Social and Economic Development (BIC)/Text

Social and Economic Development (BIC)

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THE BAHÁ’Í APPROACH

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE BAHÁ’Í APPROACH

One of the very encouraging models in the field of social and economic development is that offered by the international Bahá’í community. Based on principles laid down over a hundred years ago in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh¹, the model has emerged slowly on the world scene over the past several decades, as Bahá’ís have been able systematically to apply these principles to their collective life.

1 Bahá’u’lláh (1817–1892): Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith.

Bahá’ís around the world.

“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” Bahá’u’lláh [Page 2]

THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY

Although the community is a religious one – representing the youngest of the world’s independent faiths – it has no clergy. Rather, its affairs are administered by councils democratically elected by secret ballot and functioning at the local, national and international levels. Originating in Persia in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Bahá’í Faith has gradually spread until this administrative structure is now established in over two hundred independent countries and major territories.

The growth has been most rapid in the developing countries. Of the almost 32,000 local Spiritual Assemblies, as the councils are called, the vast majority are to be found in India, Africa, South America, and the Pacific Islands. Even in the materially developed nations, a substantial percentage of the Assemblies are non-urban: Indian reserves and remote northern villages in Canada are examples, as are rural black settlements in the United States.

Bahá’í International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, January ◁ 1977.

Distribution of Bahá’ís around the world. ▷

Over 100,000 ■ Between 100,000 and 10,000 ■ Between 10,000 and 1,000 ■ Under 1,000 ■ [Page 3] A Group of Burmese Bahá’ís.

GROUP DECISION-MAKING

The most interesting feature of the Bahá’í administrative system, from the point of view of social and economic development is the consultative process that animates it. Among the principles guiding the process, all derived from Bahá’u’lláh’s writings, are a striving for consensus, the use of meditation and prayer in preparation for problem-solving, the responsibility of each individual to “set forth his or her conscience,” moderation and courtesy of expression, detachment from ideas once contributed, and the obligation of all to work for the success of projects adopted by Assembly decision.

As the Bahá’í Faith has slowly taken root throughout the world, an important result has been the involvement of great numbers of people in practical experimentation with this decision-making method. Since Bahá’í practice also includes regular consultation of the local Assembly with the entire membership of its community, it would be accurate to say that most members of the Bahá’í Faith are, to one degree or another, students of the consultative process and its moral implications. It is this phenomenon, more than any other, to which Bahá’ís attribute the self-sustaining character of much of their development work.

Bahá’í consultation group, Namibia. [Page 4] Missaghieh Bahá’í Hospital, Tehran, Iran.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The social development possibilities of the Bahá’í approach first became apparent early in this century in Iran (Persia) where the Bahá’í Faith had originated in the middle 19th century and where the community enjoyed the benefits of large numbers of believers and several decades of experience. Severe religious persecution and the depressed condition of the society around them made it apparent to Iranian Bahá’ís that they must look to their own resources for education, health care, and similar social services. The Tehran community opened its first school in 1899 and founded Iran’s first school for girls in 1911. Bahá’í Assemblies throughout the country followed this example until eventually some forty schools were in operation. The quality of education was such that, despite the prevailing prejudice, many non-Bahá’í children were also enrolled. The schools were closed in 1934 as a result of official opposition to the Bahá’í Faith. By 1973, however, despite such handicaps, the community had achieved 100% literacy among Bahá’ís under the age of 40, as against a national literacy rate of 15%.

Similar attention was given by Iranian Bahá’í Assemblies to health care. Health education, sanitary bathing facilities, small clinics and particular attention to the needs of women were among early features. In 1940 the Missaghieh Charitable Hospital, open to all people, was founded in Tehran, followed by a school of nursing, and became one of the most respected medical centers in the country. The facility was expropriated by the new Islamic regime in 1979.

