Led by Deus Bazira, director of the Georgetown University Global Health Institute, The Lancet-Georgetown Commission on Faith, Trust, and Global Health aims to create a rapport between faith and religious community leaders and those working on research and the promotion of public health. The goal is to facilitate opportunities for the two sectors to develop greater mutual understanding and trust for each other — the Commission believes that if each sees the other as indispensable, progress towards societal wellbeing will advance. The Commission will inform strategies for establishing dialogue and understanding between faith community actors and public health officials so that they can collaborate effectively to promote global health and wellbeing. 

This funding will contribute to the Commission:

• Gathering and systematically analyzing research on the role of faith communities and their leaders in building trust and sharing information in public health crises, with an emphasis on learning from COVID and other recent major public health events;
• Identifying and surfacing models and lessons to establish and deepen trusted partnerships between faith communities and public health agencies at the global, national, and local levels across a range of community settings;
• Providing small subgrants for researchers to conduct research based on questions and priorities identified by Commissioners;
• Recommending strategies for engaging faith actors as trusted messengers for sharing and transmitting vital public health information to their communities;
• Disseminating such findings through publications and events, including publication in The Lancet and other media. 

Some of the specific working groups and topics from the Commission are planned to be embedded into Georgetown University’s Faith and Global Health Initiative, as well as in other university departments and institutions, to increase the likelihood that recommendations will be implemented. The Lancet Commission on Faith, Trust, and Public Health Commission thus serves as a foundational phase for Georgetown’s Faith and Global Health Initiative.