Scaling Up Effective Partnerships

This guide to working with faith-based organisations intends to expand collaboration in response to HIV and AIDS. It provides background information and case studies, dispels myths, and gives practical guidance for United Nations staff, government officials, people's networks, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), foundations, and the private sector that want to collaborate with faith-based organisations on joint projects related to HIV and AIDS.

The guide is organised in chapters on each of five world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Each chapter on a particular religion contains background, relevant teachings and values related to illness, attitudes toward HIV and AIDS, organisational structures, potential obstacles in collaboration, financial and material resources, and specifics on initiating discussion with religious organisations. Examples of current responses, potential obstacles, terminology, and case studies are intended to give practical advice for initiating or expanding collaboration at local and national levels.The guide includes a separate chapter on interfaith initiatives.

In its "Moving Forward" section, it focuses on lesson learned and success stories. Some specific points made in this document about collaboration with faith-based organisations are:

• They often work in much longer time frames than secular organisations due to an understanding of what is possible in the local context.
• They may not be ready to immediately and openly challenge traditional beliefs, especially on controversial topics.
• They may not have the skills, including proposal writing and project monitoring skills, required by secular organisations, but eliminating them for those reasons could result in cutting potential connections to local communities and losing the skills they can offer.
• Understanding the scale at which faith-based organisations work is important. Included in mapping their connections, it is important to look for interfaith and multinational work they already do.

The guide is produced collaboratively by Church World Service, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Norwegian Church Aid, UNAIDS, and World Conference of Religions for Peace.

Click here to access choices of language for downloading the document in PDF format or to order a print copy.