How do we sustain engagement where governments are fragile, crises are protracted, and the needs are deeply complex? On 9 December 2024, a roundtable in Brussels brought together leaders and practitioners from faith-based organisations (FBOs), EU institutions, and civil society to answer this pressing question. Co-hosted by COMECE, ACT Alliance EU, Caritas Europa, Islamic Relief, and EU-CORD, the event explored how partnerships with local FBOs can strengthen the implementation of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus in fragile contexts.
The roundtable and the outcome report, now available, shed light on a truth too often overlooked: local faith-based organisations are not just stakeholders, but system-shapers. Their enduring presence in communities, moral authority, and social trust position them as vital allies in bridging the gap between short-term humanitarian responses and long-term peace and development.
Speakers from Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, and Pakistan illustrated how FBOs, against the odds, have built peace committees, brokered local conflict resolution, and offered holistic services spanning food security, education, and the prevention of gender-based violence. In each case, religious literacy—an understanding of how faith intersects with culture, history, and power—proved critical.
Yet, significant barriers persist. Local FBOs face fragmented and short-term funding, lack of meaningful inclusion in strategic decision-making, and institutional resistance that hampers deeper cooperation. As one speaker aptly noted, Nexus work is often happening in spite of the system, not because of it.
The report calls on the EU and donors to move beyond rhetoric. This means:
- Creating flexible, long-term funding instruments that allow FBOs to plan sustainably.
- Mainstreaming religious literacy across humanitarian and development policy.
- Embedding Nexus interventions in the existing social fabric, where local FBOs are already active and trusted.
As Ruth Faber (CEO, EU-CORD) reminded the group
”inaction is not neutral—it has a cost. Where states struggle to build legitimacy, FBOs offer a model of presence, persistence, and peacebuilding that deserves greater investment”.
For those working on fragility, faith engagement, or Nexus programming, this report is both a resource and a call to reimagine partnership. In a world of increasing fragility, collaboration with faith-based actors is not just desirable—it is essential.
