Local Humanitarian Leadership and Religious Literacy: Engaging with Religion, Faith, and Faith Actors

Abstract

Local humanitarian leadership is built upon the premise that humanitarian action should be led by local humanitarian actors whenever possible, yet this research finds that secular humanitarian INGOs do not engage systematically with local faith actors in their local leadership work. Based primarily on interviews with humanitarian INGO staff, this research also found that neither secular nor faith-inspired international humanitarian organizations have a sufficient level of religious literacy to enable them to understand the religious dimensions of the contexts in which they work and to effectively navigate their engagement with local faith actors.

A Case for Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy

“…Also in 2015, Moore founded the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School, which among other things has sought to apply religious literacy in various professional fields, running symposia on topic areas such as media and entertainment, journalism, immigration services, and humanitarian action. For example, a 2017 study with Oxfam looked at the religious literacy of faith-based relief & development NGOs (Gingerich et al 2017). Moore also added the consideration of "power and powerlessness" to her method for exploring religious literacy, suggesting that questions had to be asked about "which perspectives are politically and socially prominent," and why (Moore 2015).…”

Opportunities and Challenges of Engagement with the Mosque as a Community-Based Religious Institution

“…Instead of looking at the religious interpretations employed by diverse groups for their vested interests, religion itself has been seen as the major driver of conflicts. Due appreciation is lacking on both sides that religion and proclaimed secular humanitarianism remains intertwined with politics and development (Fountain et al, 2015;Gingerich et al, 2017). May it be poverty or other development concerns, deep religious undercurrents influence how development agendas take shape and translate into different policy actions.…”

Disasters and Religious Institutions

“…Although the integrative approach to disasters has attempted to consider social, cultural and economic factors since the 1980s, the role of religious institutions along with the role of religion itself remains overshadowed and underestimated in the disaster studies literature (Candland, 2000;David K. Chester, 2005). Even now, much below their full potential, most of the government and international disaster-related organisations only involve with religious and faith-based organisations to the extent of disaster response and relief, disregarding engagement for long-term disaster recovery and preparedness (Gingerich et al, 2017;Sheikhi et al, 2020). Overall, there is a gradually increasing realisation among both religious and secular development organisations to explore ways to engage with each other for achieving better results of their common efforts for helping humanity.…”