Giving Religion a Place in Development Cooperation: The Perspective of Belgian NGOs

Abstract

Since the early 2000s an increasing number of publications has led to the emergence of a new research field: religion and development. Much of the literature focuses on defining and classifying faith-based organizations, and attributes distinctive characteristics and comparative advantages to religious actors in contrast to their secular counterparts. In line with more empirically oriented research, this article examines how eight Belgian NGOs perceive the importance of incorporating religion in their own development practice. The NGOs’ narratives highlight a number of benefits and drawbacks related to their own religious profile and/or taking into account religious aspects of the context in which they work. While these narratives generally correspond with benefits and risks mentioned in the literature, their ground-level detail adds nuance and questions the validity of a clear-cut dichotomy between faith-based and secular NGOs, and the instrumentalizing language of comparative advantages. To achieve insight into the various, complex and specific ways in which religion is present in development, a deeply empirical, contextualized approach is needed.

Keywords:

• religion
• development
• development cooperation
• faith-based organization
• NGO
• civil actors

AUTHORS

Ignace Pollet is a sociologist specialized in the organizational analysis of development partnerships. He works at HIVA KU Leuven (Research Institute for Work and Society). In the past he contributed to studies on cooperativism in Africa, meta-evaluations of ILO programmes on employment and social economy, and the intercultural aspects of North–South collaboration.

Benjamin Steegen is a PhD candidate at the history department of KU Leuven. His research focuses on tensions between discourse, practice and representation in development cooperation, by means of the case study of Belgian missionaries doing development work in postcolonial India.

Idesbald Goddeeris is a professor of history at KU Leuven, where he teaches, inter alia, courses on colonial and postcolonial history. His research focuses on social movements, missionaries, and postcolonial memories in the post-war era.

Notes

1 We are grateful to Katrijn Declerck and Jan Decoene (Fracarita Belgium), Filip Lammens (Via Don Bosco), Cecil Van Maelsaeke (Tearfund Belgium), Stijn Raes (SOS Kinderdorpen), Wim De Ceuckelaire (Viva Salud/G3W), Gerard Verhelst (DISOP), Brigitte Herremans (Broederlijk Delen) and Ahmed Bouzianne (Karama Solidarity). We also thank Arnout Justaert and Johan Cottenie (NGO Federatie), Dick Houtman (Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven), and Kim Christiaens (KADOC, KU Leuven).

2 In Latin American social movements, a mística is a collective ritual expressing the goal and the determination of a collective action, such as the occupation of unattended farmlands by Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in the Brazilian interior. Its roots lie in Christian mysticism and liberation theology (Issa, 2008; Hammond, 2014).

3 A current wave of charismatic protestant churches in the DRC.