We wish you all a good and healthy new year! In this newsletter you will find a.o. two invitations, one for a seminar on Islamic Development Finance, and one for a presentation on the (supposed) uniqueness of Faith-Based Development Cooperation. Last year, the Knowledge Centre has made a new start with four new participants: Islamic Relief, Migrant Consortium, Edukans and Mensen met een Missie. The (members of) the Knowledge Centre organised several activities: - a presentation of our Practitioners Guide Religion and Development
- a lecture on Ethics, Religion and International Cooperation, held by prof. dr. ir. Joris Voorhoeve
- a presentation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Religion and Diplomacy
- a launch of the Konya Criteria, or the Seven Advices of mevlana Djalâl-ud-Dîn Rumi
- a lecture on how Faith based development work may contribute to insecurity, as a research in India showed At the same time, the team has been busy:
- preparing a clinic on Religious Reactions on the Economic Crisis
- preparing a clinic on complex relations between politics and religion in secular states
- promoting the practioners' guide among faith-based and secular development organisations The coming months you will hear more from these activities.
Seminar, February 9: Islamic Development Finance
| | This seminar is about Islamic finance and financing techniques and their increasing contemporary relevance, particularly for development. It is held on the occasion of the retirement of Professor Gerrie ter Haar, holder of the Chair in Religion and Development, and the launch of her new book 'Religion and Development: Ways of Transforming the World'. The Chair in Religion and Development is an ISS professorship supported by ICCO and Cordaid. Date: Thursday February 9, 13.30 – 18.00 at the Institute of Social Studies, Kortenaerkade 12, 2518 AX Den Haag.
Please register for this (free) seminar through http://conference.intra2.iss.nl/conferences/register/62 Read more |
Presentation, January 31: How unique is faith-based development-cooperation? 
| | Mensen met een Missie organises a presentation (in Dutch) of the findings of research done by Mrs. Femke Timmermans in Kenya, focused on the typical characteristics of faith-inspired development organisations. She interviewed staff-members and people from the network of five Kenyan partnerorganisations of Mensen met een Missie. The findings of her research are sometimes quite surprising. Femkes presentation will take place on Tuesday 31 January, 12.30 - 13.30 at room 1.17, Lutherse Burgwal 10 in The Hague. Information and registration by: keesschilder@mensenmeteenmissie.nl. |
Publication: An Uncomfortable Instrument: The Weak Vilification of Religion in Development Discourse | | Ton Groeneweg (Mensen met een Missie, KCRD member) held a lecture on the conference 'Religions and their Despisers: Criticism and Vilification of Religions and Believers', organised on 4-5 November 2011 by the Dutch Society of Religious Studies. He converted his lecture into an article. In it, he writes:
"what I would like to do in this paper is to show that the discomfort surrounding the topic of religion in development is at least partly due to certain presumptions within the development discourse itself, and its instrumental way of dealing with religious agents and religious practices. A possible way out of this discomfort could be envisaged if the development discourse would be more conscious and self-critical with regard to these presumptions, which is not immediately the same as simply giving them up. I will do this by focusing on one particular example of religious revivalism, the so-called da'wa movement that emerged and prospered by the end of the 20 th century in urban Egypt." Read more |
New Documents in our Documentation Centre | | The documentation centre forms an important part of our website, which is managed by the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Relevant books and articles on the subject of Religion and Development are listed here. Below you will find a small selection of newly spotted publications, recently added to the documentation centre: |
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