Religion and development: Australian faith-based development organisations

Faith plays a crucial role in development, yet ‘faith-based’ organisations (FBOs) continue to face ambivalence towards their religiosity and how it may impact upon the development work they do. As a result they have undergone structural changes to ameliorate the pressures arising from mainly government related outcome oriented funding structures. This also relates to the dual role FBO legitimacy plays ensuring both public donations at home and successful outcomes in the recipient country. FBOs have significant advantages over secular organisations in their ability to harness moral will at home and abroad as well as tap into transnational religious networks and local communities in aid recipient countries. Australian faith based organisations involved in international development are a diverse and under-researched category that is difficult to define. Thus this paper seeks to make inroads into this group of organisations to better understand them and their missions, the challenges they pose to development and the challenges they face in development. By Gerhard Hoffstaedter, La Trobe University, with research assistance by Sarah Hunt. This working paper is funded under the Universities- Linkage Project, co-chaired by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and the Institute for Human Security at La Trobe Universit