Dealing with Proselytism in Development Cooperation

The cooperation between secular donor organisations (SDOs) and faith-based organisations (FBOs) in development is growing but proselytism continues to be one of its major stumbling blocks. The first of the SDGs is “end poverty in all its forms everywhere.” In line with that, SDOs such as the World Bank, UN, regional development banks, state institutions, and civil society organisations, consider it as part of their mission to eliminate extreme poverty. Similarly, poverty alleviation is a fundamental goal of the mission of FBOs. Nonetheless, until a few years ago, FBOs did not actively share in the development agenda of SDOs. Moreover, there was hardly any meaningful research on the role of FBOs in development. Proselytism is one of the reasons why FBOs were not welcomed into development cooperation. Though SDOs have taken some steps against proselytism, and now welcome FBOs into development cooperation based on some conditions, proselytism remains a bottleneck, undermining the effectiveness of their cooperation. Hence, there is the need to further the discussion on how to better deal with this bottleneck. In that regard, this article raises three key issues for reflection. These are: how FBOs understand and handle proselytism, how SDOs understand and handle proselytism, and an evaluation of the distinguishable approaches. The article concludes by suggesting that, rather than unilateral legislations, pursuing a nuanced, honest and all-inclusive dialogue between concerned parties - from a rights-based and pluralistic perspective - appears more helpful in dealing with the problem.

Environmental ethics · Faith · Liturgy · Sociology · Theology · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies