Social and economic development

Students of School for Girls, Tehran, 13 August 1933. The school was closed by government decree in 1934. Source: History of Bahá'í Educational Efforts in Iran.

Reddit has related posts about social and economic development:

• The announcement of the Bahá’í International Development Organization

Social and economic development is an aspect of social action in the Bahá'í Faith, by which the social and economic well-being of communities are improved through the development of skills and capacities of service to humanity. The Bahá'í Writings promulgate a number of social principles that are directly related to human development, including universal education, the equality of men and women, the fundamental harmony between science and religion, and others.

Bahá'ís around the world have long concerned themselves with the social and economic development of the communities, regions and nations in which they live. Early development efforts promoted by Bahá'ís involved giving greater freedom to women and promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, particularly in Persia; this involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and clinics.

The accelerated growth of the worldwide community in the 1960s-1980s expanded it with a large number of poor, illiterate villagers and tribal peoples in India, Africa and South America, which meant an enormous challenge for the social and economic development of communities. According to the Bahá'í teachings, development should increase people’s self-reliance, communal solidarity, giving access to knowledge, and, where possible, removing sources of injustice. Spiritual, moral and material development should be linked together.

The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released. The Office of Social and Economic Development was established and Bahá'ís were urged to seek out ways, compatible with the Bahá'í teachings, in which they could become involved in the social and economic development of the communities in which they lived. Worldwide in 1979 there were 129 officially recognized Bahá'í socio-economic development projects. By 1987, the number of officially recognized development projects had increased to 1482.

Examples of short-term projects are health camps, training seminars, tree-planting and environmental clean-up projects. Long-term projects include literacy, health care, agricultural and environmental projects. Most of the projects are schools, which range from village tutorial schools to large secondary schools, and some universities.

The Bahá'í International Community, an international non-governmental organization, maintains a presence devoted to supporting and coordinating socio-development activities at the United Nations as well as presenting papers and reports of activities of the religion to UN agencies. Bahá'ís and interested parties have participated in an annual conference since 1999 sponsored by the Rabbani Charitable Trust in Orlando Florida. The Bahá'í Chair for World Peace is located at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management under the auspices of the College of Behavorial and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland.

A recent development has been the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival which showcases films from around the globe about the social aspects of human life.

See also

• Bahá'í radio
• Bahá'í school
• Bahá'í Faith and gender equality
• Huqúqu'lláh - Payments of Huqúqu'lláh support general human welfare
• List of Bahá’í-inspired development organizations

External link

• Bahai.org: Social and Economic Development

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Socio-economic development (Bahá'í).