Two decades have passed since the development sector’s “turn to religion.” Yet despite the increasing number of seminars and reports addressing the intersection between religion and global development, many practitioners still view engagement with religion as a “tricky” topic, resulting in a general aversion toward it.
Having worked in a secular Japanese government development body before joining a faith-based NGO, I am often struck by how much our government agency could have benefited from greater religious literacy among its workers. The inability to take religion’s role seriously in international development can lead to avoidance, mockery, or oversimplified explanations. This, in turn, means missing opportunities to fully explore the potential of what international cooperation can achieve.
With approximately 85% of the global population adhering to some form of religion, especially in lower-income areas, it is a given that religious beliefs, individuals, and institutions play important roles in international development work in many, if not all, settings.