Values, Religion and Development
Context
These values have significant political and social creative potential, and this is also true for the partner countries of German development cooperation (DC).
Worldwide, religious actors are among the most important civil-society forces and are engaged in sustainable development in many different ways. In recent years, state actors have begun to systematically study the influence of religious actors on development and integrate its positive potential into bilateral and multilateral DC. However, state DC actors often continue to have reservations.
Achieving SDG 17 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development – also entails acknowledging the social significance of religious actors and strengthening positive development by cooperating.
Objective
The capacity of DC for cooperating with religious actors is strengthened. The potential of religions for sustainable development is harnessed in order to increase German DC’s effectiveness.
Approach
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) adopted the strategy paper ‘Religious communities as partners for development cooperation’ in 2016. This strategy on religion systematically describes how partnerships with religious actors can be shaped.
The programme works in three closely interlinked fields of activity derived from the strategy:
- It supports the BMZ in including the issue in documents such as country and priority area strategies. To this end, it develops principles.
- It accompanies programmes in cooperation countries worldwide in order to provide suggestions for implementing these principles.
- It promotes national and international cooperation between institutions and religious actors.
Last update: April 2025