Faith actors integral to social fabric & resilience in fragile contexts

ACT EU policy officer Ruth Watson against a leafy background
By Ruth Watson
27 January 2025

The role of faith actors in a context of aid cuts to fragile contexts

With soaring numbers of people living in fragile contexts the need for integrated responses to complex needs has never been greater. In her Hearing with MEPs, the new European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Hadja Lahbib, underscored the EU’s commitment to implementation of more joined up humanitarian, development and peacebuilding programming.

Yet broken political relations and high insecurity, coupled with the drive to slash aid budgets, is leaving EU and Member State decision makers with a conundrum. On the one hand, they have drastically scaled down or withdrawn development cooperation from both politically estranged and fragile contexts. At the same time, EU leaders in their recent Council Conclusions emphasise the collective challenges we face of spiralling fragility and conflict left unaddressed.

The vacuum of international support presents a severe challenge, not only to international aid agencies but to the local actors providing long run support to communities affected by crises. Among those, local faith actors have a unique role in sustaining communities faced with humanitarian and development challenges, and in holding together social cohesion.

Local faith-based actors address EU decision makers on sustaining engagement

To address this disconnect, ACT Alliance EU co-organised a space for direct dialogue between EU and local faith actor (LFA) representatives. Together with Caritas Europa, EU-CORD and Islamic Relief Worldwide, we aimed to emphasise maintained engagement with the approaches and response of LFAs to complex crises.

See a full read out of the event.

Credibility: brokers of trust

Presenters forcefully conveyed the importance of long-term presence alongside communities. The Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Ayacucho, VAPA, highlighted the trust built over 91 years of accompanying indigenous communities. The long-term support to human rights defence, participation and social cohesion provided an important foundation to more recent response to the humanitarian crises affecting the country.

Similarly, Yilikal Shiferaw Messelu of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC-DICAC) stated that the 60-year work of the organisation in addressing protracted crises provides a strong basis for mobilisation. The trust built among communities has enabled the organisation to mobilise response effectively to conflict outbreaks, food insecurity and climate shocks of recent years. Where international aid actors struggle to gain humanitarian access in politically strained moments, this basis of trust is paramount for continued support to affected communities.

Cohesion: a central part of the social fabric

Equally, stemming from this long-term embeddedness, the essential work of faith actors in promoting social cohesion was prominent throughout the roundtable.

The context of recurring insecurity requires our development and humanitarian programmes to be informed by social cohesion and peacebuilding considerations. Simon Gnimonou, Caritas Burkina Faso

And as Wisal Muhammad – Islamic Relief Pakistan’s Programme Coordinator – reflected, “Trust is hard to build, but easily lost”. The examples shared demonstrated the astute literacy of their organisations in understanding with the interplay of religious and cultural dynamics with socio-economic and political challenges. Through this integrated analysis, the organisations engage in peacebuilding and promote dialogue.

In conservative areas or those where ethnic and/or religious tensions contribute to outbreaks of conflict, Mr Muhammad emphasised the importance of shared faith and cultural values in enabling response to both development and peacebuilding challenges. With this entry point, IR Pakistan have been able to leverage deep experience in supporting women and youth participation and livelihoods by garnering support for participation of both groups in dispute resolution mechanisms.

Read more on the comprehensive methodology of IR Pakistan, Caritas Burkina Faso and ACT Alliance EU members

Cooperation

Finally, EU representatives recognised the interfaith and inter-community cooperation demonstrated through the dialogue and publication case studies. That cooperation provides the basis for principled humanitarian and development action despite the challenges faced in fragile contexts.

The multiple levels of cooperation enable organisations such as Caritas in Burkina Faso to integrate social cohesion both into intra-community engagements as well as to shape national risk mitigation and social cohesion plans.

Challenges to cooperation at different levels of course nonetheless remain. International funding cuts and sluggish progress toward Grand Bargain undermine the long-term support required to secure development and peace gains won. The security and ongoing effective work of local actors requires renewed cooperation.

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