Religion, foreign policy and development: making better policy to make a bigger difference (WP1311)

In association with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

This conference drew academics, policy makers, diplomats/international practitioners and religious actors into dialogue about the best interface between religion, policy and development.

Recently the US State Department created an office focused on engagement with faith based communities, less than a year after publication of DFID’s Faith Partnership Principles. This is indicative of a felt need to strengthen policy-making processes by engaging with religious actors and institutions across the full range of functional and regional domains.

This conference surveyed current and emerging institutional arrangements for engagement with religion at international level in order to identify current and emerging best practice and aims to strengthen policy machinery within government and NGO’s by improved information sharing and co-ordination about engagement with religion in support of societal transformation. It also assessed the relationship between domestic and international policy in particular where religion impacts on development.