The Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) was a five-year peacebuilding programme that worked across faith community lines to address religious violence and discrimination, reconcile divided communities, and promote peaceful, inclusive and just societies.
JISRA was carried out by 50 faith-based partner organisations in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda. Tearfund works in Iraq, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Mali.
Building bridges
The programme used localised, participatory approaches to address the harmful norms and narratives between faith communities that can lead to conflict and violence. It actively sought to shift power to local actors so that decisions could be made by the communities directly affected by conflict.
Getting its name from the word for ‘bridge’ in Arabic, JISRA recognised that faith leaders are central to reconciliation, and worked to build bridges of trust and acceptance between them. Seeking in particular to address gender inequality, it paid special attention to the role of women and youth in conflict resolution, conflict prevention and advancing freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).
