Programs
WFDD Programs & Projects
World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) is a not-for-profit organization working at the intersection of religion and global development. With many mutual interests, WFDD is housed at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and collaborates with them in their Religion and Global Development program. Katherine Marshall serves as the executive director of WFDD and is also a senior fellow at the Berkley Center. WFDD's programs investigate the engagement of religious actors and the role of religion in various development areas such as gender, health, education, and conflict and peacebuilding.
AHA! Awareness with Human Action
AHA! (Awareness with Human Action) is a European Union funded consortium project, with WFDD and seven other international and national partner organizations, led by the Network of Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. The project focuses on COVID-19 and peace-building in South Asia. The aim is to adopt an integrated, holistic, and multi-stakeholder approach to address the pandemic, disinformation, and hate speech, primarily through strategic involvement of community influencers. The project’s overall objective is to contribute to the response efforts of the COVID-19 pandemic by preventing conflict and building social cohesion in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and broader South Asia.
WFDD leads the continuing learning and development efforts by producing country case reviews, key person interviews, country and regional level policy briefs and situation reports, and training personnel. WFDD assisted in the selection of 45 community leaders and influencers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and 5 community leaders and influencers from the region who have received financial and logistic support. The fellows engaged at the community level through processes like confidence-building, dialogue, capacity-building and initiatives aiming to increase awareness on COVID-19 including factual information and countering the spread of misinformation.
Bangladesh: Religious Dimensions of Development and Social Cohesion
The World Faiths Development Dialogue in collaboration with Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University are engaged in a three-year research project entitled “Bangladesh: Religious Dimensions of Development and Social Cohesion.” This project explores the faith dimensions of development and social cohesion and supports coalitions that work in practical ways to foster peace and interfaith understanding. The corresponding development topics for each project year are education, gender, and climate change/youth.
WFDD’s central goal is to create research materials that support national-level advocacy and inspire collaborative dialogue among secular and faith actors, policymakers, and development institutions that often operate separately, but have important shared objectives and values.
Critical Topics around Religion and Development
Since 2006 the Berkley Center and World Faiths Development Dialogue have conducted a multi-year survey of critical issues at the intersection of religion and development. Project publications and associated events track the engagement of faith-inspired organizations around a set of core policy challenges, with an emphasis on common problems, ethical commitments, and best practices. To date the project has addressed Ebola, gender, governance, HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal mortality, shelter, tuberculosis, and water and sanitation. Project research has also resulted in a series of policy briefs that examine the role of faith-based organizations and topics including: corruption, the WASH agenda, human trafficking in Cambodia, aid effectiveness, immunization, malaria, and reducing maternal mortality. Ongoing work continues, following recommendations to develop teaching case studies, further in-depth country level studies, focused exploration of crossing cutting issues, and wider, better, and sharper communication and outreach strategies. This project was originally launched through the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.
Faith and Development in Cambodia Interview Series
Faith and International Family Planning
Global Health and Faith
Mapping of Faith-Inspired Organizations by World Region and Country
As part of a multi-year survey the Berkley Center and the World Faiths Development Dialogue are mapping the activities of faith-inspired organizations across world regions and countries. Through a series of reports, in-depth interviews with practitioners, international workshops, and web resources, the mapping project charts organizations anchored in particular faith traditions or with ecumenical or interfaith approaches that are engaged in global development agendas, including poverty relief, education, and the struggle against HIV/AIDS and malaria. This project was originally launched through the Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs.
Towards Better Strategic Religious-Development Engagement: Exploring and Comparing Challenges through Education and Social Protection
Various institutions have pursued decidedly stop-start patterns as they engage with religious actors, leaving wide gaps between a theoretical appreciation that strategic religious engagement (SRE) is vital and meaningful action, where it counts. Obstacles to SRE include fractious interreligious relationships, but also studied ignorance, indifference, and preconceptions that block full partnership. Bridging divides between religious and development actors needs to contend with misinformation, prejudice, and knowledge gaps.
