Systematization of Learning

At the international level, a process of learning about development calls for a degree of conceptualization that takes into account the broader processes of global transformation under way and which serves to adjust the overall direction of development activities accordingly. In this respect, the Bahá’í International Development Organization, located at the Faith’s worldwide headquarters, sees itself as a learning entity dedicated to the systematization of a growing worldwide experience made possible by the participation of increasing numbers of individuals, agencies, and communities. The functions performed by the Organization provide it with the perspective needed to gather learning about development taking place in Bahá’í communities around the world, to identify and analyze patterns that emerge under one or more sets of circumstances, and to disseminate the knowledge thus generated. When it identifies certain approaches and methodologies that are achieving particularly promising results in some area of action, it can arrange, through consultation with relevant institutions, for pilot projects to be initiated on different continents, the aim being to refine the content and methods and assemble them in a tested program. The program is then disseminated to other countries with suitable conditions and national Bahá’í communities can then adapt it to their specific needs. As the number of institutions involved in carrying out the program grows, arrangements and structures for facilitating the flow of information and learning evolve accordingly, ensuring that communities around the world not only benefit from the program, but can also contribute to its further advancement.

To one or another extent, efforts to systematize and facilitate the flow of learning have been under way with respect to each of the areas described in Areas of Action. The four examples below will help illustrate how this process unfolds.

In the mid-1990s, a group of individuals was invited by the Office of Social and Economic Development (OSED)—the precursor of the Bahá’í International Development Organization—to analyze the experience gained by Bahá’í communities in promoting literacy. On this basis, pilot literacy projects were created in a number of countries. In subsequent consultations, which were arranged to share observations and reflect on achievements, it became increasingly clear that young people aged between, say, 12 and 15, had a particular idealism and energy, and a special receptivity to programs that enhance the power of expression. The junior youth spiritual empowerment program was developed as a result.

In 2002, OSED drafted a document describing the background, characteristics, and general parameters of endeavors aimed at the spiritual empowerment of junior youth. The dissemination of the document lent further impetus to the work with that age group worldwide, and a new stage in the process of learning opened. As projects for junior youth multiplied, OSED sponsored several continental seminars in which representatives from different countries could share their experience, receive training, and formulate plans. When a certain degree of capacity to sustain activity had been developed, the focus of the seminars shifted to the preparation of resource persons in each country who could be deployed to strengthen and enhance the quality of the program.

Over the following two decades, the program was adopted by some 330 Bahá’í training institutes and organizations worldwide. In response to the considerable demand for the program, beginning in 2008, a network of sites for the dissemination of learning was established in all continents in order to support the efforts of these training institutes. These sites, some 60 of which are currently in operation, provide training to coordinators of the program and help systematize and diffuse knowledge accruing in diverse contexts. Gradually, informal arrangements among networks of learning sites in each region have given rise to nine continental or sub-continental offices, established to facilitate the flow of learning in each region. As this process continues to unfold, thought is being given to the further evolution of organizational arrangements at various levels for systematizing and disseminating learning about this program.

The promotion of community schools in regions of the world where the reach of the national education system is significantly limited is a second area receiving systematic attention. In the 1970s and early 1980s, simultaneous to the introduction by the Bahá’í community of large academic schools throughout the world, a global campaign was launched to promote tutorial schools—schools with modest facilities, typically in rural settings, and usually managed by local Bahá’í institutions. Numerous Bahá’í communities around the world were successful in establishing such schools. However, in the absence of institutional capacity at the regional or national levels to support their continued progress, it proved impossible to sustain them.

Over time, two Bahá’í development organizations emerged in Africa, in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, to promote community schools through the provision of a coherent teacher-training program. The evolution of the efforts of Nahid et Hushang Ahdieh Foundation in CAR is described in more detail here. In 2007, informed by the experience accumulated by these two agencies, as well as insights that had previously been gained, OSED outlined elements of a strategy to assist in the systematic establishment of community schools in countries with the institutional and human resources to embark on such an effort.

Since that time, a growing number of Bahá’í-inspired agencies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific have been working toward the multiplication of community schools in villages and towns. As their number has increased, arrangements have been put in place to facilitate the sharing of learning among them. A few organizations with significant experience have begun to act as training centers for emerging agencies, assisting them in their efforts to develop and refine their teacher-training program. In Africa, a secretariat for the network of agencies promoting community schools has been in operation to help develop the institutional capacity of these organizations and to systematize the knowledge being gained across the continent. Questions are now being explored regarding the emergence of similar arrangements in other regions.

