The Role of Faith-Based Organisations in Sustainable Development Goals

Last year, Earth Overshoot Day[1] – the day on which our consumption of natural resources exceeded the planet’s ability to replenish itself – fell on August 22.  While our earth can renew itself – recycle water and carbon, regenerate plants and even rebuild wildlife populations and wild fish stocks – 22nd of August 2020 was when our use of earth’s resources exceeded what it could regenerate for the remaining part of the year. [2] 

Based on a BBC News report dated 5 February 2021, Mr Mark Carney[3], the United Nations envoy for climate action and finance, predicted that ‘climate crisis deaths will be worse than Covid' and that ‘the world is on a trajectory for mortality rates equivalent to the coronavirus pandemic every year by mid-century unless action is taken’. 

The above sobering news highlight the need for sustainable development and a new approach to the challenges of overconsumption, overpopulation, and poverty. Fortunately, humanity woke up to this sad state of affairs in 2015 when 193 countries got together for a global conversation and delivered a framework to humanity to deal with this in the form of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Sadly, take-up has been excruciatingly slow and according to Economist, Dec 2020 ‘climate pledges bring progress but fall short’[4].

Clearly, this is the hour for united action to overcome this great peril facing humanity. All pockets of humanity need to come together to join forces.  Not unlike the many missions of  Justice League of Superheroes.  We need new allies, new ambassadors who can reach the hundreds of millions of people who have not yet understood the conventional environmental messaging.

During the past year of Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed many turning to religion for hope, strength and spiritual stamina.  We saw how faith has inspired in people a sense of solidarity and a desire to serve others, especially the most vulnerable.  For the sake of our common habitat, we need to also draw on the resources of faith-based organisations to leverage the teachings and immense moral authority of the world’s faiths to mobilise their followers to avert this global crisis.  The potential for impact is great as more of us belong to religious groups than any other type of voluntary associations. Indeed, faith groups are the biggest organised sector of civil society in the world. Faiths guide and direct the way we think, behave, and live our lives. Faith communities thus can play an important role in facilitating the kind of social transitions that are necessary as we respond to climate change and social inequities. Imagine the impact if faith-based organisations encourage their adherents to embrace the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to guide their daily decisions.

There are several principles common to all religions that are relevant to unifying us in our response to the global emergency at hand.

Although every religion bears the distinct stamp of its particular history and the geographical setting in which it appeared, the essential spiritual and moral teachings of all religions are consistent. All religions have come with the purpose of developing the moral and spiritual capacities latent in human nature and in building societies where these capacities can flourish and be channelised to advance society’s wellbeing. Although the social teachings, laws and rituals of different religions differed based on changing historical needs and circumstances, they ultimately can be seen to serve the same purpose of advancing humanity’s collective maturity. This understanding across religions provides the foundation on which people of all religions can draw upon a common spiritual heritage to fight our collective challenges. 

Religion teaches the ideal that all of humanity are interconnected and interdependent even as the members of one family and the cells of one body. Indeed today, the spread of coronavirus provides a testament to the interconnectedness of the human family where the well-being of one is dependent on the well-being of all. As the past year has shown, among the biggest obstacles that stand in our way as we strive to find a way out of this crisis is the tendency to be self-centered whether as an individual, a community or a nation. The age-old habit of dividing the world into an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ and of restricting the sphere of concern to the particular ingroup to which we belong, has shown to be a dangerous and life- threatening delusion in the context of the present crisis.

At the heart of all religions is a spiritual conception of the human being which transcends the material body. This spiritual reality, often referred to as the soul, is the source of divine attributes and virtues which allow human beings to demonstrate altruistic, selfless and other-regarding behaviours. 

Religion encourages us to give expression to one’s love for the Creator and for humanity in selfless and sacrificial service, to use one’s talents and capacities to address contemporary challenges and to contribute to the well-being of all without distinction. In the current crisis, no greater embodiment of this spirit of selfless and sacrificial service can be found than in the health workers, and other essential frontliners who, at great risk to their personal lives, are carrying out their duties. There is little doubt that when many of these valiant individuals contemplate in the privacy of their conscience the risk they court on a daily and hourly basis in the line of duty, it is from their spiritual convictions that they find the strength to sustain their efforts and firm their resolve.

In a gathering where scientists and practitioners[5] discussed on how the world’s faiths can contribute to a more responsible use of planet’s resources, they found many empirical-based examples which convincingly showed that environmental mobilisation based on religious ethics and leadership can lead to an increase in environmental awareness and behaviour in faith communities, as well as more successful outcomes from environmental initiatives.

Faith leaders and religious institutions are an important stakeholder group in this effort, and their participation is crucial in this endeavour.  When faith communities stand up to seek pathways to respond to these complex issues, and promote more sustainable behaviors, we will more likely see the change we need. After all, religion is arguably the most powerful means for mobilising human conscience to serve the common good. It would be an unpardonable loss if the resources of faith do not come together as a singular force to lend impetus to this collective endeavour.

 

---

[1] https://www.overshootday.org/

[2] World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/5-ways-faith-can-help-conservation/

[3] Mr Carney was the Bank of England governor up until last year, and before that, the head of the Bank of Canada

[4] https://www.economist.com/international/2020/12/13/paris-anniversary-climate-pledges-bring-progress-but-fall-short

[5] The 27th International Congress for Conservation Biology