Our Story

Promoting interfaith
collaboration since 2011

Faith to Action Network began in October 2010 when Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH), Muhammadiyah and DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung) undertook a feasibility study and organized participatory consultations to investigate the strategic and practical considerations of working globally across faiths. The objective was to realise better family planning and reproductive health funding and supportive policies internal and external to faith organizations.As a climax of the consultations, a meeting with leaders from diverse religions and regions across the globe took place in June 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya, resulting in the groundbreaking Interfaith Declaration to improve family health and well-being otherwise known as the Nairobi Declaration. In this Declaration, faith leaders committed to leveraging their networks to support families to have increased access to information and quality services on family planning and reproductive health consistent with their faith.They mandated the establishment of a global interfaith network (Faith to Action Network) to promote dialogue, build the technical and financial capacity of faith organisations and religious institutions, and facilitate sustained joint advocacy and programming in support of family health and well-being. In a meeting held in December 2012 in Addis Ababa, the structure of Faith to Action Network as well as its operational and coordination mechanisms were agreed upon. With a structure and mechanism in place, the Network was officially launched in November 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

The Network has grown to include 110 member organizations and 29 collaborating partner organizations in 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This non-hierarchical network welcomes all forms of faith – lay, clergy, hierarchical, decentralized, religious institutions and faith-affiliated – that respect other faiths, are interested to learn from others, and are willing to seek solutions and collaborate for the common good.
The Network is known for being a southern-born, southern-led global interfaith collaboration. Its focus on finding constructive, interfaith and intercultural solutions for human needs and rights, bridging disagreement and reducing polarization, is unique. The Network and its members have profound experience brokering consensus on family health and well-being, championing women’s rights and gender justice, and advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies, which are at the core of the Faith to Action Network identity. 

Join us in advancing family health and well-being; women’s rights and gender justice; and peaceful, just and inclusive communities.

Join the network