Five Year Plan (2011-2016)

Five Year Plan (2011-2016)
Epoch	Fifth Epoch
Coordinator	Universal House of Justice
Protagonists	All National Spiritual Assemblies

Divine Plan

Shoghi Effendi

First Epoch (1937-1963)

1st Seven Year Plan (1937-1944) Indian Six Year Plan (1938-1944) British Six Year Plan (1944-1950) 2nd Seven Year Plan (1946-1953) Indian 4½ Year Plan (1946-1950) Persian 45 Month Plan (1946-1950) Persian Women's Four Year Plan (1946-1950) Australian Six Year Plan (1947-1953) Canadian Five Year Plan (1948-1953) Egyptian Five Year Plan (1948-1953) German Five Year Plan (1948-1953) African Campaign (1950-1953) Iraqi Three Year Plan (1950-1953) British Two Year Plan (1951-1953) Indian Nineteen Month Plan (1951-1953) South American Two Year Plan (1951-1953) Central American One Year Plan (1952-1953) Ten Year Crusade (1953-1963) Northeast Asian Six Year Plan (1957-1963)

Universal House of Justice

Second Epoch (1964-2021)

Nine Year Plan (1964-1973) Five Year Plan (1974-1979) Seven Year Plan (1979-1986) Six Year Plan (1986-1992) Three Year Plan (1993-1996) Four Year Plan (1996-2000) Twelve Month Plan (2000-2001) Five Year Plan (2001-2006) Five Year Plan (2006-2011) Five Year Plan (2011-2016) Five Year Plan (2016-2021)

Third Epoch (2021-)

Twelve Month Plan (2021-2022) Nine Year Plan (2022-2031)

The Five Year Plan for 2011 to 2016 was one of a series of Plans carried out under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.

The Plan focused on the systematic establishment of the following four core activities in local Bahá’í communities and ensuring their sustainability:

• Study Circles
• Children's Classes
• Devotional Gatherings
• Junior Youth Groups

As with the previous Plan progress and activity was monitored on a manageable scale using the cluster model with the international numerical goal of the Plan being the existence of programmes of growth in 5,000 clusters globally.

Assessing clusters according to milestones was a new concept introduced at the onset of the Plan, with the first milestone being the establishment of regular core activities and the second milestone being a clusters training institute regularly training people to facilitate core activities, allowing for activities in a region to rapidly increase in a way that can be sustained entirely by the local population. A cluster achieving the second milestone also constitutes the establishment of an intensive programme of growth.

As of the beginning of the Plan 1,600 clusters had an operational intensive programme of growth however the Plan specified that unlike the previous Plan its goal was establishing programmes of growth at any level of intensity. The goal of 5,000 programmes of growth was achieved in 2016.

Over the course of the Plan the Universal House of Justice had outlined plans for the development of curriculums of the Ruhi Institute and how this would affect the core activities, praised and recognized the contributions of youth to the work of the Faith, advised the community of the importance of the arts and ensuring they represent local cultures, and emphasized the importance of worship and service being combined.

Major international Bahá’í events to take place during the Plan included the 114 Youth Conferences held in 2013 and the dedication of the last Continental Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Santiago, Chile in 2016.

Background

Prelude to the Plan

In a December 2010 message to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors the Universal House of Justice announced a Five Year Plan was to begin in Riḍván 2011 and end at Riḍván 2016 and that its overarching numerical goal was to have programmes of growth operating in 5,000 clusters by the end of the Plan. The message notably referred to these programmes as being of any level of intensity, as opposed to specifying they be intensive programmes as in the previous Plan.

The message noted that the 2010 Riḍván message had summarized many of the details and dynamics of Bahá’í community activity which were to continue to be used under the new Plan, and requested the following of the Counsellors:

"Over the coming days you are asked to formulate a clear conception of how the Counsellors and their auxiliaries will assist the community in building on its extraordinary achievements—extending to other spheres of operation the mode of learning which has so undeniably come to characterize its teaching endeavours, gaining the capacity needed to employ with a high degree of coherence the instruments and methods which it has so painstakingly developed, and increasing well beyond all previous numbers the ranks of those who, alive to the vision of the Faith, are labouring so assiduously in pursuit of its God-given mission."

