Keeping Faith in 2030: Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals (highlight notice)

在许多官方发展援助受援国，宗教是一个重要的文化、社会、政治和经济因素，了解有关的宗教动态和信仰行为者的作用对实现可持续发展至关重要。虽然在20世纪的大部分时间里，发展实践和发展研究基本上都赞同现代主义的、世俗的社会变革范式，但近年来这种情况开始发生变化。越来越多的发展援助现在通过所谓的基于信仰的组织提供，宗教越来越被认为是一种人力资源，而不是发展的障碍。许多宗教团体也通过采纳和宣布千年发展目标以及通过协商起草可持续发展目标，参与了发展政策。在某种程度上，学术研究在开拓性的研究项目（如英国国际发展部资助的伯明翰大学宗教与发展（RaD）研究项目，2005-2011）中解决了这些发展问题，相关主题的相关出版物越来越多，作为艺术与人文学科与其他学科之间的跨学科努力，促进了“宗教与发展”这一新的学术领域在英国和国际上的兴起。虽然这些都是有希望的发展，也是本提案的有用垫脚石，但为了进一步推动宗教和发展研究，还需要持续努力解决重大挑战，以便更好地应对联合国2030年可持续发展议程及其相关的可持续发展目标（sdg）带来的挑战和机遇。通过将来自英国、埃塞俄比亚和印度的学者联系起来，拟议中的研究网络寻求解决以下三个挑战：1)整合来自全球南方的声音：尽管有明显的例外，但在全球北方产生的宗教和发展文献与全球南方许多官方发展援助受援国的发展研究人员、政策制定者和实践者所做的事情之间存在相当大的脱节。有一种危险是，目前对宗教和发展的兴趣只不过反映了西方决策者和研究人员的捐助趋势，而在官方发展援助受援国，宗教继续发挥公共作用是一个更有问题和更有争议的情况。2)基于信仰的行为者的整合：虽然对所谓的基于信仰的组织进行了大量研究，并为他们提供了更多的资助机会，但在研发政策和实践方面的合作更难实现。需要做更多的工作，使基于信仰的组织和发展行动者之间进行更深入和公开的对话，特别是为了为可持续发展目标的实施提供一个重要的反馈机制。由于不同的方法、不同的宗教概念以及相对较少的比较数据，关于宗教和发展的学术辩论并没有像它应该的那样细致入微。该网络将集中讨论跨学科界限和方法前提的方法和比较问题，以便为更平衡和比较的讨论铺平道路。我们的区域重点支持这种做法，因为它使我们能够全面整理政策简报和档案中的数据、主要问题和观点。研究网络的活动是围绕三个会议（英国、埃塞俄比亚、印度）建立的，这些会议将用于使该领域的主要参与者建立网络，制作与学术和非学术用户有关的材料和出版物，并突出中心领域以供进一步研究。多用户网站和指导小组将促进正在进行的活动。

Religion is a major cultural, social, political, and economic factor in many ODA recipient countries, and understanding the relevant religious dynamics and the role of faith actors is crucial to bringing about sustainable development. While development practice and development studies had essentially subscribed to a modernist, secular paradigm of social change for much of the twentieth century, this has begun to change in recent years. Increasing portions of development aid are now channelled via so-called faith based organisations, and religion is increasingly recognised as a human resource rather than an obstacle to development. Many religious groups have also been involved in development policy by adopting and heralding the Millennium Development Goals and through consultations in the drafting of the Sustainable Development Goals.Academic research has, to some extent, addressed these developments in pioneering research projects (such as the DfID-funded Religion and Development (RaD) research programme at Birmingham University, 2005-2011) and there has been an increasing number of relevant publications on related themes, contributing to the rise of a new academic field of 'religions and development' in the UK and internationally, as an interdisciplinary effort between the Arts & Humanities and other disciplines. While these are promising developments and a useful stepping stone for this proposal, there are major challenges which need to be addressed by a sustained effort in order to take religions and development research further, so that it can better respond to the challenges and opportunities generated via the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By networking scholars from the UK, Ethiopia, and India, the proposed Research Network seeks to address the following three challenges: 1) Integrate voices from the Global South: Notable exceptions notwithstanding, there is a considerable disconnect between the religions and development literature produced in the Global North and what development researchers, policy makers and practitioners do in many ODA recipient countries in the Global South. There is a danger that the current interest in religions and development reflects little more than a donor trend among Western policy makers and researchers, while in ODA recipient countries the continued public role of religions is a much more problematic and controversial case.2) Integration of faith-based actors: While there is much research on so-called faith-based organisations and increased funding opportunities available to them, collaboration in research and development policy and practice has been harder to achieve. More work needs to be done for enabling a more in-depth and open dialogue between faith-based organisation and development actors, especially in order to provide an important feedback mechanism for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.3) Improved methodologies, interdisciplinary dialogue, and better data: Academic debate on religions and development is not as nuanced as it could be, due to different methodologies, varying conceptualisations of religion, and relatively little comparative data. The network will focus on issues of methodology and comparison across disciplinary boundaries and methodological premises to pave the way for more balanced and comparative discussions. Our regional focus supports this approach, as it allows us to to collate data, major issues and perspectives in our policy briefings and dossiers in a comprehensive manner.The activities of the research network are built around three conferences (UK, Ethiopia, India), which will be used to network the main actors in the field, produce material and publications relevant to academic and non-academic users, and highlight central areas for further research. A multi-user website and steering group will facililitate ongoing activities.