Faith-Based Organizations in Development Discourses and Practice

Jens Koehrsen, Andreas Heuser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000734645
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Économie
• Subtopic: Économie du développement

Exploring faith-based organizations (FBOs) in current developmental discourses and practice, this book presents a selection of empirical in-depth case-studies of Christian FBOs and assesses the vital role credited to FBOs in current discourses on development.

Examining the engagement of FBOs with contemporary politics of development, the contributions stress the agency of FBOs in diverse contexts of development policy, both local and global. It is emphasised that FBOs constitute boundary agents and developmental entrepreneurs: they move between different discursive fields such as national and international development discourses, theological discourses, and their specific religious constituencies. By combining influxes from these different contexts, FBOs generate unique perspectives on development: they express alternative views on development and stress particular approaches anchored in their theological social ethics.

This book should be of interest to those researching FBOs and their interaction with international organizations, and to scholars working in the broader areas of religion and politics and politics and development.

1 Beyond established boundaries

FBOs as developmental entrepreneurs

Jens Koehrsen and Andreas Heuser

Current discourses in development studies signal an almost provoking “religious turn” in development policy. The high impact of religious agency in the context of global development work shines through in a programmatic statement, launched at the “Evidence Summit”, held in mid-2015 in Washington, DC. The timing of this multiparty conference, as well as the list of convenors and the range of participating organisations is revealing. High-profile representatives of the World Bank and important national development institutions, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the UK Department for International Development, convened with representatives of religious institutions and faith-based development organisations (FBOs) during the passage period that prepared for a new agenda of sustainable development coined by the United Nations (UN) as Agenda 2030. They jointly published a policy paper that combines the key-terms in recent UN development strategies, namely, poverty eradication and sustainability. This common policy statement on “Religion and Sustainable Development: Building Partnerships to End Extreme Poverty”, heralded the systematic inclusion of FBOs at large in development cooperation. The initial sentence in their “key findings and recommendations for action” states: “The question is no longer whether religion matters for development… . The question now is: how to systematically include the potentials of religious organizations for development, and according to what principles and criteria?” (Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities 2015, p. 3).

The statement climaxes the new role of religion and FBOs in developmental geopolitics. In broad terms it testifies a re-narration of ideas that remained mostly undisputed in development theory and practice thus far. Over and above, development discourse was shaped by modernisation theory with its implicit assumptions about the negative impact of religion for development. By contrast, the statement cited above emphasises religious agency in international governance of development. The former approaches, which marginalised religion and faith-based institutions as hindrance to development, seem to be replaced by positions supporting the transformative potentials of religion (cf. Heist and Cnaan 2016; Heuser and Koehrsen 2020; Mtata 2013). While FBOs were formerly linked to “tabooed” themes in development studies, they are now identified as decisive agents of development initiatives in what some observers have recently termed the “religious turn” in development cooperation (Garling 2013; cf. Jahnel 2015).

This volume engages with the vital role credited to FBOs in current discourses on development. FBOs are social organisations with a development focus, based on values intrinsic to a specific religion. They usually relate to generic religious traditions of charity and dignity that inspire their particular theological social ethics. Yet, far from identifying FBOs as salvific porters of social visionary and praxis, this volume sketches both potentials and limits of FBOs in actual fields of development. Although few FBOs can claim an entangled history with development politics on global levels, they emerged as potent actors in the field of multilateral development policy on a broader scale from the 1990s. Against the backdrop of FBOs’ increasing integration into international development circles, there is a need for empirically based, interdisciplinary research on these organisations (see also Carrette 2017; Carrette and Miall 2017). This volume provides an interdisciplinary analysis of FBOs in current development discourses.

