Faith and Development

For World Vision, understanding faith norms is a central part of social and behavioral change (SBC) programming, as they can play a huge part in our impact. World Vision has begun a focused effort to understand “faith norms,” as our faith-based enabling models aim to transform personal beliefs, social norms, and behaviors in ways that empower individuals and communities to take positive action. This leads to safer environments for children and long-lasting improvements in child well-being. If social norms are defined as the unwritten rules about behavior that people believe to be normal and appropriate within their group or community, from a faith perspective, we understand faith norms as the unwritten rules about normal and appropriate behaviors, shaped by beliefs about what God or a religious community teaches. Faith norms are often integrally linked to cultural values.

World Vision conducted a pilot study in Mozambique and Bangladesh to more clearly understand the faith dimension on social norms and behavior change and to develop a tool for evaluating and measuring the impact of faith in SBC, especially in our models such as Channels of Hope and Celebrating Families. The initial efforts were focused on child marriage, and World Vision is now expanding this measurement tool to other areas, including GBV.

One of our key interfaith approaches is Do No Harm for Faith Groups, a contextualized interagency training tool that helps faith leaders and leaders from FBOs to be conflict-sensitive in their actions. It aims to minimize harm to communities and helps explore opportunities to build community cohesion and peace with local capacities. Designed specifically for mixed Christian and Muslim contexts, the training is adapted from the industry-standard Do No Harm/Local Capacities for Peace tool, which helps projects build on community connectors and minimize harm. It is delivered through a three-day workshop with approximately 25 participants who are Muslim and/or Christian leaders. Faith leaders come away with their own plans to ensure their actions are conflict-sensitive.

World Vision began operations in the Central African Republic in 2014 in response to the humanitarian crisis that followed the 2013 outbreak of violence. The crisis was often framed in religious terms. In the years of fighting that ensued, peaceful coexistence between different communities, most notably people of different faiths, broke down. World Vision participated in the Central African Republic Interfaith Peacebuilding Partnership (CIPP), funded by USAID, that started in 2015. The CIPP supported interreligious platforms of religious leaders across the country by building their capacity and partnering with them to implement humanitarian and recovery activities. Through these projects, we proactively acknowledged and addressed interreligious dynamics inherent in the crisis and supported faith leaders to influence interfaith relationships within their communities.

Within a month of World Vision taking over management of the Yaloke internally displaced persons (IDP) camp, people who had been confined to the camp (for safety) were able to leave to access local markets and services. The Christian host community welcomed the Muslim IDPs to resettle from the camp, and Christian and Muslim leaders asked us to create one Child-Friendly Space, combining the previously separate spaces for Christian and Muslim children.

Channels of Hope for HIV was the original adaptation of Channels of Hope. As one of World Vision’s core HIV and AIDS response models, it pools current and potential volunteers to mobilize the infrastructure, organizational capacity, and unmatched moral authority of local churches and faith communities toward positive action on HIV and AIDS. World Vision works with churches and other faith-based organizations to coordinate and equip sustainable, community-based HIV and AIDS programs, with an emphasis on reaching orphans and vulnerable children who need care and support. This methodology is not only effective for faith leaders but has also been greatly effective with target groups such as teachers, community leaders, and youth.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to HIV and AIDS prevention, advocacy, or care.
• Community members and target populations are taking steps to increase voluntary testing, particularly among pregnant mothers.
• Rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV decrease.

Zimbabwe was one of the countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. In response, World Vision implemented the Channels of Hope model in 2010, facilitating community conversations to reduce stigma and increase timely access to services.

In 2015, the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen; the Knowledge Centre for Religion and Development in Utrecht; and World Vision undertook a study to explore the program’s effectiveness in Zimbabwe. The study found that in communities where World Vision implemented Channels of Hope, community knowledge about HIV increased; stigmatization of people living with HIV was reduced; and access to services and medication among pregnant women, mothers, and newborns improved. Interviewees identified pastors and churches as essential catalysts for these changes.

World Vision also completed a multicountry, longitudinal operational research study in Uganda and Zambia on the use of Channels of Hope for HIV and AIDS programming in long-term area programs. The study found that:

• The percentage of faith leaders believing HIV was a punishment from God decreased from 86% to 58%.
• Individuals in areas where World Vision implemented Channels of Hope were 12% more likely to access voluntary counseling and testing for HIV in comparison to the baseline.
• Individuals were 2.5 times more likely to participate in a support group for people affected by HIV following the intervention.

Channels of Hope for Gender is an innovative approach to exploring gender identities, norms, and values that impact male and female relationships in families and communities. The methodology challenges participants to see men and women as created by God as equals and to treat each other accordingly. The new understanding empowers both women and men to celebrate who they are, moves people toward healthier relationships, and helps reduce GBV.

Faith leaders’ interpretation and application of religious texts shape male and female relationships. In some instances, religious text is used to validate cultural practices that keep women on the fringes of processes that are critical to their own development and to that of their families and communities. Other prejudices extend more power and privilege to males at the expense of females. This can result in a lack of equitable access and control of family and community resources, as well as GBV. This power imbalance negatively impacts women’s and girls’ well-being and the development potential of entire communities.

