Religions and Sustainable Development: Project report launched at Houses of Parliament event

The AHRC-funded research network "Keeping Faith in 2030: Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals" held its final conference and launched its report at Houses of Parliament.

The AHRC-funded research network "Keeping Faith in 2030: Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals" held its final conference at SOAS University of London on 12th and 13th February 2019. This was followed by a launch of its final report at a panel discussion chaired by the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP and hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Faith and Society in the Jubilee Room at the Westminster Houses of Parliament. The event was also attended by Hilary Ogbonna, programme specialist at the UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) Action Campaign.

The research network, led by Professor Emma Tomalin (University of Leeds) and Dr Jörg Haustein (SOAS) investigated the engagement of religious actors with the SDG process in Ethiopia, India, and the UK. The network hosted a series of workshops in all three countries, which brought together local academics with representatives from faith-based organisations and other civil society actors. Overall the project found little engagement with the SDG consultation and implementation processes, but considerable interest into how the SDG framework might be useful as an advocacy platform. Among the recommendations of the report is a greater mobilisation of religious actors for the SDGs to counterbalance the high level of state capture of the SDG process in the studied countries.

More information about the network and its final report can be found on the project website. Jörg Haustein and Emma Tomalin are planning for further publications and activities resulting from this research network.