Tipped from SSRC’s The Immanent Frame blog:

At African Arguments, Knox Chitiyo and Lucy Mbugua inves­ti­gate the poten­tial for faith-based groups to con­tribute to the achieve­ment of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa:

Could faith groups be a pow­er­ful dri­ver in achiev­ing the Millenium Development Goals (MDG’s) in Africa? Recent think­ing and ini­tia­tives in Africa and within the wider African dias­pora, cer­tainly seem to indi­cate that faith groups can, and should, be seen as part­ners and/or dri­vers in push­ing towards the 2015 MDG goals. The MDGS are par­tic­u­larly focused on the erad­i­ca­tion of extreme poverty and hunger; achiev­ing uni­ver­sal pri­mary edu­ca­tion, pro­mot­ing gen­der equal­ity, com­bat­ing deadly dis­eases and improv­ing mater­nal health. Continental and dias­pora African faith groups, with their diverse con­stituen­cies and access to infor­ma­tion and power net­works, are uniquely placed to assist in ful­fill­ing Africa and the African diaspora’s vision of devel­op­ment in the 21^st Century.

The idea of faith groups as cat­a­lysts for con­struc­tive change is not a new one; but it is an idea whose time may have come. Within Africa, there has been increas­ing debate and real-world ini­tia­tives on engag­ing the faith com­mu­ni­ties regard­ing a trans­for­ma­tive devel­op­ment agenda. For exam­ple, the Inter-faith Action for Peace in Africa [IFAPA] has, since 2002, been a focal point for a multi-faith dia­logue which also engages key polit­i­cal and busi­ness deci­sion mak­ers on vital issues such as water secu­rity and con­flict res­o­lu­tion – there have been a num­ber of IFAPA sum­mits which have also included national and regional deci­sion – mak­ers. Faith groups also play a major role in the African dias­pora; the July 2011 ‘Communities of Faith; Agents of Change’ con­fer­ence (hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Africa) was both an affir­ma­tion of the impor­tance of African dias­pora multi faith com­mu­ni­ties, and also a clar­ion call for bet­ter co-ordinated action for con­struc­tive change by the faith groups and pol­icy makers.

Religion is a potent force in Africa and across the globe. Faith groups tra­di­tion­ally con­fine their min­is­tra­tions to social inter­ven­tions, but there is poten­tial for reli­gion and faith com­mu­ni­ties to play a deeper trans­for­ma­tive role in upgrad­ing or chang­ing inef­fec­tive social/value sys­tems; enhanc­ing local best prac­tice and capacity-building for devel­op­ment. Traditional reli­gious empha­sis on spir­i­tu­al­ity and rigour is impor­tant, but it needs to be allied to the real-world chal­lenge of uplift­ing mil­lions from poverty.