what it means

Fragile states and communities: 4 challenges
How to draw on complex experience?
Harmonization challenges
Peacebuilding and development
Fragile states, peace and governance: Bringing religion into the conversation

1. How to draw on community experience?
“ The faith picture is far more chaotic and organic than the development industry expects and would like it to be. This is true for all communities and community structures, but perhaps even more so for the faith world. Bureaucracies want order and structure. They also want fast results. Moving faster is likely to be less effective in the long term, seen from the community perspective. It is essential to take into account how communities see realities and their priorities .”
Mark Webster Nov 2008 interview http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/view?author=1813&project=23

Elements in solutions
Reflections on local government and decentralization
The missing middle, between community and national, national and global
Mapping and knowledge
“ FBOs” and congregations
Joint learning initiatives

2. Aid harmonization challenges
Aid harmonization as a theme (get a grip)
Paris, Rome, Accra declarations
Three One’s
Versus: let a thousand flowers bloom, social entrepreneurship
Move away from projects to SWAPs and global funding
Public private debates: balance and tools

AIDS stakeholders and donors in one African country MOH MOEC MOF PMO PRIVATE SECTOR CIVIL SOCIETY LOCALGVT NACP CTU CCAIDS INT NGO PEPFAR Norad CIDA RNE GTZ Sida WB UNICEF UNAIDS WHO CF GFATM USAID NCTP HSSP GFCCP DAC CCM T-MAP 3/5 SWAP UNTG PRSP US$200M US$290 M US$ 50M US$ 60M

3. Peacebuilding and development
Conflict, governance and leadership
Separate worlds: same challenge?
Old paradigm of stages
Reality of messy overlap

4. Fragile states and governance: bringing religion into the conversation
Remarkable absence
The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful
Preconceptions: politics, hierarchy
Skittishness on corruption
Role of Muslim societies and significance
Gender issues

What might a deeper appreciation of religion’s role and more active engagement offer in terms of better policies and programs in fragile states?
Knowledge and reflection: WDR as an example
At the table or on the menu?
Rapid intervention/swat teams
More women
Dialogue on tough issues including development strategies
Linking community and policy

Development, peace, and faith: not an easy match
Context: Changing approaches to religion in various settings
12 year journey as a “case study” and pioneer: the World Bank and faiths; UN agencies, bilaterals, foundations, universities, all showing increased interest in religion from many perspectives
Doubts still, but also openings
World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) as one pioneer
Strategic focus and policy dialogue
Sectoral, topic focus and community engagement

Ideas on paths forward
Strong country focus is a prerequisite for real progress
Evidence – amassing and using
Discernment and political antennae
Dialogue on tough issues
Purposeful thinking on networks
Global forums: navigate, select
Interfaith?

More resources
Two books of case studies, most recent Development and Faith: Where Mind, Heart and Soul work Together
Berkley Center Regional and Issues reviews, practitioner interviews; http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/programs/religion-and-global-development wn.edu
Newsweek/Washington Post On Faith: “Faith in Action”, weekly column
World Bank, Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics (DDVE)

Katherine Marshall: Keynote at IRD event at Emory University

by International Relief and Development on Sep 30, 2010

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Katherine Marshall: Keynote at IRD event at Emory University Presentation Transcript