Private Islamic Charity and Approaches to Poverty Reduction

Understanding private Islamic approaches to poverty reduction is key to addressing the huge development challenges in Muslim societies. Yet, these approaches have received scant attention in traditional development research. Through a focus on private Islamic charity approaches to poverty reduction in Pakistan, this project will provide a critical examination of basic assumptions about Islamic charity and contribute new insights to the international development debate.

Four main research questions guide the project:

1. How do private Islamic charity actors in Pakistan and in the diaspora view poverty reduction?
2. How are these views of private Islamic charity actors reflected in actual poverty reduction practices?
3. How are gender roles and issues of gender equity reflected and addressed by private Islamic ‘development agents’?
4. In what way is private Islamic charity, with the aim of poverty reduction in the country of origin, practiced among the diaspora?

This will allow for an exploration of the role of religion in motivating, as well as organizing, development and poverty reduction initiatives, both locally and transnationally. By analyzing concrete examples of private Islamic charity approaches to poverty reduction the project will contribute more general insights about how the normative underpinnings of religion influence the potential for development.

The proposed project will be empirically based, using a range of qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation and narratives. Data collection will take place in Pakistan and Norway, adopting a multi-sited approach.