Religious NGOs at the UN and the Millennium Development Goals: An introduction

Global Change, Peace and Security

Volumn 22, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 275-296

  Boehle, Josef ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Civil society; Development cooperation; Inter religious; MDGs; Post secular; Religious NGOs; United Nations

Indexed keywords

EID: 79956249470     PISSN: 14781158     EISSN: 14781166     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14781158.2010.510241     Document Type: Article

References (127)

1. 'Civil society' is a widely contested concept, even more so the idea of a 'global civil society' which seems to postulate that strong social relations, sustained by (transnational) voluntary, non-profit organisations, can exist beyond national boundaries around the world. The following definition of civil society by Douglass and Friedman can serve as a starting point for the debate: 'Civil society is that part of social life which lies beyond the immediate reach of the state and which... must exist for a democratic state to flower. It is the society of households, family networks, civic and religious organizations and communities that are bound to each other primarily by shared histories, collective memories and cultural norms of reciprocity': C. Douglas and J. Friedmann, Cities for Citizens: Planning and the Rise of Civil Society in a Global Age (Chichester: Wiley, 1998): 2. Expanding the concept of civil society from the national to the global level raises a multitude of questions. They can range from allegations that a cultural hegemony of Western concepts is being attempted, or that often idealistic, selective and simplifying accounts are being given when the realities of voluntary, non-profit organisations are described in global contexts.
2. On global civil society, see further: Robert O'Brien, 'Global Civil Society and Global Governance', in Global Governance. Coherence, Contestation and World Order, ed. Alice D. Ba and Matthew J. Hoffmann (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2005), 213-30.
3. Randall D. Germain and Michael Kenny, eds, The Idea of Global Civil Society. Politics and Ethics in a Globalizing Era (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2005).
4. David Herbert, Religion and Civil Society. Rethinking Public Religion in the Contemporary World (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003).
5. Gerard Clarke, 'Agents of Transformation? Donors, Faith-based Organisations and International Development', Third World Quarterly 28, no. 1 (2007): 77.
6. Gerard Clarke, 'Agents of Transformation? Donors, Faith-based Organisations and International Development', Third World Quarterly 28, no. 1 (2007): 77.
7. Gerard Clarke, 'Agents of Transformation? Donors, Faith-based Organisations and International Development', Third World Quarterly 28, no. 1 (2007): 80.
8. Mark Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993).
9. Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003).
10. José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1994).
11. José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1994)., 234.
12. Scott M. Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 26.
13. Examples can be found in my previous works: Josef Boehle, 'Inter-religious Co-operation in a Global Age' (PhD thesis, Department of Theology, University of Birmingham, 2001).
14. Josef Boehle, 'Inter-religious Cooperation and Global Change: From a Clash of Civilisations to a Dialogue of Civilisations', Pacifica Review: Peace, Security and Global Change 14, no. 3 (2002): 227-34.
15. Josef Boehle, 'Religions, Civil Society and the UN System', Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 17, no. 1 (2007): 20-30.
16. Blair stated in his opening remarks to the 'Faith And Globalization' seminar at Yale University (19 September 2008): 'I genuinely believe that the issue to do with faith and globalization, religious belief and global change, is the single most important and determining issue of the 21st century, which is a big claim to make.' (http:// faithandglobalization.yale.edu/session1). In 2008 he founded the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (http://www. tonyblairfaithfoundation.org).
17. S.N. Eisenstadt, 'The Resurgence of Religious Movements in Processes of Globalisation-Beyond End of History or Clash of Civilisations', International Journal on Multicultural Societies 2, no. 1 (2000): 9.
18. Jürgen Habermas, 'Religion in the Public Sphere', European Journal of Philosophy 14, no. 1 (2006): 4.
19. Jürgen Habermas, 'Notes on a Post-secular Society' (2008). English version online at http://www.signandsight.com/ features/1714.html
20. German original first published as: 'Die Dialektik der Säkularisierung', Blätter für Deutsche und Internationale Politik 4 (2008).
