Co-Producing with FBOs: lessons from state–madrasa engagement in the Middle East and South Asia

Abstract

Forging partnerships for development is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. While faith-based organisations (fbos) are receiving growing attention within development policy as important non-state service providers, they are assumed to be less conducive to forging partnerships with governments or development organisations than secular ngos due to their allegiance to specific religious beliefs. Analysing the dynamic of engagement between the state and madrasas (the most prominent fbo in the Muslim world) in six countries across two geographical regions—the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Turkey), and South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh)— the paper counters the assumption that fbos are less likely to enter into negotiations, demonstrate flexibility, and engage in the strategic bargaining often involved in forging such partnerships. Like ngos, fbos respond to socio-political and economic incentives and enter into a variety of relationships with the state, ranging from co-operation to conflict. The defining feature in building a cooperative relationship is the level of trust between the negotiators on the two sides.

Notes

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3 Edwards & Hulme, Non-Governmental Organisations.

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7 G Clarke, ‘Agents of transformation? Donors, faith-based organizations and international development’, Third World Quarterly, 28(1), 2007, pp 77–96.

8 For a good review of the current literature on the dynamics of relationships between government agencies and the non-state providers, see K Teamey & C McLoughin, ‘Understanding the dynamics of relationships between government agencies and non-state providers of basic education: key issues emerging from the literature’, esrc/ngo Working Paper Series 30, London: lse, 2008.

9 E Ostrom, ‘Crossing the great divide: coproduction, synergy, and development’, World Development, 24(6), 1996, p 1073.

10 Joshi & Moore, ‘Institutionalised co-production’.

11 Teamey & McLoughin, ‘Understanding the dynamics of relationships between government agencies and non-state providers of basic education’.

12 M Bano with P Nair, ‘Faith based organizations in South Asia’, dfid Religions and Development Research Consortium, Working Paper 12, University of Birmingham, 2007.

13 G Clarke, ‘Faith matters: faith-based organizations, civil society and international development’, Journal of International Development, 18, 2006, pp 835–481; and Clarke et al, Development, Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations.

14 Clarke et al, Development, Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations.

15 Ibid.

16 H Anheier, M Glasius & M Kaldor (eds), Global Civil Society 2004/2005, London: Sage, 2004, p 45.

17 Clarke, ‘Faith matters’; and Clarke, ‘Agents of transformation?’.

18 A 2008 survey of the 20 largest voluntary welfare organisations in Pakistan shows that in 80 per cent of the organisations surveyed, the initiators were religiously inspired but they did not explicitly define themselves as faith-based, nor were they viewed as such by the public.

19 JC Green & AL Sherman, Fruitful Collaborations: A Survey of Government Funded Faith-Based Programs in 15 States, VA: Hudson Institute, 2002.

20 CM Blanchard, Islamic Religious Schools, Madrasas: Background, crs Report for Congress, Order Code: RS21654, 2005.

21 M Bano, ‘Beyond politics: reality of a Deobandi madrasah in Pakistan’, Journal of Islamic Studies, 18(1), 2007, 43–68, and M Bano, ‘Contesting ideologies and struggle for authority: state–madrasa relationship in Pakistan’, dfid Religions and Development Research Consortium, Working Paper 14, University of Birmingham, 2007.

22 MBano, ‘Engaged yet disengaged: Islamic schools and state in Kano’, dfid Religions and Development Research Consortium, Working Paper 29, University of Birmingham, 2008.

23 MN Asadullah & N Chaudhury, ‘Holy alliances: public subsidies, Islamic high schools, and female schooling in Bangladesh’, in M Tembon & L Fort (eds), Girls' Education in the 21st Century: Gender Equality, Empowerment and Growth, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008.

24 RW Hefner & MQ Zaman (eds), Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

25 Ibid.

26 F Robinson, Islam, South Asia, and the West, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007.

27 Ibid.

28 Hefner & Zaman, Schooling Islam.

29 FA Nizami, ‘Madrasahs, scholars, saints: Muslim response to the British presence in Delhi and Upper Doab 1803–1857’, unpublished DPhil dissertation, University of Oxford, 1983.

30 Hefner & Zaman, 2007.

31 B Agai, ‘Islam and education in secular Turkey: state policies and the emergence of Fethullah Gulen Group’, in Hefner & Zaman, Schooling Islam.

32 BD Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.

33 Agai, ‘Islam and education in secular Turkey’.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 M Zeghal, ‘The “recentering” of religious knowledge and discourse: the case of Al-Azhar in twentieth-century Egypt’, in Hefner & Zaman, Schooling Islam.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid.

40 See http://www.abunour.net/?lan=4; and http://www.alfatihonline.com/en/main.htm.

41 Interviews with officials in Al-Fatah Institute and Abu-Noor Foundation, Damascus, 2010.

42 S Ahmed, ‘Testimony of Samina Ahmed to US Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Combating terrorism through education— the Near East & South Asian experience’, Washington, DC, 19 April 2005, at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3407&l=1.

43 Bano, ‘Contesting ideologies'.

44 A Crockcroftet al, ‘Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: a national household survey of enrolment and reasons for religious schools', International Journal of Educational Development, 2009, and T Andrabi, J Das, AJ Khawaja & T Zajonc, ‘Religious school enrolment in Pakistan: a look at the data’, World Bank Working Paper Series 3521, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005.

45 P Nair, ‘The state and madrasas in India’, dfid Religions and Development Research Consortium, Working Paper 15, University of Birmingham. 2009.

46 R Sachar, Prime Minister's High Level Committee, on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, Delhi: Government of India, 2006.

47 M Bano, ‘Allowing for diversity: state–madrasa relationship in Bangladesh’, dfid Religions and Development Research Consortium, Working Paper 13, University of Birmingham, 2008.

48 Ibid.

49 Nair, ‘The state and madrasas in India’.

50 Bano, ‘Allowing for diversity’.

51 Ibid.

52 Bano, ‘Contesting ideologies and struggle for authority’.

53 Bano, ‘Allowing for diversity’.

54 Nair, ‘The state and madrasas in India’.

55 Ibid.

56 Teamey & McLoughin, ‘Understanding the dynamics of relationships between government agencies and non-state providers of basic education’.

57 Nair, ‘The state and madrasas in India’.

58 Evans, ‘Government action, social capital, and development’.

59 J Brinkerhoff, ‘Government–nonprofit partnership: a defining framework’, Public Administration and Development, 22(1), 2002, pp 19–30; K Welle, ‘Contending discourses on “partnership”: a comparative analysis of rural water and sanitation sector in Gana’, Occasional Paper, Water Issues Study Group, soas , University of London, 2001; and S Lister, ‘Power in partnership? An analysis of an ngo's relationship with its partners', Journal of International Development, 12, 2000, pp 227–239.

60 Agai, ‘Islam and education in secular Turkey’.

61 Bano, ‘Allowing for diversity’; and Nair, ‘The state and madrasas in India’.

62 Zeghal, ‘The “recentering” of religious knowledge and discourse’.

63 Bano, ‘Allowing for diversity’.