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NORGLOBAL2-Norge - global partner

The Power of Ideas: Muslim Humanitarians and the SDGs (HUMA)

Alternative title: Ideers makt: muslimske humanitære aktører og bærekraftsmålene

Awarded: NOK 6.0 mill.

Project Number:

301874

Application Type:

Project Period:

2020 - 2024

Funding received from:

Location:

Subject Fields:

Partner countries:

The United Nation's Agenda 2030 - setting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - calls for new, global partnerships for sustainable development, and recognizes the significance of including private and public, secular and religious actors. Actors who have earlier been skeptical of universalist agendas (such as human rights), including Muslim humanitarian actors, are endorsing Agenda 2030. The SDGs thus appear to have broader acceptance than did earlier global agendas. The HUMA project sets out to understand how Muslim humanitarian actors relate to, interpret and respond to the SDGs, focusing on SDG 4 (education), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 17 (global partnerships). The project will shed light on often unspoken differences in ideas, norms and values that underlie humanitarian operations, policies and practices. In our study we have focused on Muslim humanitarian actors' work with (1) humanitarian relief; education and 3) gender equality. We have juxtapose global and local perspectives through six interconnected case studies. At the global level we focus on (i) intergovernmental Islamic organizations, (ii) international Muslim NGOs, and (iii) organized Muslim philanthropic initiatives. At the local level we focus on three field-based case studies of Muslim humanitarian actors in (iv) Indonesia, (v) Nigeria and (vi) Pakistan. Led by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), HUMA is a collaborative effort between researchers in Norway, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. We have produced new empirical data through interviews, observation and document analysis, and contribute to North-South and South-South co-creation of knowledge. The project provides new knowledge about an increasingly important set of humanitarian actors, including concrete insight into challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the SDGs, and to further the emerging research agenda on new humanitarian actors. Project start during the pandemic gave us the opportunity to follow Muslim humanitarian actors' reaction and work through the crisis. Case studies from the three countries show that Muslim humanitarian organizations have played an important role; they have not only provided much-needed help, but also helped to sustain religious communities by facilitating religious practices and rituals in times of crisis. All project fieldwork has been completed in 2023, and analysis has been facilitated by two project-wide workshops (online in June and in Oslo in October 2023) and one conference participation (6 November 2023). In the study from Indonesia, we find that the government is very committed to the SDG agenda and has proactively involved religious civil society in the process. Muslim humanitarians, especially the zakat organizations, have taken on board the SDGs, not only supporting the government in its efforts, but leveraging the SDGs to gain momentum for the zakat movement. In Nigeria and Pakistan, the government has not prioritized cooperation with religious civil society, and there is a general divide between the foreign-funded development NGOs and organizations funded by Islamic charity. In these two countries, Muslim humanitarian actors relate little to global development discourses. In our further analysis, we have focused on how the SDGs are interpreted in an Islamic framework, but also how the implementation of the SDGs relates to the call for new partnerships and the localization agenda, and especially on religious-secular cooperation. In the study from Pakistan, we find that 'localization' is mainly about large established national NGOs having greater influence. The smaller, local actors, especially the religious organizations, have not become more influential. We find a large gap between the large, often western-funded organizations and the smaller local organizations funded by Muslim alms, and that both sides are skeptical and reluctant to cooperate. Further, we have investigated how transnational Muslim humanitarian actors relate to global agendas such as the SDGs and find that "Islamic social finance" has become an established category for aid funding and that work to translate between these global goals and Islam is done by many different actors. We find that Muslim humanitarians and the UN are working together to exploit the potential of Muslim philanthropy and Islamic financing, and that this is increasingly being used for both humanitarian aid and development assistance. We have taken a closer look at the experiences of UN organizations, which in recent years have established procedures for zakat management which aim to be in accordance with both Islam, humanitarian principles and the sustainability goals. We have further investigated this shift towards "Islamic social finance" and its implications for secular-religious dynamics within international aid. We find that Islamic social finance challenges - and perhaps changes - prevailing religious-secular dynamics in international aid.

The HUMA project sets out to understand how Muslim humanitarian actors relate to, interpret and respond to the SDGs, focusing on SDG 4 (education), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 17 (global partnerships). The project will shed light on often unspoken differences in ideas, norms and values that underlie humanitarian operations, policies and practices. Through our focus on ideas, norms and values, HUMA contributes to theorizing norms and normativity in the humanitarian field beyond Western-dominated perspectives. We do this through a focus on Muslim humanitarian actors' work in 1) humanitarian relief, 2) the provision of education and 3) how gender equality agendas are implemented. The HUMA project will juxtapose perspectives from Muslim humanitarian actors operating on the global institutional level, with those working locally with implementation of humanitarian assistance in the field. HUMA builds on six interconnected case-studies, teasing out normativity and ideas in the humanitarian field. Examining perspectives from above, we focus on (i) intergovernmental Islamic organizations, (ii) international Muslim NGOs, and (iii) organized Muslim philanthropic initiatives. From below, we focus on three field-based case studies of Muslim humanitarian actors in (iv) Indonesia, (v) Nigeria and (vi) Pakistan. Perspectives from above and below will be analysed adopting a cross-country and cross-level comparative approach. The data collected and analysed totals 60-90 key informant interviews, 120-150 semi-structured interviews with Muslim humanitarian actors, as well as relevant documents and web-based sources from studied actors. HUMA will produce new knowledge about little-studied humanitarian actors who are increasingly becoming part of the mainstream humanitarian field. Responding to pressing needs in the humanitarian field, HUMA furthers the emerging research agenda on new humanitarian actors and stimulates North-South and South-South co-creation of knowledge.

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Funding scheme:

NORGLOBAL2-Norge - global partner