Agree to Differ

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Beyond dogma, towards 2030:

religious actors driving social change

Azza Karam, United Nations Population Fund

e live in times when atrocities in the name of

religion are being committed on a daily basis

and broadcast across the world in a hitherto

unimaginable manner. Social cohesion is being torn

asunder in some communities and countries, and being

threatened by divisions along lines which intersect with

religion, migration, gender, ethnicities and race, and which

disregard national boundaries. Armed conflict in the name

of religion and sectarianism, exacerbated by poverty and

rising inequalities, is leading to multiple loss of lives.

Multiculturalism is under siege among some nations and

communities which championed it for decades. These

are realities which confront efforts to realize a culture of

peace and dialogue among diverse cultures.

Can we really afford to ignore religion when it comes to

assessing cultural identity, tangible heritage, norms and

values? Can we truly sideline religious institutions in the

daily grind of providing development services? And if we

do, then how would we justify the quintessential demand to

strengthen health systems, when we ignore the faith-based

organizations that provide an average of 30 per cent of those

services in some countries – a figure, by the way, which

can increase significantly during humanitarian disasters

and armed conflict? Indeed, even in the developed world,

churches run a significant amount of hospitals – accessed

by rich and poor alike.

We can ask the very same question about education,

sanitation, immunization and a whole host of other basic

human needs, which are actually at the heart of interna-

tional development efforts. Clearly, therefore, these are

rhetorical questions. The Second World War may have

brought about a secular political discourse (read: a separa-

tion of church and state), and a secularized social space,

Image: UNFPA’s Programme on FGM, 2014

UNFPA has developed, together with its faith-based partners, guidelines for its national and regional engagements with religious actors

gree

iffer