Religion Matters: Religion and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

With 85% of this planet’s population adhering to a religion, faith communities are the largest transnational civil society actors in the world. This accords them a major role in societal processes, aincluding current global challenges as spelled out in the 17 SDGs, the core of the Agenda 2030. After decades of neglect, recent years have seen a rise in interest in the role of religion in the public agenda. Academics, policymakers and practitioners alike increasingly acknowledge the significance of faith actors for the SDGs. Key terms such as “Common Home”, shared by faith and secular actors, already indicate their mutual relevance. At the same time, there is a lack of religious literacy in recognizing and interpreting religious dimensions in a given development context. This paper therefore seeks to shed light on the often nebulous “religious factor” in the SDGs in two consecutive steps. At first, the historical part traces the rise of religion in development. In the second step, an analytical part then provides a seven-dimensional model to enhance religious literacy and to provide a better understanding of both the potential and the problems of religion in the global quest for implementing the SDGs.