From sermons to change: Reshaping diabetes prevention in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, as congregants gather for the Friday Khutbah, the Imam delivers his sermon. His message, rooted in faith, reaches into daily life, reflecting on the food people eat, the habits they form, the care they seek, and the responsibility they carry for themselves and their communities. The sermon ends, but the message carries on, woven into the social fabric of everyday life. 

Diabetes is rising rapidly in Bangladesh, yet it often remains undetected until complications emerge. Limited access to screening, diagnosis, and treatment is compounded by low awareness of healthy lifestyles and widespread exposure to risk factors. By bringing prevention into trusted spaces embedded in everyday routines, Bangladesh is creating opportunities for people to act before they ever enter a clinic. 

The programme Diabetes prevention through religious leaders in Bangladesh builds on a long-standing partnership between Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (BADAS), the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Islamic Foundation and WDF. Over the past decade, the partners have turned trusted communication into a practical prevention pathway: sermons raise awareness, mosque-based diabetes corners make screening accessible, and referral systems connect people at risk with the formal health system. 

“Preventing diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases requires action beyond health facilities. Bangladesh’s faith-based initiative shows how trusted community leaders can encourage healthier behaviours, early screening, and timely referral while remaining connected to the formal health system. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is committed to partnerships that strengthen prevention and advance national NCD priorities,” says Dr M. A. Muhit, State Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

From sermons to screening

Preventive measures are often most effective when delivered in the right setting and by trusted voices. Although health promotion is not usually an explicit function of places of worship, it aligns closely with the values and practices many faith communities promote. Religion and public health share an interest in wellbeing, and, because most people globally identify with a religion, faith systems offer an important route for culturally relevant prevention. Places of worship can provide trust, social support, and access to people who formal health systems often miss. 

In Islam, the largest religion in Bangladesh, health is understood holistically and linked to ethical living, collective responsibility, and community cooperation (1). Imams’ credibility, together with the regular rhythm of Friday sermons, allows messages to be repeated in familiar language and carried into community discussion. 

“Faith has always shaped how people think, act, and care for one another,” shares Mads Holst Jensen, WDF Programme Manager. “What makes this initiative remarkable is that faith-based messages do not stand alone: they lead to screening, counselling, referral, and follow-up care. Over more than a decade of partnership with BADAS and national stakeholders, prevention has become rooted in trusted community institutions and connected with the health system.”

The programme builds on the foundations of an earlier collaboration in Bangladesh that trained religious leaders and healthcare providers to deliver preconception care and gestational diabetes prevention at scale, reaching thousands of couples and rippling out across the wider community. 

Reflecting on this journey, Prof AK Azad Khan, President of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, emphasises the importance of reaching people underserved by conventional services. “For decades, BADAS has worked to bring diabetes prevention and care closer to people across Bangladesh, particularly those who remain underserved by conventional services. Our partnership with the government, the Islamic Foundation, the World Diabetes Foundation, and other national and international partners has shown that evidence-based prevention can be delivered through trusted community institutions and connected to screening, referral, and follow-up care.”

After prayers, congregants can attend dedicated diabetes corners, where trained Imams and women community health volunteers (WCHV) screen blood glucose, blood pressure, and BMI, while offering practical advice on healthier lifestyles. For women, WCHV help create a safe, comfortable, and private space to be screened and seek advice in a setting that respects cultural and personal boundaries.

Screening results are captured through a digital application linked to national registry systems. People identified as being at risk are then referred for clinical follow-up, allowing community-based prevention to connect directly with the formal health system. 

For Sobia Akram, Member of the WDF Board of Directors, the programme reflects principles at the heart of WDF’s Strategy. “It combines local partnerships, community-based prevention, integrated care pathways, and digital tools to reach people earlier,” she says. “Bangladesh shows how a locally anchored intervention can develop into a scalable model. Addressing diabetes requires solutions that are rooted in trust, responsive to local contexts, and able to strengthen prevention and health systems at the same time.”

Beyond faith and borders

The central tenet of the Bangladesh model: prevention works best when it is embedded in institutions that people know and trust, is one that can reach far beyond Mosques and borders. Through South–South exchange, countries can identify which local institutions hold that trust, shape prevention messages around their cultural and religious contexts, and connect community-level action with national health systems.

This approach has gained international recognition across policy, practice, and research. The World Health Organization has acknowledged the programme through the Global Diabetes Compact, while the WHO South-East Asia Region’s SEAHEARTS platform has highlighted it as a best-practice example of faith-based engagement in noncommunicable disease prevention. A WHO regional report and peer-reviewed commentaries have also placed the Bangladesh experience within a wider discussion of effective service delivery in low- and middle-income countries. 

“Bangladesh has provided something that global health often struggles to find: a locally grounded prevention model that combines scientific evidence with community trust,” shares Peter Schwarz, President of the International Diabetes Federation. “The value of this experience is not that every country should adopt the same approach, but that it illustrates a broader principle: prevention is most effective when embedded within institutions people know, trust, and engage with regularly. As countries search for ways to address the rising burden of diabetes, the Bangladesh model offers an important source of learning and inspiration.”

That principle moved from international recognition to practical debate at the Dhaka International Prevention Summit on 6 August 2026. Jointly organised by BADAS, the Islamic Foundation under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, WDF, the International Diabetes Federation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Summit examined how the model’s core principles could be adapted across countries while remaining rooted in local cultures, institutions, and health systems.

Taking Bangladesh’s experience as a starting point, participants explored how trusted faith institutions can help turn awareness into action when they are connected to screening, referral pathways, and national health systems. Peter Schwarz championed the Bangladesh model throughout the Summit, stressing adaptation rather than replication. Policymakers, health experts, international organisations, and leaders from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity echoed the need to turn evidence into action. Opening the high-level session, Md Aftab Ahmed Khokher reaffirmed the OIC’s commitment to advancing the model’s dissemination. With 57 member states and a reach of some 2.8 billion people, the OIC is well placed to support this effort.

This global commitment took formal shape in the Dhaka Declaration on Faith-Based Diabetes Prevention, endorsed by Summit participants. The Declaration provides a shared policy framework for integrating faith institutions into national diabetes prevention strategies and coordinating adaptation and scale-up across countries.

Faith-based prevention can help countries reach people earlier, connect communities with care, and strengthen diabetes prevention beyond health facilities. The task now is to carry that principle forward in ways that reflect each country’s institutions, cultures, and health-system needs.