Integrating religious actors into development cooperation

Context

Worldwide, four in five people identify with a religious tradition. They advocate for human rights, social cohesion and environmental protection, and work to combat poverty and inequality. Often, religious actors offer social support services and assistance in crises when state support is insufficient. In the global south, in particular, people have a high level of trust in them. The engagement of religious actors is therefore essential in order to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Objective

Religion and development are mainstreamed in German development cooperation and globally in the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD).

Approach

The project supports the churches, political foundations, social structural programmes of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in developing concepts and strategies for national and international thematic priorities and in processing lessons learned and expertise.

The project also provides the PaRD secretariat, which coordinates cooperation and global networking among the members, which number over 160. Members comprise governments, multilateral organisations, research institutions, and religious, traditional, indigenous and other civil society actors.

Furthermore, the project processes experiences from the approaches of selected predecessor projects piloted between 2019 and 2022, supports further mainstreaming and provides evidence-based advice to other projects.

It also implements the flagship project Interfaith Dialogue on Violent Extremism (iDove) with the African Union. The project provides a safe space to support young people from Africa, Asia and Europe in preventing extremism.

Last update: November 2023