wfn.org | Baha'i News: Baha'i-inspired development program highlighted at U.N. meeting

[Brad Pokorny <bradpokorny@comcast.net>]

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Baha'i-inspired development program highlighted at U.N. meeting

UNITED NATIONS, 19 May 2008 (BWNS) -- A Baha'i-inspired program that has
trained thousands of people in Honduras and Colombia to contribute to
rural
development was highlighted as a model for sustainable development at a
major U.N. meeting this month.

The program, known as SAT -- an acronym for Sistema de Aprendizaje
Tutorial
(Tutorial Learning System) -- was presented in a three-hour workshop
during
the 16th session of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, held
5-16 May at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The Baha'i International Community also sponsored two side events at
this
year's session of the commission - a panel discussion on "The Ethical
Dimensions of Climate Change: Implications for Africa's Agricultural and
Rural Development" and another titled "Sustainable Development Without
Rural
Women?"

Nineteen Baha'is from nine countries attended this year's commission as
civil-society participants, said Tahirih Naylor, a representative of the
Baha'i International Community to the United Nations.

"Occurring against a backdrop of both the food and climate change
crises,
the commission this year provided a key platform for Baha'i delegates to
emphasize the importance of agriculture . in our global development
strategy," said Ms. Naylor.

The SAT workshop, titled "SAT: A Model for Building Capabilities for
Sustainable Rural Development," was part of the commission's "Learning
Centre" program and featured an extended discussion of the spiritual and
moral principles that undergird the initiative.

"It's not simply about poverty alleviation," said Erin Murphy-Graham, a
faculty member in education at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Development is about building human capabilities."

Dr. Murphy-Graham, a Baha'i who has researched the effects of the SAT in
Honduras, particularly in terms of the empowerment of women, said the
program seeks first to develop capabilities in individual and group
decision-making, given that individual transformation must parallel
societal
transformation.

"We don't see that these two processes can be separated," she said.

Barry Smith, one of the founders of the Bayan Association, a
Baha'i-inspired
nongovernmental organization in Honduras that has made extensive use of
the
SAT program, said it is different from other initiatives in that it
develops
people's attitudes, skills, insights and knowledge, and empowers
participants by showing they have what is necessary to improve their own
circumstances.

"There is sometimes a dependency mind-set under which people don't have
a
sense of agency," said Dr. Smith. But with this program, there is a
"rigorous rethinking of fundamental assumptions about the nature of
development and its protagonists."

The SAT program was developed by FUNDAEC, a private educational
foundation
based in Cali, Colombia.

The panel discussion on the ethical dimension on climate change focused
on
the impact global warming is likely to have on agriculture and rural
development in Africa, and how understanding the moral dimensions of
climate
change is critical to addressing the unfolding crisis.

"We need to educate for the reality of our interdependence," said Dwight
Allen, a specialist in educational reform at Old Dominion University in
Norfolk, Virginia.

"We need tools (for) solving problems from a moral perspective.
Education
can provide some of these tools," said Dr. Allen, who is a Baha'i.

He also noted that women and youth are untapped resources in efforts to
address the challenges of climate change.

The BIC-sponsored discussion on sustainable development and rural women
highlighted the fact that, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization, women are responsible for half the world's food production
and, in developing countries, produce between 60 and 80 percent of food.

"We have to come to terms with the fact that the face of the farmer is
female," said Jeannette Gurung, an expert in forestry and gender
development
with Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource
Management (WOCAN).

Dr. Gurung said agricultural funding and management institutions should
be
more responsive to women, and that women themselves must learn their
rights
and demand the services and assistance they need.

For more information, including photographs, go to
http://serv04.news.bahai.org/story/633