Putting the “Strategic” into Strategic Religious Engagement

Abstract

In light of the lessons learned both from COVID-19 response and now over 20 years of research on religious engagement, this essay lays out the flaws in current religious engagement in humanitarian and development work. Religious engagement can be seen as unknown, unevidenced, and unacknowledged by development agencies. Now knowing more than ever about religious engagement, there are mistakes that can be avoided by understanding the previous religious engagements, challenging secular-religious dynamics, and purposefully using the evidence. Overall, the essay argues that current religious engagement is not strategic, but suggests how each of these flaws can be counteracted.

Keywords:

• religion
• faith
• development
• humanitarian
• strategy
• engagement

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

2 See the catalog here: https://jliflc.com/about/learning-hubs/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olivia Wilkinson

Olivia Wilkinson is the Director of Research for the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLI). In her research work for JLI she collaborates with partners from UN agencies to NGOs to universities. Dr. Wilkinson is a sociologist, working at the intersection of sociology of religion and humanitarian/development studies. Her publications include her monograph Secular and Religious Dynamics in Humanitarian Response (Routledge 2020) and the volume International Development and Local Faith Actors: Ideological and Cultural Encounters, co-edited with Kathryn Kraft (Routledge 2020).