Outside Iran, the chief development concerns of most Bahá’í Assemblies, until the early 1970s, were the cultivation of a united community life, the training of their own memberships in Bahá’í consultative processes, and programs aimed at promoting Bahá’í ideals among the public. In recent years, as the consolidation of communities became apparent and much larger numbers of people have begun to identify themselves as Bahá’ís, these programs have increasingly incorporated a great many social and economic applications. In the process, attention has also focused on Bahá’u’lláh’s precept that Bahá’í Assemblies should see themselves as “trustees” and “servants” to society in general. The effect has been to set in motion an array of grassroots social and economic projects that hold great promise not merely for the betterment of the people immediately involved but also as contributions to refining development theory. [Page 5]

THE GOAL OF DEVELOPMENT

The motivation for these efforts is a conception of the nature of man and society, the authority for which Bahá’ís find in the scriptures of their Faith. "The world," Bahá’u’lláh said, "is but one country, and mankind its citizens." Bahá’ís see the human race as a distinct, organic unit that has passed through evolutionary stages analogous to the stages of infancy and childhood in the lives of its individual members and that is now moving through the culminating period of turbulent adolescence into its long-awaited coming of age. The overriding challenge of the present stage in history is the unification of the race and of the planet, the basic prerequisite for the solution of most social problems.

At the heart of this view of history lies an equally challenging conception of the nature and purpose of man. Neither a fallen creature nor merely the product of socio-economic forces, the rational soul, in the Bahá’í view, is a phenomenon with limitless potentialities: intellectual, spiritual, emotional and moral. It is primarily service to humanity that unlocks individual capacity. Service to the ideal of a global society above all, sacrifice for that ideal will open as yet unimagined possibilities for the development of human nature. In this reciprocal process Bahá’ís see the will of God expressed in our age. [Page 6] Local Spiritual Assembly of Echternach, Luxembourg.

TRENDS IN BAHÁ’Í DEVELOPMENT

Bahá’í development efforts begin from the assumption that in this age all peoples can find both the direction and capacity for development within themselves to the degree that they are able to consult on their needs in a spirit of unity. One aim of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is to assist in generating this spirit. In such a grassroots approach, values and material needs are not artificially separated from one another; education has moral as well as practical implications. Learning the discipline of taking decisions is as important as the material benefits that result from the decisions. Accepting sacrifices for the creation of a healthy community is the principal way in which the potentialities of each individual member are realized. Overcoming barriers of prejudice aligns individual and community life alike with the historical processes that are welding humanity into one global family.

Amid the diverse development experiments that this conception has set in motion around the world, several major trends can be detected.

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION

High on the list of Bahá’í priorities in most parts of the world has been the education of children: some 4,000 Assemblies have so far established regular children’s classes. In addition to moral training, a major aim of these programs is to awaken in children a sense of their identity as members of a single human family and to help them consider how they can serve the ideal of achieving a united world.

△ Bahá’í children, Liberia.

Bahá’í children’s class, Lagos, Nigeria. ▷ [Page 7]

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF WOMEN

Bahá’í display at International Women’s Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 1985.

Bahá’í tutorial school, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Over a century ago Bahá’u’lláh declared that, as men and women are equal in capacity, they must also be fully equal in rights and opportunities. Consequently, a major theme of Bahá’í development activity from its earliest years has been to encourage women in realizing their potentiality. In some villages a pattern of consultation has been cultivated in which Bahá’í men temporarily assume family tasks so as to permit the women to come together to discuss their special contributions to community life. The effectiveness of training programs for women is greatly reinforced by the fact that women everywhere serve on Bahá’í Assemblies, both local and national. Since women have played so prominent a role in Bahá’í history, there has been no lack of feminine role models in either the educational or the administrative field.

Training class for teachers of Bahá’í tutorial schools, Calle, Colombia. [Page 8]

TUTORIAL SCHOOLS

A basic principle of Bahá’í belief is that of universal education. Because most Bahá’í communities are materially poor, Assemblies have sought to respond to this challenge through a wide range of programs, one of the most important of which is the “tutorial school,” usually a one-room facility. At present, several hundred of these institutions operate in 45 countries, each of them designed to provide for the local educational needs as assessed by the Spiritual Assemblies, using available resources.