As faith leaders explore their attitudes and perspectives, they also engage with other individuals and organizations at work in the community. They learn unique ways that the faith community can address underlying norms that drive behavior, take actions that strengthen community systems and structures, and contribute in meaningful ways to address violence in the community.

When faith leaders promote principles of equality and shared access and use of family and community resources, harmonious relationships within families, faith groups, and communities grow stronger.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that prevent GBV and contribute to advocacy or care.
• Faith leaders demonstrate a healthy faith perspective on gender, such as framing faith-based responses to gender injustice.
• Faith and community leaders, as well as youth leaders, become role models influencing the positive change of attitudes, values, and norms regarding gender relationships.
• Participation, access, and control of resources are improved for both women and men.

In Mali, where female genital mutilation (FGM) is widespread, World Vision implemented Channels of Hope for Gender, in partnership with Islamic Relief Worldwide, to empower faith communities in the Koulikoro region to take action against FGM and other forms of GBV. At the start of the project, 85% of households practiced FGM, and 70% thought that the practice should be maintained. World Vision and Islamic Relief trained 42 religious and community leaders who later taught 400 additional religious leaders and established faith action networks to address GBV and child protection in their communities. The project evaluation completed in 2020 found that, following the intervention, acceptance of FGM fell from 70% to 58%.

Watch this video to see how we worked to address GBV through Channels of Hope in the Solomon Islands.

Channels of Hope for Child Protection addresses children’s rights, promotes positive discipline, strives to prevent other forms of violence against children, and fosters a wider enabling environment to strengthen both formal and nonformal child protection systems.

The Channels of Hope for Child Protection methodology is packaged into a facilitative and interactive workshop, grounded in guiding principles from the participants’ faith tradition(s) and religious texts. The methodology aims to create a safe space for faith leaders and faith communities from various denominations or religions to learn, share, and debate challenging issues related to violence against children. It seeks to address the root causes and deepest convictions that maintain harmful attitudes, norms, and values. The goal is to motivate and equip faith communities to respond in meaningful ways to prevent violence against children. Responses include restoring the lives of child survivors, addressing sociocultural norms and attitudes that drive violence, promoting peace and overcoming violence, and striving for authentic justice that brings healing and reconciliation.

Key outcomes:

• Increased meaningful engagement and competence of the faith community to address various forms of violence against children and sociocultural norms that make children vulnerable
• Increased policy advocacy to support justice for children
• Increased safety of children in religious institutions
• Improved social cohesion in communities

In 2016, World Vision launched Faith Community Contribution to Ending Violence Against Children, a five-year research collaboration with Queen Margaret University and Columbia University, to gather evidence on Channels of Hope for Child Protection interventions. This mixed-method study examined faith leaders’ child protection practices, attitudes toward child rights, and views on physical punishment in Senegal, Uganda, and Guatemala. Child protection practices — specifically listening to children and reporting abuse — were strongest among faith leaders in Uganda, although they also most favored the use of physical punishment. Overall, findings documented how faith leaders play an important role in promoting children’s well-being in their communities. Building on this contribution, however, requires sensitivity to important contextual differences.

Read the research overview here, or access the full study here.

Channels of Hope for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) catalyzes faith leaders and faith communities to respond to health challenges facing women and young children. Then, congregations work with World Vision to meaningfully engage with sustainable, community-based MNCH interventions and advocacy to change behaviors and strengthen health systems within communities.

Faith leaders and communities often lack necessary mindsets, skills, and information to engage on health issues. Rather, they can often be the drivers of wrong information, creating barriers that prohibit people from visiting clinics, receiving vaccinations, or using birth spacing methods. Their influence is essential to addressing child marriage and harmful traditional practices, treating women and girls equitably, encouraging men’s involvement in MNCH, or addressing stigma.

Channels of Hope for MNCH is designed to help actively deconstruct these religious and social barriers to health and equitable gender relations, as well as equip faith communities to respond compassionately and practically to the serious MNCH issues.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to positive changes in the broader community that lead to healthier mothers, pregnancies, and children.
• Participants and community members practice birth spacing.
• Community members access improved pre- and postnatal care and care for children under 5.

In Kenya, World Vision implemented a three-year operational research project funded by the Templeton Foundation to assess support for contraceptive use among women of reproductive age in communities where Christian and Muslim faith leaders received the Channels of Hope for MNCH and Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies (HTSP) trainings. The study found an 85% increase in knowledge (from 41% to 76%) of three or more modern contraception methods, and an increase of 140% (from 5% to 12%) in the contraceptive prevalence rate among mothers with a child under 2. After participation in Channels of Hope MNCH, participants showed an increase of 150% in their likelihood of using modern contraception. The research showed that attitudes toward contraceptive use among Christian Protestant and Muslim faith leaders improved after exposure to the Channels of Hope process.

