Faith-Inspired Organizations and Global Development
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FAITH-INSPIRED ORGANIZATIONS AND GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY: A BACKGROUND REVIEW "MAPPING" SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WORK IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA 1 About this Report This draft background report was prepared as part of the Berkley Center’s global “mapping” of the work of faith-inspired organizations worldwide. The report serves as background for the consultation on faith- inspired organizations and global development policy in South and Central Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 10-11, 2011. The South and Central Asia review is part of a comparative project on Religion and Global Development supported by the Henry R. Luce Foundation. Through a series of meetings with stakeholders and background reports, the Berkley Center and WFDD have worked to ‘“map’” the role of faithinspired organizations around the world, highlighting best practices and policy issues that arise. Prior events have included: a meeting in Washington, DC in April 2007 focused on the United States; a meeting in Doha, Qatar in December 2007 focused on the Muslim World; a meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands in June 2008 focused on Europe and Africa; a meeting in Antigua, Guatemala in January 2009, focused on Latin America; and a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in December 2009 focused on Southeast Asia. About the Authors The report was prepared by a team of researchers at the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the World Faiths Development Dialogue. The principal author is Michael Bodakowski, working under the supervision of Katherine Marshall. Sarah Singha, graduate research assistant at the Berkley Center, contributed significantly, as did Elizabeth LaFerriere. Claudia Zambra and Hahna Fridirici contributed significantly as well, and provided invaluable guidance and input throughout the process. Melody Fox Ahmed, without whose contributions this report would not have been possible, played a key role from the beginning of the consultation process. Esther Breger contributed immensely through editorial support and guidance. 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 5 SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA: RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT ROLES.................. 7 CATEGORIZING FAITH-INSPIRED ORGANIZATIONS (A COMPLEX TASK)......... 12 SECTOR FOCUS AND EMERGING POLICY QUESTIONS............................................ 18 Conflict and Peacebuilding ...................................................................................... 18 Gender ................................................................................................................ 21 Education ............................................................................................................. 23 Cross cutting sectors ............................................................................................. 25 Text Box 1: Corruption challenges in Bangladesh......................................................1 Chart 1: The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index – South and Central Asia ................ 28 SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA: RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT ROLES................ 29 COUNTRY CHAPTERS........................................................................................................ 34 Bangladesh........................................................................................................... 35 Text Box 2: Working with Imams to combat HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh .........................1 Text Box 3: Leaders of Influence ............................................................................1 Sri Lanka ............................................................................................................. 44 Text Box 4: Insights from the Sarvodaya Movement .................................................1 Text Box 5: Jansila Majeed of the Community Trust Fund in Puttalam, Sri Lanka ..........1 Nepal................................................................................................................... 54 Text Box 6: Nepal’s Dalit Women............................................................................1 Text Box 7: Farmer Suicides in India.......................................................................1 Maldives............................................................................................................... 62 Bhutan................................................................................................................. 66 India.................................................................................................................... 71 Text Box 8: Child Marriages In India .......................................................................1 Text Box 9: Gandhi’s Wheel of Satyagraha ..............................................................1 Text Box 10: Kerala Independent Fish Workers Federation: Coastal Activists of Southern India .....................................................................................................1 Text Box # 11: Brahma Kumaris: Teachers for the Mind, Body, and Spirit ...................1 Text Box 12: Kashmir – Faith Dimensions of Peacebuilding ........................................1 Pakistan ............................................................................................................... 89 Text Box 13: Pakistan’s Female Madrasas................................................................1 3 Text Box 14: Pakistan Floods .................................................................................1 Text Box 15: Madrasa Reform in Pakistan................................................................1 Text Box 16 : The plight of South Asia’s many widows ..............................................1 Afghanistan ........................................................................................................ 102 Kyrgyzstan ......................................................................................................... 106 Kazakhstan......................................................................................................... 112 Tajikistan ........................................................................................................... 116 Turkmenistan ..................................................................................................... 120 Text Box 17: Gulen Movement in Central Asia ..........................................................1 Uzbekistan ......................................................................................................... 124 APPENDIX 1: MAP – SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA..................................................... 128 APPENDIX 2: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT REPORTS: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................... 129 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................... 140 ENDNOTES.......................................................................................................................... 150 4 Introduction Religion is a pervasive and influential force across South and Central Asia. Religious beliefs are as diverse as the region’s geography and peoples, and religious practices and institutions both shape and are changed by social changes that are transforming the region. Institutions and communities, influenced and motivated by links to faith, engage in widely ranging activities, some classically religious in nature (teaching scripture, pastoral care), others covering a wide gamut of services and community action, working from the many thousands of temples, churches, mosques, gurdwaras, and other religious institutions across the region. This draft report, prepared as background for an exploration of religion’s role in development in the region, examines practical, development related roles and work of faith-inspired institutions and the environments in which they work, historically but above all in the present-day, in the two linked but distinct regions of South and Central Asia. Its central aim is what we term a “mapping” of the landscape of faith-inspired organizations working in development, to identify and highlight areas with potential for increased collaboration, and their policy implications. It also sets out to identify areas where further investigation and discussion would be useful. Given the diversity and size of both South and Central Asia, not all issues and countries are treated in any detail; the investigation is partial and preliminary.. The report is based largely on desk reviews of existing material and literature, enriched by interviews with specialists and practitioners. The country context in which faith-inspired organizations work (social, political, cultural, and economic) largely determines and influences their roles and activities. The report thus focuses on a country by country overview that highlights the challenges and constraints at a national level. A separate section takes a regional perspective on specific sectors – the main issues and challenges, faith dimensions, and the diverse roles of faith-inspired organizations in addressing them, in South and Central Asia. The review is challenging. The wide range of religious beliefs that characterize the region give rise to an extraordinary diversity of institutional forms and activities. Their overall nature and form are not documented or analyzed in any systematic way, and they vary by country and region.