Religion and Development: Hope from Sri Lanka

Despite the historical relationship between religion and development and the plethora of faith-based organizations in relief work and development, the field of international development has rarely incorporated religion into its research or its practice. As Carole Rakodi, director of the Religion and Development said to me, 'we are where feminism was 20 years ago. We still don't have a cohesive theoretical framework for approaching these topics.' At a recent conference at the University of Birmingham, topics ranged from the difference between faith based organizations and secular organizations (it often depends on context, but in crisis situations faith-based organizations are particularly good at delivering aid) to the role of religion in both promoting and healing violence to the extent to which secular organizations can themselves be 'religious' in nature. Unsurprisingly, MA students interested in this branch of social sciences were drawn by the opportunity for their research to make an impact.

One of the many exciting reports from the field was of the partnership between Muslim Aid (a UK-based organisation) and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), based in the US. Forged in the heat of the Sri Lankan conflict of 2006 that lead to over 57,000 refugees fleeing the primarily Muslim town of Muttur, this unusual relationship emerged from mutual need - both organizations have various human and practical resources the other can benefit from. They supported the assistance of refugees and later the return of refugees to their original homes. Their partnership also sprung from a desire to walk the talk of interfaith harmony. It is not uncommon, now, for Muslim Aid workers (with their appropriate t-shirts) to climb out of a UMCOR vehicle or vice versa, often to the shock of local religious and civic leaders. Their ease in working together amidst religious and ethnic conflicts have proved an unexpected grace comforting many refugees who despair of peaceful relationships between these two too-frequently seemingly oppositional faiths. Certainly, any kind of sustainable development will, at some point, require working with religious groups, and finding ways for faith and faith-based-organizations to be instruments of peace.