A three-year project (July 2023-June 2026) supported by the Templeton Religion Trust focuses on four different, distinctively plural countries: Ghana, Philippines, Senegal, and Sri Lanka. Working with the four countries will allow a comparative approach and offer examples of religious pluralism at play. The aim is to strengthen strategic religious engagement and practical operational models, focusing on the thematic areas of education and support for society’s most vulnerable.
- Education: Parallel systems and disagreements around religious education stymie efforts to address underlying aspects of living in plural societies. Our approach to education ranges from advancing religious and intercultural literacy to engaging with pluralism within both religiously run and secular education systems.
- Support for the vulnerable: Religious organizations have historically focused sharply on what is termed social protection: supporting orphans, the hungry, the sick, and others who suffer. These religious approaches are, however, notably absent in much contemporary analysis of this dynamic development sector. Pandemic emergencies have sparked intensive reflections on the social safety nets that protect vulnerable people.
The four countries face both challenges and openings for active religious engagement in their future development. Work will center on analysis of past and present trends, intensive dialogue, and pilot activities. Action programs with different actors, religious and non-religious, aim to secure clear “seats at the policy tables” for diverse religious actors. The project can pave the way towards better collaboration on the often-difficult questions, practical and ethical, surrounding religion and development.
The World Faiths Development Dialogue is the project lead, with support from the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University and the Joint Learning Initiative for Faith and Local Communities.
World Sports Values for Peace and Development
Past Programs
Faith and Agriculture
Faith in Action: Empowering the Poor to Reach Universal Energy Access
Habitat for Humanity Interfaith Pilot Project
In 2012 the Berkley Center and World Faiths Development Dialogue collaborated with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) on a year-long project to assess their interfaith toolkit pilot project. The toolkit, prepared in conjunction with an earlier Berkley Center collaboration, aims to engage local community interfaith groups in HFHI efforts to provide adequate shelter for all. The pilot project aimed to test the toolkit's effectiveness as a component of the HFHI community outreach strategy.
Revitalizing Global Religious and Interfaith Networks
Although much of the world's population participates in religious communities, faith organizations and interfaith networks have historically had quite modest impact on contemporary global agendas. Faith communities often play vital roles at local and national levels, but at the global level their influence across a range of transnational issues—from climate change and public health to war and peace—are less prominent. This project worked with strategic partners to explore how interfaith networks can engage more effectively with international organizations, NGOs, and governments, with a focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Women, Religion, and Peace: Experience, Perspectives, and Policy Implications
Scholars and practitioners have devoted increasing attention to the roles played by faith communities in negotiating and building peace in the world's conflict zones. Because formal religious leadership tends to be dominated by men, women's engagement in religious peacemaking has received far less attention. To address this knowledge gap, from 2010 to 2015 the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Berkley Center, and the World Faiths Development Dialogue conducted a multi-year exploration of the activities and perspectives of women in peacebuilding and their policy implications, issues that continue to feature in ongoing Berkley Center work.
Women, Religion, and the Family
Women and girls are today a central focus of international development. Increased access to education, employment, health care, decision-making, and leadership has brought change to female lives within the home and family. Amidst these shifting social norms, religion plays an important role in shaping gender dynamics within families and society, yet religion’s impact on the family is often poorly understood. To better clarify the nexus of women, religion, and the family, during 2014 and 2015 the Berkley Center and the World Faiths Development Dialogue asked women and men from various faith traditions to share their experiences and opinions in the form of blogs and interviews. Initial pieces examined under-explored topics such as black Muslim motherhood and evolving definitions of family within religious traditions. Blogs and interviews covered new themes each month, including marriage, women’s leadership in faith communities, and sexual violence and health issues.
The Women, Religion, and the Family project was made possible through the generosity of Mary Jo Gwin Wiese (C'82, G'84).