The message reiterated the following facets of community activity to be areas of focus under the Plan:

• Programmes of growth: The establishment of core activities in a cluster.
• Increasing Intensity: Increasing the structure of coordination of core activities to allow for the their sustained and systematic expansion.
• Advancing the Frontiers of Learning: Greatly increasing the number of people facilitating and participating in core activities in a cluster.
• Enhancing Administrative Capacity: Developing innovations to improve functioning at the cluster level, and increasing the capacity of Local and National Spiritual Assemblies, and Regional Bahá’í Councils.
• Service on Bahá’í institutions: Increasing participation in Bahá’í administration and awareness of requirements in those serving institutional roles.

In regards to applying Guidance to practice the message advised the Bahá’ís to avoid isolating phrases and sentences from the messages and instead study the Guidance in full if possible:

"We cannot help noticing, however, that achievements tend to be more enduring in those regions where the friends strive to understand the totality of the vision conveyed in the messages, while difficulties often arise when phrases and sentences are taken out of context and viewed as isolated fragments. The institutions and agencies of the Faith should help the believers to analyse but not reduce, to ponder meaning but not dwell on words, to identify distinct areas of action but not compartmentalize."

The concept of milestones as a means to assess the reality of a cluster was introduced in the message with two milestones being outlined. The first milestone involves the establishment and regular occurrence of any core activities:

"Within every cluster, the level of cohesion achieved among the core activities must be such that, in their totality, a nascent programme for the sustained expansion and consolidation of the Faith can be perceived. That is to say, in whatever combination and however small in number, devotional gatherings, children’s classes and junior youth groups are being maintained by those progressing through the sequence of institute courses and committed to the vision of individual and collective transformation they foster. This initial flow of human resources into the field of systematic action marks the first of several milestones in a process of sustainable growth."

The second milestone is when the training institute in a cluster is receiving a steady flow of new participants of which a significant percentage are then establishing their own core activities and inviting new participants, ensuring self sufficiency and expansion in the cluster:

". . . a steady stream of friends is proceeding through the courses of the training institute and engaging in the corresponding activities, which serves, in turn, to increase the number of fresh recruits into the Faith, a significant percentage of whom invariably enters the institute process, guaranteeing the expansion of the system. This constitutes another milestone that the friends labouring in every cluster must, in time, reach."

A cluster achieving the second milestone is synonymous with it launching an intensive programme of growth.

Execution of the Plan

In December 2011 the Universal House of Justice issued a message to all National Spiritual Assemblies in which it praised the international community for its efforts in the opening months of the Plan. In the message the House provided the following commentary on the pedagogy of the Ruhi Institute, whose curriculum is used by all training institutes:

"The main sequence of courses is organized so as to set the individual, whether Bahá’í or not, on a path being defined by the accumulating experience of the community in its endeavour to open before humanity the vision of Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order. The very notion of a path is, itself, indicative of the nature and purpose of the courses, for a path invites participation, it beckons to new horizons, it demands effort and movement, it accommodates different paces and strides, it is structured and defined. A path can be experienced and known, not only by one or two but by scores upon scores; it belongs to the community. To walk a path is a concept equally expressive. It requires of the individual volition and choice; it calls for a set of skills and abilities but also elicits certain qualities and attitudes; it necessitates a logical progression but admits, when needed, related lines of exploration; it may seem easy at the outset but becomes more challenging further along. And crucially, one walks the path in the company of others."

The message also described the pattern of action for the Plan from two perspectives noted as equally valid. The first is that of providing spiritual education for children, youth, and adults, and the second that of pursuing systematic activity in three month cycles of activity organized into phases of expansion, consolidation, and reflection and planning.

Regarding the training of children's class teachers and junior youth animators the message stated the following:

"A word of caution seems to be in order. It is certainly not incorrect to speak of “training” children’s class teachers or, for that matter, animators of junior youth groups. Institutes, however, ought to take care, lest they begin to perceive their work as training in techniques, losing sight of the conception of capacity building at the heart of the institute process that entails a profound understanding of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation."

The message also advised that children's classes were to use the curriculum provided by the Ruhi Institute and that junior youth groups were to use a set curriculum of textbooks in addition to incorporating the arts and service projects with an emphasis on ensuring any supplementary activities should be produced at the local level:

"What we ask at this stage, then, when energies are to be invested in the extension of children’s classes and junior youth groups, is that the multiplication of supplementary items for this purpose be allowed to occur naturally, as an outgrowth of the process of community building gathering momentum in villages and neighbourhoods. We long to see, for instance, the emergence of captivating songs from every part of the world, in every language, that will impress upon the consciousness of the young the profound concepts enshrined in the Bahá’í teachings. Yet such an efflorescence of creative thought will fail to materialize, should the friends fall, however inadvertently, into patterns prevalent in the world that give licence to those with financial resources to impose their cultural perspective on others, inundating them with materials and products aggressively promoted."