In Burundi, in collaboration with the Collectif pour la Promotion des Association des Jeunes, Medical Teams International, Pfizer Foundation, and University of Groningen, World Vision implemented the European Union–funded RAMBA Sexual and Reproductive Health project. Through the project, we sought to address sociocultural barriers to sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) by training 991 religious leaders and their spouses on HTSP and family planning, and establishing 76 congregational actions teams that were responsible for developing community-based SRHR action plans. By the end of the first year, 17,557 families had adopted modern family planning methods. An independent quantitative evaluation of the project using cross-sectional surveys found that the model was successful in helping change the attitudes of faith leaders regarding SRHR. The percentage of faith leaders who reported delivering messages on modern contraceptive methods to women increased by 47% (from 55% to 80.7%). The percentage of women who communicated with health personnel about family planning also increased from 53.8% to 71.8%.

Channels of Hope for Ebola draws on religious texts, scientific information and messages, case studies, personal experience, and interactive activities to remove religious and social barriers that result in the continued spread of Ebola. It also addresses the stigma and psychosocial and spiritual challenges that affected individuals face. The program fully equips faith leaders to promote accurate and responsible messages about Ebola and helps them to respond with compassion and care for affected people.

Faith leaders wield considerable influence over culture and the prescribing and prohibiting of actions in their communities. Unfortunately, faith leaders and communities often lack necessary skills and information to engage in a helpful way on health issues, resulting in the spread of wrong information and promotion of religious practices that could continue to spread Ebola. Channels of Hope for Ebola enables faith leaders to become powerful messengers and agents of change, inspiring entire communities to care for and love one another and deconstruct barriers to good health in their communities.

Key outcomes:

• Faith communities are engaged in actions that contribute to Ebola prevention, advocacy, or care.
• Community members have knowledge about preventing and treating Ebola increases.
• Survivors and families are supported and accepted.

The 2014 Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000 people and devastated communities, setting back the development of health systems. The most prominent impacts were felt in three fragile West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

The World Faiths Development Dialogue and The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University produced a case study to highlight the complex institutional roles of religious actors, the positive and negative aspects of their involvement, and, notably, how international organizations proved to be poorly prepared to engage with religious actors.

The study found that World Vision played a significant and positive role early in the crisis through a multireligious consultation that sought solutions to address public health issues while respecting cultural and religious sensitivities in burial practices. By introducing protocols for safe and dignified burial practices for patients who had died from Ebola — that also recognized important religious beliefs — responders could better engage with communities and religious leaders, encouraging them to cooperate with and report deaths to the authorities, significantly curbing transmission. The implementation of the updated guidelines, alongside proper quarantining and home care supported by religious communities, were game changers in the fight against Ebola. We were happy to report that none of the 58,000 children or their immediate families who were directly supported through World Vision’s 25 area programs contracted Ebola.

Child well-being outcomes are strongly influenced by children’s environments, including family relationships. Research has proven that a strong and secure attachment bond with a primary caregiver is at the core of developing resilience and a healthy personality. This bond strengthens a child’s ability to cope with stress, regulates emotions, provides social support, and forms nurturing relationships.

At present, however, families are facing many challenges and often fail to create the safe, loving, and caring environment that is vital for children’s holistic development. Celebrating Families teaches parents, caregivers, and faith leaders about their role in creating a safe and loving environment through practical actions that can be applied within the family. Through this process, participants learn to identify and address family issues that hinder children’s spiritual and holistic development, and support practices that create spaces for children to experience God’s love. This leads to improved family relationships and a decrease in harmful attitudes and practices surrounding violence against children and neglect within the family.

Celebrating Families also addresses issues of health and education. Parents become more aware of their children’s needs, supporting their academic pursuits and ensuring they receive proper nutrition and care. When we support and partner with caregivers and faith groups in the community, a protective and loving environment for children can be established — an environment that supports children’s spiritual development and helps them achieve their full potential.

World Vision began implementing Celebrating Families in Tanzania in 2013. Following the sessions, parents strengthened their relationships with their children, and they better understood the importance of both school and opportunities for constructive play. We also witnessed noteworthy decreases in female genital mutilation, child marriage, and child runaways in study areas. Celebrating Families sessions helped restore relationships between spouses through practicing forgiveness and understanding love languages. A study also showed a high degree of unanticipated, informal replication of the model’s messages through avenues such as family and community events. These informal pathways proved to be valuable and trusted channels of dissemination, especially to those outside of the church community.

World Vision has implemented Celebrating Families in Myanmar since 2015, first by training staff and then church leaders and communities. A study found that following Celebrating Families sessions, parents’ and caregivers’ emotional care of children substantially changed. The model shifted some parents’ parenting approaches from an authoritarian style — with strict discipline and little negotiation — to an authoritative one using clear boundaries and improved communication.

World Vision has implemented Celebrating Families in the Herat, Badghis, and Ghor provinces of Afghanistan since 2014. The model was contextualized with significant input from Islamic religious scholars. Religious leaders, schoolteachers, members of local shuras (councils), and members of the government’s Child Protection Action Network were trained in the approach. A study found that Celebrating Families helped deepen family relationships, increase parent and caregiver understanding of child development, and improve caregiving and the nurture of children. Following the training, many parents and caregivers disavowed all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment, forced marriage, and gender discrimination.

Click here for more information about the studies mentioned above.