His experience points to a potent resource, often overlooked in the North. The spiritual dimension of sustainable development has only recently begun to gain recognition within the international development community. Last October, the World Bank held its first conference on the theme and concluded that a major failing of externally driven development efforts has been that they are not in tune with the beliefs and values of local people. Its President, James D. Wolfensohn, described 'melding economic assistance with spiritual, ethical and moral considerations as a key challenge confronting the World Bank and development community'. In the past experts, particularly in the North, have often seen religion as an obstacle to progress.
Religion can indeed breed superstition, conflict and resistance to change.
But it is also a fundamental part of the cultural reality of most of the poorest people on Earth. Faith is strongest at the grassroots and weakest among the educated elite at both the global and national levels. This can lead to great misunderstanding between experts and those they seek to serve. Laurence Taylor, Director of development studies at the Selly Oak Colleges in Britain, tells the story of a group of Norwegian bureaucrats deputed to evaluate a project in Zimbabwe. In the North, the Enlightenment of the 18th century brokered a divorce between the 'objective' world of science and technology and the 'subjective' world of feelings and faith.