Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have been at the forefront of service delivery and social movements. They have made vital contributions in the development of third world countries, particularly in health care, education and poverty reduction (De Kadt 2009:781). The faith-based development approach is becoming increasingly popular as the secular materialistic approach is failing to achieve the anticipated change in health and development. FBOs derive inspiration from their value-based programmes and faith-based school of thought (Clarke 2008:6). Faith-based values of participation, compassion, love, integrity, generosity, justice and stewardship provide an essential driving force for development. Most recently, the faith-based provision is found to be more efficient than state-run services (James 2009a:3). Donors are currently seeking greater engagement with FBOs because of their value added development process with the focus on reaching to the needy and building their capacity. Faith-based donors seek to influence national and international policy. Their focus lies on the process of development that includes empowerment of the people they serve.
FBOs focus on holistic development. This is considered as an effective approach to make sustainable changes in the lives of people and communities. It helps to address the needs and problems of people from different dimensions including material, social and spiritual. FBOs have gained a greater recognition in delivering health and development programmes over secular agencies. The growing prominence of FBOs indicates the enormous role they play in delivering health care services (James 2009b:7). However, like many local secular development agencies, FBOs often lack visionary leaders with strategic thinking, and managers with business mind. They lack skilled personnel, particularly in managing health institutions, developing their business plans, engaging stakeholders and putting mechanisms in place that promote the sound financial, human resources and monitoring and evaluation systems. It requires changes in the behaviour and attitudes of the personnel to develop an organisation which is value-based and delivers services on the strong foundation of faith.
Rick James and Anna Aiken have recently written papers on faith-based organisations in INTRAC publications. Their articles may be useful to articulate the issues to be considered in managing community-based health care programmes, particularly those that are church-based. Rick James’s paper on ‘handle with care: engaging with faith-based organisations in development’ (http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/625/Handle-With-Care-Engaging-with-faith-based-organisations.pdf) mainly articulates the value added of faith and practical challenges for engaging with FBOs. According to him, FBOs offer the potential benefits to add value to development in a number of ways. They can:
- Provide efficient development services
- Reach the poorest at the grassroots
- Have a long-term and sustainable presence
- Be legitimate and valued by the poorest
- Provide an alternative to a secular theory of development
- Elicit motivated and voluntary service
- Encourage civil society advocacy
Rick James suggests the number of issues as a way forward that include: greater donor engagement with FBOs for long-term development; greater attention to faith and to understanding of FBOs; clearly defined faith identity and coherence between FBOs’ theology of development and their organisational behaviour and programmes; and engaging with more FBOs.
Further Rick James has also written an article on ‘faith-based organisational development with churches in Malawi
- Understanding the FBO in the context of the religious institution
- Including the wider religious institution within FBO organisational development process
- Addressing common church organisational development issues
- Exploring the meaning and implications of its faith identity
- Integrating the organisational development process with the faith of the client
- Using your own faith in organisational development
Finally, he argues that church-based organisations exhibit specific features that include: the formal and informal relationship between the FBO and the religious institution; the advantage of being motivated by their faith; the extra dimension of spiritual authority ascribed to religious leaders means they have greater power to drive or block change; but also staffing dilemmas in recruitment, outside hours behaviour, remuneration packages; and the tendency to have weak financial and human resource management systems.
Similarly, Anna Aiken’s article on ‘assessing the impact of faith: a methodological contribution’ (http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/690/Praxis-Note-55-Assessing-the-Impact-of-Faith.pdf) is found to be useful to study the key issues in assessing the impact of faith in a faith-based organisation. She undertook a case study research of an FBO-run child development programme funded by an international sponsorship scheme in Uganda
- Change in the community
- Theology and development goals
- Selection of beneficiaries
- Programme design and implementation
- Staff motivation
- Faith in internal practice
The findings of the study suggest that staff play a crucial role in maintaining and developing the faith identity of the FBO. Personal faith of employees is considered important in shaping faith-based organisational system and culture. Faith helps the staff in developing strong ties with one another, ensuring that the social capital of the organisation is high, which is quite crucial for engaging stakeholders. Finally, the study suggests that the faith-based identity of the organisation is vital to gaining the trust and cooperation of the target community and for programme success.
References:
· Clarke, G. (2008). Faith-based organisations and international development. In Clarke and Jennings Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.
· De Kadt, E. (2009). Should God play a role in development? Journal of International Development. 21:781-786.
· James, R. (2009a). Handle with care: Engaging with faith-based organisations in development. URL: http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/625/Handle-With-Care-Engaging-with-faith-based-organisations.pdf
· James, R. (2009b). What is distinctive about FBOs? How European FBOs define and operationalise their faith. INTRAC Praxis Paper 22. URL: http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/482/Praxis-Paper-22-What-is-Distinctive-About-FBOs.pdf
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