The USAID Strategic Religious Engagement Summit: What Was Not Said

Abstract

This essay reflects on the 2020 USAID Evidence Summit on Strategic Religious Engagement and the field of “religions and development” from the perspective of a practitioner and scholar working in intergovernmental and inter-/multi-religious organizations and spaces for over three decades. Reviewing the papers presented at the Summit, this essay raises some criticisms about perceived gaps in the discussions which also reflect gaps in scholarly work, as well as in some of the ongoing practices, including asking some questions about inclusion of actors, analysis, and narratives not available in English and/or presenting the work of non-Christian resources. The essay ends with some recommendations for working on the religion-and-development nexus going forward.

Keywords:

• Religion
• violent extremism
• race
• colonialism
• human rights
• gender
• faith-based organization

Acknowledgments

Publication of this response essay as part of a special open-access issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs was made possible by the Templeton Religion Trust.

Notes

1 https://www.usaid.gov/faith-and-opportunity-initiatives/2020-evidence-summit-strategic-religious-engagement.

2 https://www.rfp.org/.

3 See especially the criticisms of the colonial lens in Paton (2015). See also Romero (2001), Sen (1999), Williams (1995), Said (1978).

4 https://www.giz.de/en/workingwithgiz/41352.html.

5 Including launching an international Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) in 2015 which is only recently expanding to include a wider non-Christian FBO representation.

6 https://www.usaid.gov/countering-violent-extremism.

7 https://www.ipsnews.net/2016/08/the-counter-narrative-to-terror-and-violence-is-already-among-us/.

8 https://journey-to-extremism.undp.org/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Azza Karam

Azza Karam serves as the Secretary General of Religions for Peace, the world’s oldest and largest multi-religious and global movement of religious leaders, interfaith youth and women’s networks, which was established in 1970, with over 90 national and regional Interreligious Councils. She is also a Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with several books and articles published and translated in several languages.