Agents of transformation? Donors, faith-based organisations and international development

Recent donor discourse points to the potential of faith-based organisations (FBOs) as 'agents of transformation', mobilising the moral energy, of faith communities in support of the Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs). This new, donor-driven agenda, however, invites scrutiny of complementary processes of organisational change within donor institutions. This article therefore examines donor police and practice concerned with engagement with FBOs. While considering the work of a number of donors, it focuses on the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and traces the reasons for DFID's growing interest in FBOs from 1997. It examines the challenges which DFID faces in further developing this engagement and considers whether it and others donors can themselves become 'agents of transformation', embracing a less material and less secular vision of well-being and a more culturally inclusive approach to partnership. In contrast to recent scholarship, which presents a benign view of the emerging 'faith and development' interface, this article considers it as a controversial new Zeitgeist in development policy and discourse.