Agree to Differ

[

] 74

Developmental Bible it is co-sponsoring with the Ethiopian

Orthodox Church, which is believed to have more than

40 million followers in the country. The Developmental

Bible was a joint initiative between the Ethiopian Orthodox

Church, UNFPA and the Population Council, and revolves

around integrating development issues into the daily teach-

ings of the church.

Maternal health, HIV prevention and the medical and

social impact of harmful traditional practices such as early

marriage and FGM are integrated in the daily teachings of

the church through this Developmental Bible. Since 2010, the

Developmental Bible Manual has been printed and dissemi-

nated to 204 churches, nine theological colleges and clergy

training centres in six regions.

More than 2,000 clergy undertook trainings on how to

mainstream the Developmental Bible in their daily teachings.

Currently the manual is being adapted in to the daily teach-

ings of Sunday schools where the majority of the attendants

are believed to be young people. A training and users’ guide is

also under formulation to facilitate further, and render more

widespread, the use of the Developmental Bible.

Building on the experiences from the implementation

of the Developmental Bible, UNFPA created the forum

for interfaith dialogues on peace, maternal health, youth

sexual reproductive health and harmful traditional prac-

tices in collaboration with Norwegian Church Aid and the

Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia (IRCE). IRCE is led by

the highest echelons of six religious denominations that

are well recognized by Ethiopians. Since mid-2012, two

national and eight regional dialogue fora were conducted,

in which 1,680 clergy, pastors and imams from six reli-

gious denominations participated. The dialogue fora

nurtured strong cooperation and sharing of best practices

on peace-building, maternal and child health, adoles-

cent youth and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. The

first national dialogue forum which was conducted in

2011 issued a joint declaration which was systematically

monitored in subsequent national and regional dialogue

forums in the following years. The deliberations and the

outcomes continue to inform policymaking and debates at

the national and local government levels.

In Afghanistan, due to the realization that misperceptions

regarding family planning among religious leaders continue

to constitute challenges to the promotion of family planning

as a means to reduce maternal mortality, a close collabo-

ration was forged between UNFPA, the Ministry of Public

Health, and Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs (MoHRA).

The partnership is considered a means of strengthening and

building new strategic alliances to support the roll-out of

family planning programmes, including improving access

and utilization of birth spacing and other family planning

methods. Several national consultations were carried out

Image: UNFPA’s Programme on FGM, 2014

Religion and culture are critical backdrops and drivers of reform around issues pertaining to women’s empowerment, girls’ and women’s rights

and the right to health more generally

gree

iffer