Aid Effectiveness and Faith-Inspired Organizations

Abstract

Poor coordination of development assistance is a lively issue on global agendas today. Faith-inspired organizations (FIOs) are part of the broader challenge, with the distinctive feature that they frequently elude or are excluded from official coordination efforts. This brief draws on a series of Berkley Center and World Faiths Development Dialogue reviews, undertaken between 2007 and 2012, of regional and sector-specific development work by faith-inspired organizations. Throughout, coordination emerged as a problem and challenge. The central messages are that poor coordination of faith inspired work looms large as a barrier to development effectiveness, fueled both by weak information systems and negative preconceptions about faith and secular actors respectively. Successful partnership models can enhance development effectiveness in important ways. Solutions lie in better information, defining clearly shared goals and recognizing differences, and more inclusive approaches and dialogue.