Addressing the educational needs of youth, especially in rural areas, has long been a concern for many Bahá’í-inspired organizations. Various programs and materials developed by Bahá’í-inspired agencies have been collected and shared with others, and spaces arranged to consult about their efficacy. Within Latin America, the educational materials developed by FUNDAEC over many years of research and action showed particular promise in both their academic rigor and their effectiveness in assisting young people to develop the capabilities that would enable them to contribute to the spiritual and material progress of their communities.

To respond to the interest shown by an increasing number of Bahá’í-inspired organizations around the world, in the early 2000s FUNDAEC, in consultation with the Office of Social and Economic Development, modified some of its curricular elements and assembled them into a program called “Preparation for Social Action” (PSA). In 2006, OSED consulted with Bahá’í-inspired organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific who were interested in learning about the application of this program in their own countries. In these initial years, FUNDAEC offered technical advice and training, as these organizations learned about the content and the educational approach underlying the materials. Gradually, a global network of organizations began to form, with each contributing to a growing body of knowledge about the implementation of the program in diverse settings. As these organizations gained in strength, they were increasingly in a position to support interested institutions in neighboring countries.

Until now, the PSA program has been implemented in close to 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, reaching over 17,000 participants. Institutions in a number of other countries have requested the introduction of the program, and steps are being taken in this direction. In each continental region, the collaboration of an emerging network of individuals and agencies is giving further impetus to learning about the use of the materials and the capabilities of a promoter of community well-being. In light of possibilities for the further extension of the program, it is envisioned that more formal mechanisms for the systematization of learning will emerge within different continental regions.

Another area in which learning is being systematized is in the field of agriculture. In Africa, while Bahá’í communities have historically given special attention to agriculture, it is only since 2010 that a more systematic approach began to emerge. In that year, the Office of Social and Economic Development initiated conversations with a small number of Bahá’í-inspired organizations on the continent that had gained notable experience with supporting community schools or offering the PSA program. The conversations explored how the capacities and structures that had emerged at the village level as a result of their efforts could lay the basis for an increasingly systematic process of learning around agriculture. Given the reality of the communities in which these organizations were working, such a process, it was agreed, would need to aim at increasing and diversifying production on small farms to help address issues of food insecurity and to contribute to the economic development of farming households. Particular attention would need to be given to enhancing the scientific and technological capabilities of farmers, assisting them to not only make informed technological choices that are consistent with their values and the aspirations they hold for their communities, but to also participate in the process of developing and disseminating new technologies that would merge new advances in agricultural sciences with traditional knowledge. It was hoped that the progress achieved would benefit entire communities rather than a privileged few and would promote relationships of reciprocity and cooperation among farmers, gradually influencing the local food market.

The perspective that emerged as a result of these conversations was that groups of individuals who benefited from these educational programs, most of whom were themselves farmers, could help lead the process of learning at the level of the village, either around the physical and social space of a community school or as part of the collective efforts of a PSA group. The content that was identified to stimulate the process of learning at its initial stages was a text from FUNDAEC focused on food production on small farms, which is at once a record of the organization’s research with farmers in Colombia and a tool for the documentation of context-specific knowledge generated in each country. Research plots that are described in these materials would be established in selected communities to serve as the setting in which new methods related to the production process could be tested and evaluated.

The effort that began in a small number of Bahá’í-inspired community schools in the Central African Republic and Malawi expanded over time to eight other countries including Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The agronomists within this emerging network of organizations meet periodically in gatherings supported by the Bahá’í International Development Organization to reflect on and analyze their experiences and identify new areas of learning. A continental gathering that took place in Uganda in late 2019 allowed a month-long period of study, consultation, and reflection—preparing agronomists to intensify the learning process under way, especially in light of new challenges being faced by the food systems on the continent as a result of issues such as climate change, health crises, and insecurity. Among the questions under consideration at this stage are: what kind of institutional capacity is needed at the local or national levels to sustain an endeavor of this nature? And how can the insights that have been gained be extended to places where Bahá’í-inspired organizations are beginning to engage in the area of agriculture? Glimpses of some of these efforts are described on the page Learning about Agriculture in Africa.