Is Religion the New Colonial Frontier in International Development?

Azza Karam is Senior Advisor, UNFPA and Coordinator, UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and DevelopmentBy Azza KaramUNITED NATIONS, Jul 4 2017 (IPS)A decade ago, it was difficult to get Western policy makers in governments to be interested in the role of religious organizations in human development. The secular mind-set was such that religion was perceived, at best, as a private affair. At worst, religion was deemed the cause of harmful social practices, an obstacle to the “sacred” nature of universal human rights, and/or the root cause of terrorism. In short, religion belonged in the ‘basket of deplorables’. Azza Karam, Senior Advisor, UNFPA and Coordinator, UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and DevelopmentYet, starting in the mid-1990s with then President of the World Bank, James Wolfenson, and celebrated in 2000 under then UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan when the Millenium Development Goals were agreed to, a number of religiously-inspired initiatives coalesced, all trying to move ‘religion’ to international development’s ‘basket of desirables’.The arguments used to begin to generate positive interest in the role of religious NGOs in international multilateral fora were relatively straightforward. Today they are almost a cliche: religious institutions are the oldest social service providers known to human kind, and several basic health and educational institutions of today, are administered or influenced to some extent, by religious entities.So if we...

Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 4, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Azza Karam Tags: Development & Aid Eye on the IFIs Gender Global Global Governance Headlines Health Human Rights IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse North America Population Poverty & SDGs Religion Women's Health Source Type: news