1. Church Perspectives on Aid Effectiveness
Sandra F. Joireman
Department of Politics and International Relations
Wheaton College

2. Types of church based aid
Eight lessons the church can learn from secular development agencies
Five things secular development agencies can learn from the church
Areas of common growth
Presentation Outline

3. Types of church based aid
Churches
Denominations
Parachurch organizations
Large – BINGOS
Small – the guys at Wheaton who just formed an organization
short-term missions
And all of these can be combined
in different ways
Types of church based aid

4. Aid is going to…. Individual churches Development Programs
Relief efforts
Church-based organization of origin
Aid is going to….

5. What can the church learn from secular development agencies?
Lesson 1 Relief ≠ Development There is a time for each The time for relief is short Don’t confuse the two
What can the church learn from secular development agencies?

6. Planning Implementation Assessment
Lesson#2 The community receiving the aid should participate
Cork Community Garden in Ireland

7. #3 Respond only when locals cannot or will not

8. #4 Do Your Homework
Conduct an assessment to find out what the needs are instead of deciding what the needs are before you go.
“I know what you need.”

9. #5 Target assistance based on vulnerability and need

10. #6 only use qualified people

11. CNN followed Sean Penn in Haiti on May 4, documenting the celebrity's life as an aid worker, including his efforts to save a boy with diphtheria.

12. Be patient in spending money Be patient in looking for results
#7 Don’t be impatient

13. #8 Evaluate your programs
Systemically
If possible using randomization
#8 Evaluate your programs

14. What do secular development agencies have to learn from the church?

15. Poverty has a spiritual component

16. Faith needs to be taken seriously
Many people in the developing world are people of faith.
Faith is not peripheral to their lives or insignificant to their level of income. It is a resource
“to ignore the spiritual dimension of life is to ignore the main driving force of many of the poorest people in the world” (Krige 2008:23)
Faith needs to be taken seriously

17. Churches can engage communities

18. People are members of families and communities not just objects to be ‘developed’.

19. Some evidence that faith based service provision is more effective
Evidence from healthcare providers in Uganda Study by Reinikka and Svensson “intrinsically motivated to serve”
Some evidence that faith based service provision is more effective

20. Lessons for both Beware of fads
Focus on underfunded areas that may be of great importance to the society as a whole
Work together and with each other
Stop when it is not working
Lessons for both

21. Investing in people and producing measurable outcomes may be at cross- purposes.
Final dilemma

22. Photocredits
Pointing man - ds.com/astound/asto und.htm
Man with hammer - reports.org/content/H ome/Gallery/Photos/ jpg
Healthcare providers study
worldbank.org/EXTDE VDIALOGUE/Resource s/WfG-Nov pdf