By BERNARDO KLIKSBERG

While non-governmental organizations active in health, education, microenterprise and environment have long been applauded for supplementing traditional government services, religious organizations are now also gaining recognition for their contributions in these areas.

Religious groups are active in nearly every one of the region's cities, towns and villages. In addition to providing a sense of identity and community, church organizations deliver vital social services. These range from church-affiliated schools and hospitals to orphanages, rural clinics, urban soup kitchens and all manner of emergency assistance. In many of the poorest settings, religious groups are the only source of such services.

IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias has spoken frequently about this dimension of civil society and has encouraged groundbreaking meetings with representatives of religious groups. The most recent of these took place in December, when 70 leaders of Jewish communities from 12 Latin American countries, together with senior officials from the principal multilateral lending institutions and representatives of Israeli and United States Jewish organizations, met at IDB headquarters. At this unprecedented two-day gathering, organized with the help of the Latin American Jewish Congress and cosponsored by the World Bank, the OAS and American University, IDB specialists offered an analysis of the region's most pressing social and economic challenges, including poverty, inequity, unemployment, malnutrition, school dropout and repetition rates, problems affecting families, and crime, among other issues. They also discussed lessons the Bank has learned through its experience in social sector lending.

The Jewish leaders, in turn, described a rich tradition of social engagement and volunteerism that is rooted in the Hebrew faith. That tradition includes the prophetic admonition to ensure that there "shall be no poor among you" and the notion that everyone should practice "tzadaka". According to the 12th century Spanish rabbi and philosopher Maimonides, "tzadaka" means more than merely helping others and implies an effort to restore the social justice that has been violated by poverty. Jewish teaching also holds that "mitzvoth", or "worthy deeds," is one of the pillars that sustain the world, and that everyone has a duty to work for human justice.

"As Jews, we cannot stop being engaged in social problems," Rabbi Israel Singer, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, told participants. "Not only for ethical reasons, but because we are one of history's most oppressed peoples. For that reason we are especially sensitive to the plight of the oppressed, and we know that poverty is one of the central forms of oppression."

Other speakers described social programs run by Jewish organizations in the region. Many of these initiatives focus on the plight of the "newly poor": families in urban settings whose quality of life suddenly and rapidly has been eroded by economic crises. Speakers profiled programs such as a work retraining center for the newly unemployed run by the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, a professional volunteer group in São Paulo, the Social Development Corporation in Chile, a health center in Venezuela, and similar undertakings by Uruguayan and Mexican Jewish groups.

"All my life, your communities and the state of Israel have impressed me with the capacity to mobilize thousands of volunteers of all ages and generations for social causes," Iglesias told seminar participants. He urged the religious leaders to join forces with the IDB and develop joint projects that will leverage the Bank's expertise with the unique local know-how of Jewish organizations.

-- The author is coordinator of the IDB's Inter-American Institute for Social Development.