21. James A. Beckford, Social Theory and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 30-72.
22. Robert O'Brien, 'Global Civil Society and Global Governance', in Global Governance. Coherence, Contestation and World Order', ed. Alice D. Ba and Matthew J. Hoffmann (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2005), 213-30.
23. Thomas G. Weiss, Tatiana Carayannis, and Richard Jolly, 'The "Third" United Nations', Global Governance 15, no. 1 (2009): 123-42.
24. Boehle, 'Religions, Civil Society and the UN System', 21.
25. Julia Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations: An Exploratory Analysis', Voluntas 14, no. 1 (2003): 15.
26. Julia Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations: An Exploratory Analysis', Voluntas 14, no. 1 (2003): 17.
27. Julia Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations: An Exploratory Analysis', Voluntas 14, no. 1 (2003): 21.
28. Kerstin Martens, 'Mission Impossible? Defining Nongovernmental Organizations', Voluntas 13, no. 4 (2002): 271-85.
29. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 16.
30. United Nations, Cardoso Report of High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations, A/58/817 (2004).
31. United Nations, Cardoso Report of High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations, A/58/817 (2004)., 61-3.
32. Report of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Millennium Assembly, We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-first Century, A/54/2000 (March 27, 2000).
33. Report of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Millennium Assembly, We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-first Century, A/54/2000 (March 27, 2000), 8.
34. Kerstin Martens, NGOs and the United Nations. Institutionalization, Professionalization and Adaptation (New York: Palgrave, 2005).
35. Kerstin Martens, NGOs and the United Nations. Institutionalization, Professionalization and Adaptation (New York: Palgrave, 2005), 4.
36. Kerstin Martens, NGOs and the United Nations. Institutionalization, Professionalization and Adaptation (New York: Palgrave, 2005), 7.
37. Kerstin Martens, NGOs and the United Nations. Institutionalization, Professionalization and Adaptation (New York: Palgrave, 2005), 13-14.
38. Kerstin Martens, NGOs and the United Nations. Institutionalization, Professionalization and Adaptation (New York: Palgrave, 2005), 16.
39. Gerard Clarke, 'Faith Matters: Faith-Based Organisations, Civil Society and International Development', Journal of International Development 18, no. 6 (2006): 840.
40. John Green and Amy Sherman, Fruitful Collaborations: A Survey of Government Funded Faith-Based Programs (Washington, DC: Hudson Institute, 2002).
41. Gerard Clarke, 'Faith Matters: Development and the Complex World of Faith-Based Organisations' (paper presented at the annual conference of the Development Studies Association, Open University, Milton Keynes, September 7-9, 2005), 22.
42. Clarke summarises Green and Sherman's typology here as follows: 'Not Relevant: The organization's faith commitments are not revealed, or are not evident, in its work with clients, beneficiaries or partners.
43. Passive: The organization's faith commitments are revealed through the act of caring for clients or supporting beneficiaries rather than explicit mention of religious or spiritual matters.
44. Invitational: The organization's faith commitments are explicitly mentioned to clients, beneficiaries and partners and they are invited to inquire more fully about religious or spiritual matters outside of the programme.
45. Relational: The organization's faith commitments are explicitly mentioned to clients, beneficiaries and partners and staff seek to establish personal relationships that involve religious or spiritual matters outside of the programme.
46. Integrated: The organization's faith commitments are an explicit and critical part of its work with clients, beneficiaries and partners but staff respect the rights of clients etc. not to participate in the religious or spiritual aspects of a funded programme.
47. Mandatory: The organization's faith commitments are an explicit, critical and mandatory part of its work with clients, beneficiaries and partners who choose to participate in a programme or network.'
48. Gerard Clarke, 'Faith Matters: Development and the Complex World of Faith-Based Organisations' (paper presented at the annual conference of the Development Studies Association, Open University, Milton Keynes, September 7-9, 2005), 23.
49. See also Gerard Clarke and Michael Jennings, eds, Development, Civil Society and Faith-Based Organisations: Bridging the Sacred and the Secular (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 35-6.
50. Tamsin Bradley, 'A Call for Clarification and Critical Analysis of the Work of Faith-based Development Organizations (FBDO)', Progress in Development Studies 9, no. 2 (2009): 101-114, 101.