Some of the tutorial schools have classes in the open air; many use Bahá’í centers or simple structures erected by the villagers. The teachers are young school-leavers returning to the villages, literate adults, or, in a minority of cases, trained professionals. Compensation, often in the form of food and supplies, is extremely modest, and some of the teachers are volunteers. Locally created and unpretentious, the tutorial schools illustrate particularly well the principles of Bahá’í development discussed above. [Page 9]

AGRICULTURE

Because of the unusual importance given to it in the Bahá’í writings, agriculture has tended to attract particular development attention. Poultry and stock husbandry, fish farming, field and orchard crops, training in the use of machinery, farm maintenance and farm economics, reforestation, and plant nurseries have come within the scope of projects launched by local Bahá’í Assemblies. The projects range throughout the developing countries. As resources have increased, National Assemblies in Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, India, Liberia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have begun providing training centers for the support of the work, drawing on the assistance of qualified Bahá’í instructors from more developed countries.

Poultry Farm, Rabbani School, India.

Provincial Bahá’í Office of Social and Economic Development, Kivu Province, Zaire.

AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS IN WALUNGU DISTRICT, KIVU PROVINCE, ZAIRE

The Walungu District of Zaire has proven to be one of the leaders in terms of grassroots agricultural projects. The people of the area, who are characterized by a concern about the quality of their life, had previously lacked the means to bring about needed change. In 1983 the Bahá’í Assembly in the village of Kaniola began a project aimed at multiplying the quantity of improved seeds available in the district. Depleted soils and an inadequately varied diet were creating serious health concerns.

By the spring of 1986 the Kaniola Assembly was able to distribute supplies of improved seeds to 57 of its sister Assemblies throughout the district. [Page 10] Further, soya beans and potatoes had been added to the manioc that had previously been the main staple, an effort involving not merely the production of these other crops but the encouragement of people unfamiliar with them to introduce them into the regular diet. A second Assembly, in the village of Marhale, has now joined Kaniola in the project.

Because malnutrition had been the chief concern leading the Assemblies to launch the project, attention also turned to other means of improving general health. A total of 30 new latrines were constructed in public places throughout the district. Encouraged by this development, Bahá’ís of the area, led by the Spiritual Assembly of Chegga, collaborated with the United States Peace Corps in a project to create spring water catchments. Materials for the construction of the catchments (costing approximately $10.00 per installation) have all been supplied locally.

HEALTH CARE

Health care also illustrates the Bahá’í pattern of social development. Responsibility for the determination of priorities rests with the local Spiritual Assemblies. In Chad, where there has been considerable social disruption, attention has focused on the creation of modest village centres for the distribution of medicines. In several Alaskan communities the emphasis has fallen on alcoholism counselling. Free medical and dental clinics and camps have been organized on a regular or temporary basis in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Training programmes for health workers have become a feature of Assembly work in Asian and African national communities. Throughout the developing countries the active role that Bahá’í women are playing has resulted in the creation of classes giving education in health care.

A Class organized under Bahá’í Basic Health Programme, Thatta, Pakistan.

BASIC BAHÁ’Í HEALTH PROGRAMME ORGANIZED BY BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY OF PAKISTAN

Bahá’í physician and patient, Jangh-Shahi, Pakistan. [Page 11]

BAHÁ’Í RADIO

A small but growing network of Bahá’í radio stations, particularly in Latin America, has emerged as a key element in the Bahá’í development effort. Centered in rural areas where there are large indigenous Bahá’í populations, the stations represent a service offered by the local Bahá’ís to the larger community, reporting local events, fostering local culture, especially music, and providing advice on agriculture and health. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of indigenous languages. Stimulated by the Latin American success, communities elsewhere in the Bahá’í world have now begun to move into the communications field; the first station in the southern United States opened in 1984; one in Liberia in 1987.

