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ABOUT - HISTORY"Global health seems to have found religion. And religion appears to have found public health. So much for a match made in heaven..." - Deborah McFarland 2007 phase 1: ARHAP 2002-2011The African Religious Health Assets Programme was established in 2002 when a working group met at the Carter Center, in Atlanta USA, under the auspices of the Interfaith Health Program to consider a proposal for a global religious health assets initiative. The initiative recognized the general paucity of studies on faith based organizations working in health, both in respect of knowing what is there, and in extensively, intensively and intelligently assessing what faith based initiatives do best, and how they do this, in the face of growing public health crises in many parts of the world. Africa became the first regional focus because it was seen to offer the possibility of learning a great deal of relevance globally, given major public health challenges, a complex mix of religious traditions in varying contexts, and a wide variety of actors in the field of health. It was also ethically and epistemologically significant to consider Africa as the appropriate initial learning ground for a global initiative. ARHAP was therefore formally launched in December 2002, at a meeting in Geneva. In this first phase, ARHAP refined its focus and conceptual framework and extended its dialogue with religious and public health agencies, practitioners and intellectuals, particularly in Africa. Examples of broader supportive and collaborative activities includes:
Over the last ten years – the knowledge base has expanded rapidly, building on a broad range of interests, as well as a number of primary research projects in countries such as South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, the DRC, Mali, in the USA – as well as many other linked and satellite projects in other locations. For example:
Key institutional partners involved in these joint research activities in Phase 1 were: The Interfaith Health Program, Emory University; The University of Cape Town (UCT); The University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN); The University of the Witwatersrand (WITS); the Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC) - and many other specialist individual collaborators (...see collaborating partners for more...) There has been a rapid expansion of the network, as well as the number of institutions and individuals interested in the intersection of religion, health and development. We judge the impact of this work mainly by the expansion of this collaboration and the joint learning that occurs across the network. Other outputs, which have also rapidly increased, are: journal article and book chapter publications by affiliated individual authors, several books to be published in 2011-2012, completed research reports, students completing graduate work, conferences and colloquia, and the like. When ARHAP completed its first phase during 2011, the programme was evaluated and partners' advice was sought as to the value of continuing the collaborative programme. It was widely agreed on that although the field of interest had developed significantly, there was still many evidence gaps, areas requiring further research attention, value in a collaborate network, and lasting role to continue pushing the research agenda.
phase 2: IRHAP 2012-2015At the end of 2011, ARHAP was relaunched - building on its established network, but with a renewed form and focus. The IRHAP Hub (the operational centre) remains at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), but has been relocated from the Department of Religious Studies to the School of Public Health and Family Medicine (SPHFM). Core support for this move and relaunch has been generously provided by Methodist le Bonheur Healthcare (Memphis, TN) This move adds a new group of public health experts to the work and a more significant connection to a broader range of public health projects, many with an Africa-focus and expertise. Another significant effect of the move is the more central involvement of Prof Lucy Gilson in IRHAP activities. Lucy is the head of the Health Policy and Systems Programme at the SPHFM, and brings not only her extensive personal expertise, but also a more sustained focus to the work on health systems and policy. IRHAP also fits into the SPHFM in relation to its commitment to multi- and interdisciplinary work, and its curiosty towards issues of complexity. Reflecting better its unfolding work, its name also changes to the International Religious Health Assets Programme (IRHAP). The original vision of ARHAP was to ground its primary research in Africa. Based in several African institutions with Northern participation, its goal was to generate knowledge in and from Africa that would be of global significance elsewhere – a reversal of the usual flow of knowledge. Yet, from the outset, that goal was understood to be a contribution to a necessary global movement, with ARHAP as one node supporting related efforts elsewhere in the world. IRHAP, with its new Hub in the SOPHFM, is thus a natural evolution in this direction. This move fits well with the growing international attention among public health agencies and leaders to the role and potential contribution to health of religious entities and activities, providing an enhanced focal point for research in this field. It also fits very well with the way in which the Programme has been developing in recent times. However, although the field and the number of individuals and institutions engaged have expanded rapidly, the collaborative retains the important intention - to operate as an international collaborative that intentionally works at the intersection of different disciplines and interests. (...more on IRHAP nature...) As IRHAP transitions into Phase 2, the following goals have been set:
"…what I have tried to show here is how profoundly religion has been intertwined with the public health movement over a long time, as a counter to what one might call a general lapse of memory in the field of public health about this history..." - Jim Cochrane 2008 |