The collection of case studies in this volume highlights the particularities of FBOs, their development concepts and activities in diverse geographical and political contexts. At the United Nations, depending on the survey, between well over half and up to three quarters of all FBOs have a Christian faith-background (cf. Beinlich and Braungart 2019; Berger 2003; Haynes 2013; Lehmann 2016, p. 35). This volume places a specific emphasis on Protestant FBOs. Forming a central strand of Christianity, Protestant FBOs represent the lion’s share of Christian FBOs and constitute some of the most powerful among them. The focus on Protestant FBOs reflects not just the enduring but also the intensified developmental significance of these organisations. The surge of Protestant FBOs is a trend line in the present arena of development politics. With protestant newcomers appearing in FBO sectors at an almost constant rate, this trend line mirrors both the ongoing diversification of Protestant churches on a global scale and their growing share in global Christianity. It also reflects the economic potential of many Protestant churches that have developed into more affluent social actors than ever before (Barnett and Gross Stein 2012). The volume thus echoes the heavy weight of Protestant FBOs on the global scale of development cooperation.

Nevertheless, Protestant FBOs are not a homogenous block of development organisations. Although sharing a “family resemblance” due to common origins in the Reformation and post-Reformation era (Graf 2006), they are highly diverse: Protestantism constitutes a heterogeneous universe of manifold Protestant traditions which are often classified into evangelical-conservative, mainline, and non-orthodox strands. These strands have evolved their own development discourses and FBOs, potentially leading to substantial differences in faith-based development. This volume undertakes in-depth case studies on a variety of Protestant FBOs. We explore FBOs anchored in mainline Protestantism, such as Mission 21 from Switzerland and development wings of the Anglican Church and the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda. These are balanced by case studies on FBOs representing strands of evangelical Protestantism, commonly perceived as conservative in socio-political terms, such as World Vision and Micah Challenge. Moreover, this volume also features a case study on non-orthodox Protestantism by exploring the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Guyana. As such, the sample illustrates the plurality of Protestant FBOs, thereby answering to the call “to work more consistently through the complexity of individual cases” (Jones and Petersen 2011, p. 1301). The case study approach provides surprising insights on differences and overlaps of their development approaches, as will be discussed in the following sections.

Studying the heterogeneous universe of Protestant FBOs, this volume reveals their ability to act as boundary agents: FBOs move between different discursive fields such as national and international development discourses, their specific religious constituencies, and theological discourses. By combining influxes from these different contexts, FBOs generate unique perspectives on development: anchored historically in a range of protestant traditions, they express alternative views on development. Thereby, FBOs have the capacity to become developmental entrepreneurs, shaping development discourses with their genuine concepts. The case study approach illustrates a comparative sighting of what may be termed (Protestant) theologies of development. In order to analyse heterogeneous types of FBOs, their development concepts and activities, this volume draws upon interdisciplinary research. It is the outcome of a research project in which scholars from anthropology, economics, political sciences/international relations, sociology, and theology have worked together for two years. The contributions have been produced in the context of the fellow programme “Religion and Development in the Global South” of the Centre for Religion, Economy and Politics between 2015 and 2017. The Centre is run by several Swiss universities, while this particular fellow research programme was located at the University of Basel’s Faculty of Theology. The Swiss University Conference, Swiss National Science Foundation, Foundation for Basic Research in Human Sciences, and the Voluntary Academic Society Basel (Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft Basel) have financially supported this undertaking.

The studies apply different methodologies such as narrative and ethnographic interviews, participant observations, archival and web research, and content analysis. In the context of the fellow programme, the contributors have taken the challenge to actively engage with other academic disciplines. The close exchange between the researchers from various disciplines in numerous meetings and feedback processes has contributed to the exploration of the institutional plurality and outreach of FBOs as well as to venturing into different discursive fields of development at local, national, and international levels. Such close interdisciplinary collaboration points to a productive way of studying FBOs and creating awareness for their manifold dimensions (e.g. theological, political, social, legal). The research collaboration focused on the internal (re)organisation of development discourses of FBOs and their search for appropriate alignments with developmental geopolitics. As a result, this volume characterises the selected Protestant FBOs as boundary organisations, navigating diverse discourses and settings.

This introductory chapter is structured as follows: the next section briefly outlines the emergence of FBOs on the international development scene, placing an emphasis on historical conjunctures that pushed FBOs into the universe of developmental geopolitics. Based on the results from this volume’s empirical case studies, the following section draws conclusions regarding the embeddedness of FBOs in different discursive fields and their potential to bridge these fields. The last two sections summarise the case studies and present avenues for future research.

