Strategic Religious Engagement: Paths to Enhancing the Impact of National and International Development Initiatives

The article focuses on refining what we mean by “Strategic Religious Engagement” (SRE). It first highlights significant problems in the status quo of religious engagement in international development. It then summarizes what SRE could contribute to development work, outlining eight intertwined and mutually reinforcing priorities. SRE in practice: (1) includes long-term relationship building, (2) needs to be inclusive/pluralistic, (3) is systematic/integrated, (4) addresses the need to recognize and balance power, (5) is evidence based, (6) is grounded in clear and transparently articulated legal and ethical principles, (7) takes full account of ideological differences and entails sound approaches to address them, and (8) is nationally and locally focused so that it is contextually relevant. The goal is continuous well informed religious engagement as a standard principle in development work. Our review and consolidation of literature and practice underscore the central feature of SRE as a trust-building, relationship-building, fairness-creating process.