Voices – Tara Gingerich: Partnerships in Humanitarian Action

We're very focused on this concept of local humanitarian leadership—that it’s government and civil society in countries that are affected by emergencies, who should be leading humanitarian action rather than international actors.  

If we want local actors to have more of a say and more resources, more voice and space in humanitarian action in their countries, we can't ignore an entire segment of those participants, which are local religious groups, churches, mosques, faith-based aid organizations. In order to engage with those groups, we need to have religious literacy. We need to be aware of their place in the society, any biases they have, any different pressures they face, and we need to think about that. 

We know that faith actors have tremendous access to people in need because of where they sit in their communities but we need to make sure we're seeing the full picture and being aware of how they see their own roles that are not humanitarian organizations by in large. They’re religious institutions or, you know, they see their mission differently. 

I didn't think about any of this before I became engaged with a religious literacy project. So I completely attribute that thinking to my engagement with Diane and the project.