Faith-Based Organizations and Climate Resilience: Mitigating Poverty in Politically Unstable States

Abstract

This paper focuses on the importance of faith-based organizations (FBO) in enhancing climate resilience and reducing poverty in politically unstable states. With increased environmental shocks (including droughts, floods, resource scarcity, etc) due to climate change, vulnerable groups in weak and conflict-ridden situations are at greater risk of poverty, displacement, and social unrest. Formal state institutions are either weak or nonexistent in a large number of these environments and provide governance vacuity with which faith-based organizations tend to provide. Based on the available literature and the case studies selected in Sub-Saharan Africa the research examines the contribution of FBOs in climate adaptation by mobilization of communities, humanitarian aid, social protection and sustainable livelihoods programs. The research design is a qualitative one in which the researcher conducts a document analysis study and thematic synthesis of empirical studies to establish significant patterns in the faith-based participation in climate resilience. The results show that FBOs can augment the adaptive capacity through tapping into local trust, moral authority, and broad grassroots networks to create environmental awareness, disaster preparedness and poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, their effectiveness can be adversely affected by such issues as scarce resources, the lack of coordination with government and international parties, and political and security limitations. The paper finds that building more partnerships between faith-based organizations, governments and development agencies will enhance the resilience outcomes in weak settings. It also brings out attention of the necessity of inclusive policy strategies that can appreciate the strategic importance of religious actors in managing climate and poverty.