Publication: Asian Interfaith Dialogue : Perspectives on Religion, Education and Social Cohesion
Loading...
Date
2003
ISSN
Published
2003
Author(s)
Abstract
The events of the last few years have directed even more attention to the relationships among religion, education and social cohesion in the context of development in Asia. There is, therefore, a need to consider the combined role of religion and education in fostering a more holistic form of development without concurrently fanning flames of ethnic, religious and other kinds of conflicts. This book discusses the relationship between religion, the role of education in generating social capital and its impact on the development of society. It draws on papers presented at an interfaith workshop co-hosted by the World Bank and the Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs (RIMA). The dialogue took place in Singapore on 27-28 October 2001, with the participation of some 50 experts from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The book describes the rich group of partners associated with this dialogue, their call to move beyond the discourse of dialogue and the imperative to start practicing it. It conveys an effort to learn from both sides. It lays out the debates of scholars who see education as a major instrument for fostering knowledge and skills -- with the purpose of improving knowledge sharing, teaching methodologies, and bolstering mutual development efforts.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Alatas, Syed Farid; Ghee, Lim Teck; Kuroda, Kazuhide. Alatas, Syed Farid; Ghee, Lim Teck; Kazuhide, Kazuhide, editors. 2003. Asian Interfaith Dialogue : Perspectives on Religion, Education and Social Cohesion. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14747 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Development and Faith : Where Mind, Heart, and Soul Work Together(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This book aims to advance the shared understanding that is emerging from a dialogue on global development issues. It takes stock of a decade of exchanges and partnerships that have marked the effort to bridge what were too often diverging worlds. It recognizes the complexity and challenge inherent in dialogue on difficult issues, where conflicting views and areas of uncertainty abound. But it also highlights the wealth of experience gained. This is a book about partnerships between development and faith institutions. It is grounded in our common, abiding resolve to deepen our efforts to combat poverty, and it highlights several areas of shared focus and endeavor. The first section in this book focuses on the MDG framework and diverse faith-based and faith-secular partnerships that are tackling particular MDG dimensions. Chapter 2 discusses broad alliances among faith institutions inspired in good measure by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This chapter highlights the engagement of these institutions in the global MDG mobilization, and their growing use of the MDG framework as a basis for advocacy and action. Chapter 3 turns to HIV/AIDS. Chapters 4 and 5 recount faith-based collaborations on other global health challenges, including malaria. These experiences underscore the challenges that remain in realizing the potential of faith development partnerships. Chapter 6 explores the complexities of one of the most vital challenges of the MDGs: bringing education to all. The final two chapters explore issues that are vital to the MDG framework but not highlighted as specific goals.Publication Faith in Conservation : New Approaches to Religions and the Environment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003-08)The authors explore the ecological worldviews of eleven major world religions, and consider how these can help shape effective environmental policy. At the heart of this book is a discussion of how religions can work with environment- and development-focused organizations, both to provide alternative models of conservation approaches, and to develop programs for their own faithful. The world's religions can - through storytelling, celebration, practice, spiritual guidance, activism in their communities, and advocacy worldwide - be powerful, and effective partners in a wide range of conservation initiatives. The book includes a collection of the faiths' core statements on conservation, brought together for the first time.Publication Millennium Challenges for Development and Faith Institutions(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)The dialogue initiated at Lambeth -- continued at a second meeting of faith and development leaders in November 1999 and then at the third meeting in Canterbury, on which this booklet is based -- has endeavored to bridge these gaps. Organizers of the Canterbury meeting documented some case studies of partnerships between faith and development institutions, summarized in this booklet, as background for the gathering. These cases, many of which had previously been only partially documented, reveal a diversity of experience across countries, regions, and sectors on which to build. The Canterbury meeting sought to move beyond dialogue to ideas for specific joint faith-development initiatives and programs. The Millennium Development Goals -- which represent a new global determination to mobilize energy, passion, and resources to fulfill tangible, measurable imperatives for human health and well-being-served as a springboard for discussion and provide a framework for future partnerships. The goals are straightforward: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. Global leaders and institutions such as the World Bank are committed to judging their performance against these goals.Publication Gender Dimensions of Roma Inclusion : Perspectives from Four Roma Communities in Bulgaria(Washington, DC, 2014-01)This study employs a qualitative approach to inform the development of effective Roma inclusion policies and programs in Bulgaria. The Roma are currently among the least integrated minority group in Bulgaria. This study investigates the key factors and mechanisms that promote or inhibit social inclusion of the Roma with the wider Bulgarian society by examining their social norms, agency, and strategic life choices from a gender perspective. The study pursues three research questions to deepen the understanding of Roma communities and their inclusion. These are: (i) what are the key gender-related social norms that influence agency in the Roma communities included in the research, and how do they vary across and within these communities?; (ii) what does agency mean in respect to making strategic life choices, and how does if differ in terms of women and men, and across the communities?; and (iii) what can be drawn from understanding of norms, agency, and life choices that can inform stakeholders in developing policies that will support their inclusion, and thereby the implementation of Bulgaria's national strategy for Roma integration? The study uses the European Union's (EU's) working definition of social inclusion as a lens to analyze Roma communities. This study brings to the fore Roma perspectives while focusing on gender roles that