In addition to its general guidance on aspects of the Institute Process the message announced that the House had formed an International Advisory Board to assist the Ruhi Institute in preparing, producing, and distributing its materials.

In the 2012 Ridvan message the Universal House of Justice stated that it felt the community had a firm understanding of the provisions of the Plan and did not require further elaboration. The message also noted the completion of the last Continental Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Chile and that National Mashriqu’l-Adhkár's were to be constructed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Papua New Guinea. The message explained the importance of worship being linked to service, that this was one of the central purposes of Mashriqu’l-Adhkár's, and clusters in which social and economic development efforts were underway had been designated as sites for the dissemination of learning and would likely be candidates for constructing Local Mashriqu’l-Adhkár's in the future.

In a 2013 message the Universal House of Justice noted that youth had been central to the work of the Plan, and that many youth had become active in supporting the goals of the Plan after only a brief association with the Faith itself. As such it announced that 95 youth conferences were to be held across the world that year, which was later expanded to 114.

In the Ridvan 2013 message the Universal Hose of Justice encouraged a nuanced approach to the work of the Plan allowing for various modes of activity and different specific focuses in local communities:

"The friends realize that as these capacities are enhanced, it becomes possible to integrate a wider range of initiatives. Equally, they have come to recognize that when a new feature is introduced it requires special attention for some time, but that this in no way diminishes the significance of other aspects of their community-building endeavours. For they understand that if learning is to be their mode of operation, they must be alert to the potential offered by any instrument of the Plan that proves to be especially suited to a particular point in time and, where called for, invest greater energy in its development; it does not follow, however, that every person must be occupied with the same aspect of the Plan. The friends have also learned that it is not necessary for the principal focus of the expansion phase of every cycle of a programme of growth to be directed towards the same end. Conditions may require that in a given cycle, as an example, attention be primarily aimed at inviting souls to embrace the Faith through intensive teaching efforts, undertaken as individuals or collectively; in another cycle, the focus could be on multiplying a specific core activity."

The message also noted that the Bahá’í community was achieving greater prominence in the field of social and economic development, was refining its participation in prevalent discourses in communities at all levels, and that an Office of Public Discourse had been established at the World Centre.

In the 2015 Ridvan message the Universal House of Justice reported that a few hundred programmes of growth were required to form in the next twelve months achieve the goal of the Plan but also reported that activity was underway in the required goal clusters. Accomplishments reported were the establishment of new offices of the Bahá’í International Community in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Jakarta, Indonesia, the establishment of an Office for the Development of Administrative Systems at the World Centre, and the establishment of a seven member Advisory Board to the Office of Social and Economic Development.

Outcome of the Plan

In its December 2015 message to the Conference of the Counsellors the Universal House of Justice announced that the goal of 5,000 clusters with a programme of growth was to be achieved by Ridvan 2016.

Numerical accomplishments upon the completion of the Plan were:

• 5,000 clusters with a programme of growth.
• 200 clusters working with large numbers of people, some facilitating over 500 core activities.
• 4,500 homefront pioneers
• 10,000 social action projects in each year of the Plan
• 100 Bahá’í inspired development organizations achieving the ability to engage in complex activity and liaise with government agencies and civil societies

There were also several construction developments in the Holy Land during the Plan:

• Walls being constructed around the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh
• The Junayn Garden near Bahji, a site visited by Bahá’u’lláh, was opened to pilgrims in 2011.
• A property adjacent to the central terrace of the Shrine of the Báb was purchased by the Bahá’í community in 2014.
• The House of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa was renovated
• The interior Seat of the Universal House of Justice was refurbished.
• An administrative and maintenance facility was constructed at Bahji.

Another development at the World Centre was the systematization of indexation and cataloguing of Bahá’í Scripture with the majority of texts being digitized to allow for electronic searching, the number of provisional translations into English was increased to allow for faster production of authorized translations. New publications produced and published were a retranslation of Some Answered Questions in 2014 and the compilations Days of Remembrance: Selections from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh for Bahá’í Holy Days which included previously untranslated Tablets.

New institutions established during the course of the Plan were:

• Office of Public Discourse
• Office for the Development of Administrative Systems
• Seven member Advisory Board to the Office of Social and Economic Development
• Addis Ababa Office of the Bahá’í International Community
• Jakarta Office of the Bahá’í International Community

References

• International Teaching Center (2017). "The Five Year Plan 2011-2016: Summary of Achievements and Learning". Bahá’í World Centre.