Faith is central in women’s and men’s lives across the world.It influences their life, identity, and behaviour in the following ways:
- Faith provides people with values which shape how they see themselves as men and women, their social and intimate relationships, and the allocation of power and resources.
- Faith-based organizations are repertoires of spiritual sustenance and social networks. They play a crucial role in supporting women’s daily survival strategies, whether in terms of surviving material hardship or developing the inner spiritual strength to cope with emotionally difficult circumstances.[1]
- Psychosocial practices are embedded deeply in the practice of faith communities and can provide support to women and girls: rituals and rites define passages through phases of life, and communities united by belief systems offer mutual support to one another.[2]
- In many countries, faith-based organizations provide essential public services, such as health services and education. For example, 30% to 70% of the African health infrastructure is owned by faith-based organizations.[3] Faith-based organizations are specialized in providing access to public services for poor, rural, or marginalized communities. They maintain services during crises and insecurity.
To help clarify the actual situation on topics in the ground, Faith to Action Network commissioned writing of theological and practice papers in six topics. The theological papers were written by scholars from two Faith to Action Network founding members – Al-Azhar University and Muhammadiyah. Practice papers were written by diverse implementers of interventions focused on the topics to write about their experiences (practice papers). All papers went through a thorough review process. After the review, six virtual dialogues were held (one for each topic) spaced within a period of one year. During virtual dialogues, participants gave inputs.
This conference is a platform to further disseminate the papers, allow sharing and learning of experiences and launch the publication with the papers.
Faith to Action Network is grateful to IICPSR-Al-Azhar University, Muhammadiyah, Aisyiyah, Universitas Aisyiyah Yogyakarta (UNISA) for supporting the planning of the conference. We recognize the support extended to the conference through The Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) and Young Women for Awareness, Agency, Accountability and Advocacy (YW4A).
[1] Tadros Mariz (September 2010). “Faith-Based Organizations and Service Delivery. Some Gender Conundrums”
[2] Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al (2013). Local faith communities and the promotion of resilience in humanitarian situations
[3] WHO (2007). Faith-based organizations play a major role in HIV/AIDS care and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2007/np05/en/index.html