are shaped by their social norms. Further, this study looks at how these norms (and roles) are changing as they encounter the values and practices of the modernization of Bulgaria. This study is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction and background; chapter two depicts the framework of the study and the methodological approach. Chapter three discusses the findings of the study in terms of gender roles and social norms. Chapter four delves into understanding how social norms and agency influence the strategic life choices of Roma men and women, and consequently if these aid in integrating with the broader Bulgarian society. Chapter five concludes the study by pointing to areas that may be explored further for the development of inclusive policies that will benefit the Roma in Bulgaria.Publication The Promotion of Social Cohesion Through Education in Sri Lanka(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09)The social dimensions and benefits of education are being increasingly appreciated in developed and middle-income countries. Among the many social benefits of education, promoting social cohesion in countries has become extremely important in the modern world, as global mobility of culturally diverse populations has posed challenges to the shared values, ethics and identities of societies. The instantaneous transfer of diverse and varied information through modern communications technologies has further increased the importance of social cohesion. Cohesive societies are more effective in achieving collective economic and social goals, since such societies are better at including and uniting diverse groups and forging synergy (OECD, 2001; Greaney, 2006). Five dimensions of social cohesion, belonging, inclusion, participation, recognition and legitimacy, are especially important for multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious societies such as Sri Lanka. The education system is of central importance in promoting national unity and solidarity among the different social groups in a country. Education is a key instrument in the promotion of social cohesion through the transmission of knowledge and the shaping of attitudes of individuals towards diversity and change. Sri Lanka has initiated measures to promote social cohesion through the school curriculum, textbooks, teacher development, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, the organization of schools, and language policy. This paper discusses these measures, and future policy options for Sri Lanka as a middle-income society.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Tanzania(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06)This study aims to achieve a better understanding of the agricultural risk and risk management situation in Tanzania with a view to identifying key solutions to reduce current gross domestic product (GDP) growth volatility. For the purpose of this assessment, risk is defined as the probability that an uncertain event will occur that can potentially produce losses to participants along the supply chain. Persistence of unmanaged risks in agriculture is a cause of great economic losses for farmers and other actors along the supply chains (for example, traders, processors, and exporters), affecting export earnings and food security. The agricultural sector risk assessment is a straightforward methodology based on a three-phase sequential process. Phase analyzes the chronological occurrence of inter-seasonal agricultural risks with a view to identify and prioritize the risks that are the drivers of agricultural GDP volatility. This report contains the findings and recommendations of the first phase and includes the identification, analysis, and prioritization of major risks facing the agricultural sector in Tanzania, as well as recommendations regarding key solutions. Chapter one gives introduction and context. Chapter two contains an overview of the agricultural sector and its performance, as well as a discussion of key agro-climatic, weather, and policy restrictions and opportunities. Chapter three includes an assessment of major risks (that is, production, market, and enabling environment risks) facing key export and food crops. Chapter four presents an estimate of historical losses due to realized production risks and a correlation of such losses with production volatility. Chapter five provides insights into the exposure to risks by different stakeholders and their actual capacities, vulnerabilities, and potential to manage agricultural risks. Chapter six presents a risk prioritization by different supply chains and discusses the possible solutions, as well as specific recommendations for the agricultural sector development program (ASDP).Publication World Development Report 1984(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984)Long-term needs and sustained effort are underlying themes in this year's report. As with most of its predecessors, it is divided into two parts. The first looks at economic performance, past and prospective. The second part is this year devoted to population - the causes and consequences of rapid population growth, its link to development, why it has slowed down in some developing countries. The two parts mirror each other: economic policy and performance in the next decade will matter for population growth in the developing countries for several decades beyond. Population policy and change in the rest of this century will set the terms for the whole of development strategy in the next. In both cases, policy changes will not yield immediate benefits, but delay will reduce the room for maneuver that policy makers will have in years to come.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Africa's Future, Africa's Challenge : Early Childhood Care and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This book seeks to achieve a balance, describing challenges that are being faced as well as developments that are underway. It seeks a balance in terms of the voices heard, including not just voices of the North commenting on the South, but voices from the South, and in concert with the North. It seeks to provide the voices of specialists and generalists, of those from international and local organizations, from academia and the field. It seeks a diversity of views and values. Such diversity and complexity are the reality of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) today. The major focus of this book is on SSA from the Sahel south. Approximately 130 million children between birth and age 6 live in SSA. Every year 27 million children are born, and every year 4.7 million children under age 5 die. Rates of birth and of child deaths are consistently higher in SSA than in any other part of the world; the under-5 mortality rate of 163 per 1,000 is twice that of the rest of the developing world and 30 times that of industrialized countries (UNICEF 2006). Of the children who are born, 65 percent will experience poverty, 14 million will be orphans affected by HIV/AIDS directly and within their families and one-third will experience exclusion because of their gender or ethnicity.Publication Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.