Introduction: Faith-Based Partnerships at USAID
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) submits this report pursuant to Section 7019(e) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024 (Div. F, P.L. 118-47) and House Report 118-146, which states:
“The Committee notes the important role that FBOs play in communities around the world, including in the provision of humanitarian, development, and global health assistance. USAID maintains tools and resources on Strategic Religious Engagement (SRE) which outline the process through which USAID collaborates with religious communities and FBOs. Within 30 days of the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of USAID shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on how SRE and other efforts to engage and partner with FBOs is incorporated into USAID’s localization approach, as well as a performance report of USAID’s support of FBOs between 2019 and 2022. The Committee expects that USAID’s efforts to enable involvement of local organizations extends to those whose organizational missions are tied to faith, religious freedoms, charity, and religious-based humanitarian support, given the extensive presence and experience of FBOs in the developing world.”
USAID has a long history of partnering with and alongside faith-based and community organizations that work to advance sustainable development and humanitarian outcomes. USAID recognizes that religious actors in many countries where the Agency operates are the backbone of local communities and have a presence that predates USAID and development professionals. This presence yields trust, access, and influence in ways that governments often cannot, making local faith-based organizations critical partners in development. Recognizing the unique contributions of faith-based organizations and religious communities, USAID has housed a dedicated office for faith engagement since 2002 when the George W. Bush Administration first established USAID’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (“Center”). Reestablished by every administration since, USAID’s faith-based Center has an over 22 year bipartisan history working to build bridges between the Agency and faith-based organizations and religious communities.
Today’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP) draws its mandate from President Biden’s February 2021 Executive Order establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This Executive Order reaffirms the U.S. government’s longstanding and bipartisan commitment to partnering with faith-based and community organizations to advance shared diplomatic, development, and humanitarian goals worldwide. FBNP is housed within the Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation (IPI), in the Local, Faith and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub, which works to strengthen, expand, and diversify USAID’s partner base and drive locally-led development.
In September 2023, USAID became the first federal agency to launch a dedicated policy for engagement with religious actors—“Building Bridges In Development: USAID’s Strategic Religious Engagement Policy.”1 The Policy affirms religious actors’ important role in development and humanitarian assistance. Additionally, it represents USAID’s commitment to working with faith communities to ensure U.S. foreign assistance efforts are more effective, locally responsive, and sustainable. With ever-evolving challenges, from environmental disasters to global pandemics to rising authoritarianism, building bridges with local religious communities is key to achieving USAID’s goal of advancing a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. Coordinated by FBNP, policy implementation efforts are working to institutionalize strategic religious engagement (SRE) across USAID’s operating units and to strengthen the capacity of USAID’s workforce to partner with local faith-based organizations and religious communities.
1 https://www.usaid.gov/policy/strategicreligiousengagement