UN Interagency Consultations, Religion and the work of the UN

By: Katherine Marshall

July 16, 2008

Last week (July 9, 2008), I attended (on behalf of the World Bank) a long planned interagency meeting in New York, organized and hosted by UNFPA. The meeting was described as a UN Interagency Consultation on Engagement with Faith Groups. Brady Walkinshaw and Marisa Van Saanen also participated. There were two particularly interesting conclusions: first, that the topic of religion as an ingredient in public affairs is emerging across many agencies, and many are seeking strategic directions in response. And second, the Bank emerges as a leader among agencies in terms of its experience and particularly its strategic reflection.

This meeting, the first of its kind, had, we understand, been in prospect for almost two years and reflected the leadership of Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA. She has been an active partner in the Bank's faith work and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), and participated in both Canterbury and Dublin Leader meetings. We had discussed the importance of an interagency stock taking on several occasions so we were part of the meeting's conception. The meeting was also planned together with UNAIDS, which in April convened a meeting in Geneva to reflect on how faith institutions were engaged on HIV/AIDS, so the outcomes of that meeting were also a focus. Finally, the meeting looked at the UN system wide, with active participation of the Alliance of Civilizations and DESA including the author of the upcoming Secretary General's report to the General Assembly. The issue ties in particularly to planned UN focus on intercultural dialogue.

The meeting brought together representatives from UNDP, UN-Habitat, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNDESA, and the Alliance of Civilizations, in addition to the World Bank. The central theme was a sharing of experience in efforts to ramp up work with faith leaders and faith communities on key development and diplomatic issues.

The discussion highlighted several noteworthy points: first, there was consensus and much energy among the UN agencies represented about the need to engage with faith leaders and faith communities and to improve and streamline communication and partnership with these organizations. While the agencies are not without internal dissent, there is consensus on the critical need to find inroads for dialogue and partnership with faith-based partners and to explore how this can best be done consistent with the mission of the United Nations and of each specialized agency. One representative from each agency was tasked to give the group an informal status update on their work with faith groups and plans for the future: it was interesting to hear many similar themes (e.g. high among them that it is critical to work with faith groups as they are such key service providers, with important roles in advocacy and strong links to local communities), and also similar institutional challenges (e.g. concerns about veering too far into work with faith groups and recognition that faith groups cannot be grouped with larger "civil society" partnership efforts given their particularities). There was also shared concern to ensure that these issues are taken seriously and approached thoughtfully by the various agencies.

It is also notable the degree to which the World Bank's work with faith groups and institutions is well recognized to be ahead of the curve and the Bank an important leader on these issues. That the Bank has renewed its commitment to the work with faith groups is an important development and reassuring to the agencies that are at earlier stages of developing their work in this area.

It was agreed that the work of coming together around these faith issues was an important step for the UN agencies and that there should be continued conversation and dialogue moving forward. One of the ideas floated was to devise a common set of principles to guide the agencies' work with faith leaders and institutions—to keep them from becoming political or politicized and to keep them focused on development goals. While there was rich discussion on this issue, there was no consensus at this time given concerns about overly limiting faith partnerships at this time, when there is still much to be explored in these relationships.

There was also much discussion around the strategic framework that UNAIDS devised in collaboration with faith groups in a meeting in April, 2008, in Geneva, to guide the relationship of UNAIDS and faith-based organizations. The strategy is focused around a three-level approach to religious leaders, faith-inspired organizations, and local faith communities, and is intended to outline desired outcomes from partnership and action on HIV in nine thematic areas: working with people living with HIV, human rights/justice, gender, youth, work with marginalized communities, stigma and discrimination, prevention, treatment, and care and respect. There was some discussion about how this strategic framework might be further developed and how it might be applicable for the work of other agencies.

Overall, there were important strides made in inter-agency communication and much interest in continuing the dialogue and ensuring that there is collaboration and linkages moving forward.

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