Concept Note: Inter-Faith Harmony Week DAPP Thematic Meeting (Faith and Development) Background The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) is hosting a thematic meeting on Faith and Development in cooperation with Danmission and the Danish Arab Partnership Program on the occasion of World Interfaith Harmony Week. The meeting will also serve as a RIIFS seminar which will bring together both DAPP and RIIFS partners in order to discuss and exchange ideas and experiences on different themes related to faith and development. The World Interfaith Harmony Week was initiated in 2010 by H.M. King Abdullah II of Jordan and adopted by the UN. It has since been held annually during the first week of February. The World Interfaith Harmony Week is based on the pioneering work of The Common Word initiative. This initiative, which started in 2007, called for Muslim and Christian leaders to engage in a dialogue based on two common fundamental religious Commandments; Love of God, and Love of the Neighbor, without compromising any of their own religious tenets. The objectives behind the World Interfaith Harmony Week are: I. To co-ordinate and unite the efforts of all the interfaith groups doing positive work with one focused theme at one specific time annually, thereby increasing their collective momentum and eliminating redundancy. II. To harness and utilize the collective might of the world’s second-largest infrastructure (that of places of worship — the largest being that of education) specifically for peace and harmony in the world. III. To permanently and regularly encourage the silent majority of preachers to declare themselves for peace and harmony and providing a ready-made vehicle for them to do so. Faith and Development Established in 2003, DAPP is Denmark’s collaboration program with the Middle East and North Africa. The program helps to strengthen good governance and ensure economic opportunities, especially for young people and women in the region, through partnerships. Among the family of partners, DAPP facilitates regular thematic meetings geared towards an exchange of cross-cutting experience and skills. Faith and Sustainable Development do not always mix well. In fact, much of international relief and development work has in the past tried to steer clear of the involvement of faith leaders and faith-based organizations. But in a world where 80% of the population identify with a particular religion and respect and follow religious leaders and systems, there is reason to look for ways of constructively working with religion for sustainable development, not around it. Danmission and RIIFS, partnering under DAPP, have over recent years collaborated on training teachers in preventing religious-based extremism in Jordanian public and private schools. Out of this experience, RIIFS and Danmission want to host the discussion on potentials and risks of faith-sensitive development work in Jordan and the MENA. The meeting sessions will focus on four topics: the Sustainable Development Goals, Faith and Development, Youth and Gender. These subjects are related to Inter-Faith Harmony Week since the latter calls for the promotion of religious and cultural understanding, harmony, cooperation for peace, interreligious & intercultural dialogue and the elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief. • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): This session will cover RIIFS’ overall work on SDGs through its projects while interacting with attendees and partners, who will brief the audience on their organization’s work on similar or other SDGs, as well as the vitality of adhering to them to contend sustainability at work. SDGs such as Good Health and Well-Being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and much more leads, indirectly, to altering the perspectives that might be seen as factors confronting the process towards peaceful societies. Furthermore, this the session will demonstrate how SDGs can be achieved through working with societies by addressing all community members regardless of their diverse backgrounds (youth, males, females, followers of different religions …etc.) • Faith and Development: This session will look at the Faith and Development nexus and why it should interest in different partner organizations linked to RIIFS and/or DAPP. What does working with faith-based organizations and religious leaders mean for reach, access and impact of development projects? What risks are there and how can they be mitigated? How has the opinion on this topic developed in the international donor community in recent years? • Youth and Gender: These two sessions will highlight the interrelation between youth and gender by focusing on faith-based aspects through scrutinizing the significance of targeting male and female youth as they play a major role in establishing and sustaining peaceful & tolerant societies that are considered as one of the goals that the InterFaith Harmony Week calls for achieving. Accordingly, this session will highlight: - RIIFS work on “Tourathna: Our Shared Heritage” project which targeted youth and conducted work towards raising awareness on the importance of promoting and preserving national heritage sites since they carry mutual importance for followers of different religions, thus emphasizing that it is the responsibility of the community as a whole to take care of national heritage as it belongs not to a specific group but rather to the entire Jordanian Community. - The promotion of sports among male and female youth and its vital role since sports reflects core humanitarian values that all religions call for, such as respect for others, selflessness (in play), trust (in teammates) and humility (the ethos of sportsmanship). Moreover, this discussion will also highlight some of the problems that can face youth, especially females, when it comes to practicing sports due to social norms and traditions that can be linked to religion, and how these problems can be tackled. - Demonstrating how Social Emotional Learning methods can invoke spirituality as an instrument to help in raising male and female youth self-awareness and self-understanding, which eventually leads to a society with young individuals who understand, accept and respect one another. - Gender Equality in terms of involving both males and females in implementing projects (gender-based work), as well as, women’s rights in the community and the role of the activists in the community’s legislative body in amending specific legislation in order to ensure equality to all the citizens regardless of their backgrounds. Meeting Agenda 9:00 Arrival 9:30 Welcoming attendees Ms. Ala’a Atari (Project Manager - RIIFS) Dr. Andreas Thulstrup (Head of Office - Danish Programme Office) Ms. Line Stange Ramsdahl (Regional Manager - Danmission) 10:00 Sustainable Development Goals Mr. Hussein Webkh (Project Coordinator - RIIFS) Ms. Bushra Dmour (Project Coordinator - RIIFS) Ms. Ala’a Atari (Project Manager - RIIFS) Mr. Majdi Al-Hmood (Project Coordinator - RIIFS) 10:45 Faith and Development; why should it interest you? Dr. Ekkardt Sonntag (Program Advisor - Danmission) 11:30 Coffee Break 12:00 Youth Mr. Majdi Al-Hmood (Project Coordinator - RIIFS) Mr. Ali Haddad (Country Director - GAME) Ms. Amani Jouz’a (Interpersonal Development Program Specialist - Jubilee School) 13:30 Lunch 14:30 Gender Equality Ms. Maysa’a Farraj (Programs Manager - Jordanian Women’s Union) Ms. Leen Kayyaht (Lawyer) 15:30 Takeaways