51. Tamsin Bradley, 'A Call for Clarification and Critical Analysis of the Work of Faith-based Development Organizations (FBDO)', Progress in Development Studies 9, no. 2 (2009): 104.
52. Tamsin Bradley, 'A Call for Clarification and Critical Analysis of the Work of Faith-based Development Organizations (FBDO)', Progress in Development Studies 9, no. 2 (2009): 103-4.
53. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 19.
54. Rowan Williams, 'Internationalism and Beyond' (speech given on June 18, 2004, Greenwich, CT).
55. See archives: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1204.
56. Clarke, 'Agents of Transformation', 80.
57. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 20.
58. See CRNGO website: http://www.rngo.org.
59. Benjamin Rivlin, 'Thoughts on Religious NGOs at the UN: A Component of Global Civil Society', in Civil Society in the Information Age: NGOs, Coalitions, Relationships, ed. Peter Hajnal (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 164.
60. Benjamin Rivlin, 'Thoughts on Religious NGOs at the UN: A Component of Global Civil Society', in Civil Society in the Information Age: NGOs, Coalitions, Relationships, ed. Peter Hajnal (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 164.
61. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 13.
62. Leon Gordenker and Thomas G. Weiss, 'NGO Participation in the International Policy Process', in NGOs, UN, and Global Governance, ed. Thomas G. Weiss and Leon Gordenker (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996), 214.
63. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 32.
64. Berger, 'Religious Non-Governmental Organisations', 24-5.
65. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, 'Dehomogenizing Religious Formations', in Transnational Religion and Fading States, ed. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and James Piscatori (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 243-61.
66. UNDP and WCRP, Faith in Action: Working Towards the Millennium Development Goals (New York: UNDP, 2005).
67. UNDP and WCRP, Faith in Action: Working Towards the Millennium Development Goals (New York: UNDP, 2005), 3.
68. For more information on the Consultation for Interfaith Education, the conference and its outcomes please visit http://www.globalinterfaithed.org/mdg.htm and http://www.globalinterfaithed.org/outcomes.htm.
69. UN websites provide extensive information on all of the eight MDGs: 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education, 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, 4. Reduce Child Mortality, 5. Improve Maternal Health, 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases, 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability, 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development. For an explanation of the eight MDGs, as well as their more specific targets and current progress made, see UN Millennium Development Goals: http://www. un.org/millenniumgoals/.
70. UN Millennium Development Goals Monitor: http://www.mdgmonitor.org.
71. UN Millennium Development Goals Indicators: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx.
72. UN Millennium Campaign: http://www.endpoverty2015.org/.
73. Rivlin, 'Thoughts on Religious NGOs at the UN', 169.
74. Rivlin, 'Thoughts on Religious NGOs at the UN', 165.
75. Final Report, 58th Annual DPI/NGO Conference Our Challenge: Voices for Peace, Partnerships and Renewal (United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), 2005), 32.
76. UN General Assembly, Statement of Gordon Brown at High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, UN Headquarters, September 25, 2008, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/statements.shtml.
77. UN General Assembly, Statement of Gordon Brown at High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, UN Headquarters, September 25, 2008, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/statements.shtml.
78. Statement of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez on behalf of Caritas Internationalis.
79. UN General Assembly, Statement of Gordon Brown at High-level Debate on 'Culture of Peace', UN Headquarters, November 12-13, 2008, http://www.un.org/ga/63/meetings/peace_culture_hl.shtml.
80. UN Headquarters, Statement by Gordon Brown, July 31, 2007, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:// www.number10.gov.uk/Page12755.
81. For more information, see http://www.caritas.org/activities/economic_justice/CallToAction.html and http://www. caritas.org.
82. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly (Permanent Delegate to the UN, Caritas Internationalis; he is also a member of CI's international senior management team), in a phone interview with the author, January 2009.
83. Online at http://religionsforpeace.org/resources/toolkits/faith-in-action.html.
84. Faith in Action: Working towards the Millennium Development Goals, Training Guide (New York: WCRP and UNDP, 2007).
85. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, April 2008.
86. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, April 2008.
87. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, April 2008.
88. Online at http://www.umc-gbcs.org/Welcome_to_The_General_Board_of_Church_and_Society.htm. 288 J. Boehle
89. Perspectives 16, New York, UMC UN Office (Fall 2005).
90. Liberato Bautista (Assistant General-Secretary for UN and International Affairs, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church) in an interview with the author in UMC-UN office in New York, October 2007.
91. Liberato Bautista (Assistant General-Secretary for UN and International Affairs, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church) in an interview with the author in UMC-UN office in New York, October 2007.
92. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly in an interview with the author in Caritas Internationalis office in New York, April 2008.
93. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly in an interview with the author in Caritas Internationalis office in New York, April 2008.
94. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly in an interview with the author in Caritas Internationalis office in New York, April 2008.
95. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly in an interview with the author in Caritas Internationalis office in New York, April 2008.
96. For a wider reading on examples of religious extremism, see R. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred. Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2000).
97. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, April 2008.
98. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, March 2007.
99. RfP staff at their headquarters in New York, in an interview with the author, March 2007.
100. Severine Deneulin and Masooda Bano, Religion in Development: Rewriting the Secular Script (London and New York: Zed Books, 2009), 73.
101. Liberato Bautista, in an interview with the author in UMC-UN office in New York, October 2007.
102. Proposed Legislation by then Senator Barack Obama, Global Poverty Act of 2007, S.2433, http://www. opencongress.org/bill/110-s2433/show.
103. More information about the history of the ONE campaign can be accessed at http://www.one.org/c/international/ about/944/.
104. Liberato Bautista, in an interview with the author in UMC-UN office in New York, October 2007.
105. Liberato Bautista, in an interview with the author in UMC-UN office in New York, October 2007.
106. Deneulin and Bano, Religion in Development, 40.
107. Deneulin and Bano, Religion in Development, 41.
108. United Nations, Cardoso Report.
109. Bradley, 'A Call for Clarification', 101.
110. Bradley, 'A Call for Clarification', 113.
111. Culture Matters. Lessons from a Legacy of Engaging Faith-based Organizations (UNFPA, 2008). It also published in 2009 the proceedings report of the Second United Nations Inter-agency Consultation on Engaging Faith-based Organizations for the MDGs (UNFPA, 2009).
112. Deneulin and Bano, Religion in Development, 46.
113. Richard Falk, 'Revisiting Westphalia, Discovering Post-Westphalia', The Journal of Ethics 6, no. 4 (2002): 333.
114. This is a specific critique of a widespread cultural hegemony of Western secular thought in higher education institutions. For a wider exploration of conflicting worldviews in a globalising world, see, for example, the following: Manfred B. Steger, Globalisms: The Great Ideological Struggle of the 21st Century, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
115. Fred Dallmayr, Integral Pluralism: Beyond Culture Wars (Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press, 2010).
116. Fred Dallmayr, Alternative Visions: Paths in the Global Village (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).
117. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
118. Habermas, 'Religion in the Public Sphere', 14.
119. Habermas, 'Religion in the Public Sphere', 15.
120. Habermas, 'Notes on a Post-secular Society'.
121. Rivlin, 'Thoughts on Religious NGOs at the UN', 157.
122. In addition, an extensive debate of the changing landscape in international relations can be found in: Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Special Issue, Religions and International Relations 29, no. 3 (2000): 565-986.
123. Eisenstadt, 'The Resurgence of Religious Movements', 4.
124. Jonathan Fox and Shmuel Sandler, Bringing Religion into International Relations (New York: Palgrave, 2004), 12.
125. Katherine Marshall and Marisa van Saanen, Development and Faith: Where Mind, Heart and Soul Work Together (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007).
126. Wendy Tyndale, ed., Visions of Development: Faith-Based Initiatives (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
127. Deneulin and Bano, Religion in Development.