Religion i utvecklingssamarbete : En kvalitativ studie om hur anställda på Sida upplever religionsfrågor som komponent i arbetet

Sammanfattning: This study's main aim is to contribute with an insight regarding how employees of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) experience religion as a component of development work in religious contexts. The study focuses on whether or not religion is given enough space within Sida's development work and if the policies of Sida are enough to cover the needs in religious contexts. To answer these questions we have interviewed six employees of Sida which holds experiences of development work in religious contexts. The results show a lack of knowledge and encouragement of these questions within Sida and that the interviewees experience religion as a complex concept. The study also shows that the interviewees find policies, methods and tools within Sida as inadequate to cover the needs of religion in development work. In order to highlight and to problematize the results, the study has mainly been inspired by the secularization, the post-secularization and the sacralization theories that focuse on the role of religion in the public sphere.