FBOs and developmental geopolitics: historical developments

The breakthrough of FBOs in global arenas of development happened from the 1980s and particularly in the 1990s. Until then, FBOs were profiled in developmental arenas as part of the large sector of autonomous, non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This was the legacy of post – Second World War political taxation. Since its foundation FBOs were relating to the United Nations (Boehle 2010a, p. 278). However, their religious background – more precisely their Roman Catholic background (Lehmann 2016) – was not recognised as an identity marker. Rather, these FBOs were coined as “non-governmental organisations”. The term first appeared in the 1950s in resolutions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the major UN policy sections (Lehmann 2016). A quite unspecific referent in its original usage, “NGOs” referred to all kinds of intermediary organisations operating within the range of UN structures, including business enterprises (Stockmann 2016, p. 545). This did not change much until the 1990s. Like any other NGO, FBOs were located in civil society to represent a participatory model of social organisation mostly on the grassroots level. In the international architecture of development politics, NGOs gained importance gradually – and along with them, so did FBOs, albeit implicitly. Yet, they were catapulted into global governance systems particularly from the 1980s onwards. One causative factor of their emergence was the obvious incapability of state-organised development. This had led to the formation and relevance of civil society as the “third sector” between state governance and economic systems. A novel architecture supported a more strategic cooperation in global partnerships between states, multilateral organisations, and civil society (Korten 1990). This also created a “new opportunity structure” for religious actors, opening new avenues for their participation in international politics and development (Baumgart-Ochse 2019, p. 5). The recent discovery of NGOs was soon after categorised as the “NGOisation” of developmental geopolitics (Messner 1996). In this terrain of reconstruction, FBOs also became discernible as specific agents in development theory and praxis.

The growing awareness of FBOs in the tapestry of international development policy found momentum in two phases: the first phase that roughly stretches over the 1990s climaxed with the adoption of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000; the second phase relates to the transition period that led to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015.

The first phase saw a multisited effort to revisit the impact of “religion” in dynamics of social change and development. A paradigmatic shift in strategising development was taking shape. Previous policies were inclined to linear, material growth-based visions of development, and implicitly “religion” was either categorised as negligible or as a hindrance factor to development (Senghaas 1985; Menzel and Senghaas 1986). By consequence, in development circles, “little [was] known about the role of spirituality in the development process, and little or no guidance [was] given to development practitioners as to how to address spiritual issues, resulting in less effective and even damaging development efforts” (Beek 2000, p. 38; brackets by authors). The ignorance about the social transformative potentials of religion diminished through coincidental proceedings in developmental geopolitics.

The most remarkable process was a joint initiative by the World Bank – headed by its former president James D. Wolfensohn – and religious organisations – spearheaded by the then Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. It resulted in the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) from 1998. Between 1998 and 2005 a vivid consultation process paid new attention to religion in development scenarios. Numerous FBOs were pushing the thematic cluster of religion and development (Haynes 2013; Rees 2011), accompanied by the World Bank department on Development Dialogue on Value and Ethics – founded in 2000 – the Bretton-Woods institutions of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) together with major national and international development agencies, and alongside various global religious players such as the World Council of Churches (WCC). These fresh impulses coincided with the implementation of UN Millennium Development Goals. Drawn up over the course of the 1990s as a joint endeavour in global development governance, the MDG formulae potentially envisaged the incorporation of religiously motivated actors in development activities. By such a radical turn in the agenda of development policy, the MDGs sought, amongst ot...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• 1 Beyond established boundaries: FBOs as developmental entrepreneurs
• 2 From missionaries to ecumenical co-workers: a case study from Mission 21 in Kalimantan, Indonesia
• 3 Mobilising evangelicals for development advocacy: politics and theology in the Micah Challenge campaign for the Millennium Development Goals
• 4 World Vision and ‘Christian values’ at the United Nations
• 5 Giving and development: ethno-religious identities and ‘holistic development’ in Guyana
• 6 Contextualized development in post-genocide Rwanda: exploring the roles of Christian churches in development and reconciliation
• Index