Washington, DC – (1 July 2014) – The John Templeton Foundation (JTF) has awarded IGE with a $2.5 million grant to support IGE’s work in Southeast Asia; this follows the first JTF grant that was awarded in 2012. The new JTF grant provides advanced training and publications on religion and the rule of law. It builds on IGE’s 10+ years of engagement in the region, and especially on the June 2013 agreement between the University of Social Sciences and Humanities-Vietnam National University (USSH), Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), and IGE.

The grant will allow IGE and its partners to deepen and expand cutting-edge programming in Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos, and Indonesia, demonstrating IGE’s theory of change and strategy of transformation, while incorporating opportunities for comparative analysis. In addition, projects funded under the grant will provide training of trainers (vital to long-term sustainability), conferences, and publications to support a regional network of local law and religion experts, adding to the legitimacy and credibility of their reform efforts. IGE will also provide training on diplomatic, global and religious issues, and will engage in scholarly exchanges between USSH-VNU and ICLRS to examine the question of how religious freedom is/is not interdependent with other rights and freedoms—and how these issues impact the global geo-political environment today.

About the Institute for Global Engagement – The Institute for Global Engagement works at the critical intersection of religion and global affairs, building sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide. Through local partnerships, IGE works transparently to convene, connect, and build consensus among government, religious leaders, and scholars to ensure that all people, of any religion or no religion, have full freedom of conscience and can participate as equal citizens in public life. To learn more about IGE’s engagement in the Asia, please contact Vice President for Overseas Programs James Chen at jchen@globalengage.org.