A Conversation with Religions for Peace and Mercy Niwe, Global Faith Engagement Lead at the World Bank Group

1. How would you describe the work you/your office does?

The World Bank Group’s Global Faith Engagement Team serves as the Bank’s trusted platform that fosters collaboration and partnerships with FBOs to advance shared development priorities. The Bank has sustained engagement with Faith Based Organizations (FBOs), since 2000, in an effort to foster greater operational collaboration and partnerships.

Our current engagement is organized around four mutually reinforcing objectives: 1) Advocacy: strengthen strategic dialogue and outreach with current and new partners; 2) Relationship-Building: strengthen the World Bank Group’s relations with faith-based organizations to work effectively across sectors; 3) Evidence-Building: contribute to a more rigorous evidence base around the role and impact of faith in development; and 4) Operations: foster operational partnership and collaboration between the Bank and faith-based organizations.

2. How does that fit in with, or overlap with religion, or religious actors? How and why do you partner with faith based civil society actors?

The Bank views faith actors as key stakeholders that are uniquely positioned to engage local communities, strengthen trust and accountability, and facilitate social contract between citizens and their governments.
Faith actors are essential in advancing development goals and usually at the frontlines in combatting extreme poverty, protecting the vulnerable, delivering essential services and alleviating suffering. Moreover, low- and middle-income countries across the world are becoming more religious, not less. For over 80% of the world’s population, religion significantly shapes their world view, values and behavior.

The Bank is committed to strengthening its engagement with religious leaders and faith-based organizations. We do so through engaging with individual stakeholders and through strategic platforms, including the United Nations Task Force on Religion and Development, the Moral Imperative to End Extreme Poverty, and the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD).

3. Do you see any specific value to partnering with faith-based actors in times of COVID-19? Please share a concrete example of something you are doing/ planning pertaining to COVID-19?

Faith-based organizations and religious institutions are uniquely positioned to engage local communities and governments and make effective partners in responding and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Religious leaders played a critical role in flattening the curve and we view them as key partners in the next phase of our response.
As we move to our next phase of responding to the current social and economic impacts of the pandemic, we will need all hands-on deck to support vulnerable populations that are particularly facing compounded issues such as food insecurity, loss of livelihoods, limited resources, and disruptions in health services and education
We believe there is a significant opportunity for collaboration with Faith Based Organizations in the realization of goals related to the Human Capital Project and mitigation of social impact of COVID-19. The Bank is prepared to deploy up to $160B over the next 15 months and are working to support our client country needs, prioritizing the poorest and those with high risk and low capacity.

Although the Bank continues to fund through governments and there is not direct funding available for faith-based organizations at this time, we have been collecting information from these actors on their response efforts to identify potential opportunities to engage, particularly at the country level. Our office is tracking and monitoring the situation carefully and facilitating connections between faith-based actors and the Bank as engagement opportunities arise. For example, through these efforts, our team supported World Hope International (an FBO), in a bid for IFC funding to support soap making among adolescent girls in Sierra Leone, a livelihood project that would contribute to building a stronger human capital post COVID-19. We all need to work together to strengthen cooperation during this pandemic.

4. What do you find most inspiring (or most frustrating) about your work in religious communities and with religious actors?

Finally, we would like to offer you to say a few words in your own conclusion about either your work or the current situation (dream, envision, decry, criticize, advise, whatever you want).
I am driven by a strong conviction that partnerships are critical to advance the goal of ending extreme poverty. Faith-based actors as key stakeholders have critical roles to play in helping hundreds of millions of people lift themselves out of poverty. By fostering partnerships with religious actors, we can do more than simply envision a world free of extreme poverty; we can make it a reality.

For further information on the World Bank Group’s Engagement with Faith-based and Religious Organizations see:

In 2014, the World Bank Group revitalized its engagement with faith-based and religious organizations based on a recognition that they are often doing the essential work on the frontlines of combatting extreme poverty, protecting the vulnerable, delivering essential services and alleviating suffering. Read a background on the Bank’s Partnerships with Faith-Based and Religious Organizations here.

In 2015, the World Bank Group convened a group of more than 30 diverse faith actors around shared goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. Read the full statement entitled Ending Extreme Poverty: A Moral and Spiritual Imperative here. Watch as some of those leaders join together to share their views during the World Bank Group/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, DC here.

Further Resources:
Partnerships with Faith-Based and Religious Organizations
Global Religious Faith-Based Organization Leaders Issue Call Commitment End Extreme Poverty 2030
Ending Extreme Poverty: A Moral and Spiritual Imperative
World Bank Group/ IMF Spring Meeting in Washington, DC
Two Possible Futures: Faith Action to End Aids