Dialogue Between the Worlds of Faith and Development For centuries, world faiths and individuals inspired by their faith have played many roles in social change and social welfare. Faith leaders and institutions have been active in areas from service delivery and advocacy, to funding and the larger debates over visions of development. They oversee sizable and growing systems of social services, mobilize vast constituencies, and are often vital stakeholders in areas from health and education to good governance. For most of their history, mainstream development agencies largely operate in parallel to the world of faith-inspired development. In the late 1990s, the World Bank, along with a diversity of other development actors, began to explore the relationship between development and faith. Founded in 2000, the Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics is the Bank’s focal point on issues of development and faith with our work centering in three areas: • Cultivating and maintaining relationships with faith leaders, institutions, and communities active in global development that both affect Bank policies and that are often key constituents of development financing; • Supporting analytical work on the varied roles and contributions of the faith sector in key areas relevant to development practice, and; • Promoting knowledge and learning for practitioners to spark broader understanding of development processes, to lead to more informed policy dialogue and better outcomes across many sectors. The Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics has hosted global summits of development and faith leaders, contributed to several World Development Reports, and generated analytical work exploring the nexus of faith and development. |
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