Global Health Institute

The Georgetown University Global Health Institute’s Faith and Global Health Initiative (FGHI) aims to strengthen relationships and mutual understanding among faith and global health communities, to explore diverse perspectives on how beliefs interact with health in society, and to work together with faith community actors and public health officials to strengthen investment, trust, and delivery in health services and our shared well-being locally and globally.

By establishing connections, networks, and a foundation of shared understanding between leaders of both spaces, the initiative hopes to broaden public understanding of the vital importance of global health to both our own health and our moral commitments.

Faith-based institutions and communities are sources of meaning, purpose, and guidance in the lives of billions. Religion inspires behaviors and actions, and hence faith can have a positive impact on people’s choices. This is more critical given that more than 80% of the world’s population subscribes to some form of faith. Religious entities are actively involved in delivering health services around the globe, including serving as substantial providers of health care, especially in many African countries.

By establishing connections, networks, and a foundation of shared understanding between leaders of both spaces, the initiative hopes to broaden public understanding of the vital importance of global health to both our own health and our moral commitments. The FGHI also seeks to engage the vast network of faith-inspired health care providers that play such a central role in health care delivery across the world, particularly in marginalized communities and hard-to-reach geographies. It seeks to map and support that network, explore the unique perspectives, opportunities, and challenges that a faith orientation can bring to health care delivery, and better connect those organizations and practitioners to the wider global health movement. In doing so the initiative seeks to amplify the contribution and impact of faith-inspired health systems and their effective engagement in global, regional, and national health policy discourse.

The initiative is rooted in Georgetown’s history as the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States. This heritage is embodied today through an emphasis on interfaith dialogue and on leading a life of deeper meaning, belonging and purpose. FGHI works in collaboration with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs which, since 2006, has focused on building knowledge and advancing cooperation through research, teaching, and dialogue to promote a more just and peaceful world. The center believes that a comprehensive examination of religion and norms is critical to address complex global challenges and that the open engagement of religious and cultural traditions can promote peace.