Humanitarian organizations frequently engage with religious actors and institutions, and many humanitarian action organizations are themselves religious. Moreover, religious dimensions of social, political, and economic life often shape how communities respond to crises, in ways that inevitably impact humanitarian response. As such, it is ever more important that the field pays sufficient attention to how religion functions in diverse contexts where action is needed to prevent and respond to humanitarian crises. What knowledge and assumptions about religion do faith-based and secular international humanitarian agencies have? How do these assumptions impact their work? What kind of knowledge about religion is most useful to support the implementation of the local humanitarian leadership agenda?
Through collaboration with humanitarian aid professionals working in both local and international organizations, those faith-based and not, we seek to enhance religious literacy to facilitate their delivery of high quality, principled humanitarian assistance to those in need.