Bahá’í radio station WLGI, Hemingway, South Carolina, U.S.A.

RADIO BAHÁ’Í OTAVALO, ECUADOR

Initiated in 1977, the Bahá’í radio station at Otavalo illustrates well the Bahá’í approach to broadcasting. The site was selected by the Ecuadoran National Spiritual Assembly because the region had a substantial number of indigenous Bahá’ís and because the Quechua culture was experiencing serious erosion through exposure to twentieth century technology and values. Approximately 50% of programming is broadcast in the Quechua language (the remainder being Spanish), and the majority of the staff are native Bahá’ís from the nearby countryside. Each staff member, male or female, literate or not, knows how to operate the studio equipment, and all take part in consultation on programming decisions.

A survey indicates that a remarkable 94% of the target audience in the countryside listens regularly or occasionally to Radio Bahá’í, although more than 30 stations can be picked up in Otavalo. Surprisingly, the station is able to achieve this popularity, broadcasting 19 hours a day, seven days a week, on a budget of approximately $35,000 a year. The Bahá’í staff only accept the minimum salary required by government regulation.

Even the technology reflects the grassroots approach. The first antenna was an original design that used inexpensive aluminium irrigation pipe available for local agriculture. Despite initial government skepticism, the broadcast license was [Page 12] awarded when inspecting engineers found the station to be the most efficient 1000-watt transmitter in the country.

Particularly successful programs have included farmer education on vaccination of livestock against hoof-and-mouth disease; the promotion of immunization programs; a twice daily news broadcast focused on local events; and the revitalizing of traditional music. The latter has produced Ecuador’s most popular annual festival of native music. Annual children’s festivals have encouraged the talents of the indigenous people. A matching grant from CIDA has given practical and much appreciated encouragement to these efforts.

Bahá’í radio station Otavalo, Ecuador. [Page 13]

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

The projects described have benefited greatly from the fact that they are taking place in the context of an international community with a demonstrated capacity to set goals and coordinate the use of resources in their accomplishment. For the past several decades the work of the Bahá’í Faith has advanced through a series of global plans characterized by a high degree of cooperation among the member communities. The benefits of this experience are now being seen in the work of social and economic development. In planning local undertakings, Bahá’í Assemblies have available to them practical help and expertise contributed by fellow believers from home and abroad while, within each country, the National Spiritual Assembly sets the priorities and determines the allocation of resources.

Not the least of the system’s benefits is its capacity to facilitate Bahá’í cooperation with funding bodies. Because efforts until the late 1970s focused on community and administrative consolidation, outside funding entered the Bahá’í development program only relatively late. Beginning in 1980, however, a series of successful projects undertaken jointly by Bahá’í communities and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), in countries as diverse as Haiti, India, Thailand, and Ecuador, laid the basis for similar collaborative ventures. Collaborative efforts with a number of other agencies have begun and particular attention is given to working with local government services.

Bahá’í Dispensary, Moissala, Tchad. [Page 14] ◅ Mobile Radio van serving joint project of Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly of Ecuador and Canadian International Development Agency.

AN ENCOURAGING EXAMPLE

Bahá’ís are keenly aware of the fact that, as yet, their development initiatives represent only a very small fraction of the host of projects underway throughout the world. Moreover, there are important elements of the Bahá’í program of community building, particularly the systems of belief and administration underlying it, whose range of operation is necessarily limited to their own community. Nevertheless, they believe that there is much in the community model they have painstakingly constructed over the past several decades that will reward careful study by others in the development field. The most important successes of the approach are systematic and qualitative, rather than those of size and number: the integration of the moral and the practical, a unity of conception that allows for great flexibility of application, above all the ability to arouse and maintain motivation. It is these features that encourage Bahá’ís to share their experience with others.

Group of delegates at Bahá’í International Convention, Haifa, Israel, 1983.

Produced for the Bahá’í International Community Office of Public Information by Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 6 Mount Pleasant, Leicestershire LE15 6HU, England.

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perspective [Page 15] perspective

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