Last November, at an event associated with the International Conference on Family Planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I was struck by a public comment from a representative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): “With almost 90% of people globally professing a faith, it doesn’t make sense to do family planning without the faith community.”

I was bowled over by this statement. I checked up on the claim, and found that, according to the Pew Research Center, 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion is considered “religiously affiliated.”

So the point was valid, and I would go even further: We in global development should be partnering more with the faith community in allareas of global health. After all, if the faith community can work on family planning – fraught with all of its social, cultural and religious baggage – it should also be able to work effectively on less controversial issues like malaria, diarrhea, water and sanitation. Especially in places like Africa where people have a high level of confidence in their religious institutions.

Ray Martin, who is stepping down as executive director of Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) August 31 after 14 years on the job, knows as much as anyone about this issue (Full disclosure: I serve on the board of CCIH).

“While it is gratifying to me over a five-decade career in global health to observe...

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