An Exploratory Study of Factors Inhibiting the Advancement of NGO Responses to Religion in Peacebuilding

Abstract: Peacebuilding NGOs are increasingly aware that religion is a steadfast and sometimes growing influence in the contexts in which they work. Despite this, many fail to meaningfully integrate religious perspectives into their initiatives. This thesis examines and consolidates criticisms of NGO responses to religion in peacebuilding programmes, identifies factors inhibiting responses from advancing, and explores NGO staff attitudes regarding religion, including perspectives on whether a conducive environment exists for developing alternative responses. It then formulates recommendations for advancing practice and suggests future research directions.  The research approach consists of an examination of literature regarding NGO responses to religion, accompanied by a survey using semi-structured interviews of nine people who have worked on NGO peacebuilding programmes across the world. The main conclusions drawn from this study are that whilst NGOs consider religious actors as potential allies, they rarely utilise the role of religion in society as an analytical lens. This impinges their ability to understand contexts holistically. The contemporary funding environment is also found to discourage alternative approaches from emerging. This thesis recommends that further research is conducted in order to produce examples of improved NGO responses to religion. This will provide practical evidence of how to enhance practice.