Capacity building is the current “watchword” of the global
plans issued by the Universal House of Justice
The overall direction of the process of learning that the
Baha'i community is pursuing is guided by a series of global plans, the
provisions of which are established by the Universal House of Justice. Capacity
building is the watchword of these plans: they aim at enabling the protagonists
of collective effort to strengthen the spiritual foundations of villages and neighbourhoods,
to address certain of their social and economic needs, and to contribute to the
discourses prevalent in society, all while maintaining the necessary coherence
in methods and approaches. (The Universal House of Justice, 2 March 2013)
“[E]very Bahá’í institution must energetically engage” in the
capacity-building process
What is essential for every National Assembly to acknowledge
in this connection is that, if mutual love and support within the community,
important as it is, becomes the only focus, a stagnant environment engendered
by an insular mentality will develop. The worldwide Bahá’í community is charged
with an historic mission. It must acquire capacity to address increasingly complex
spiritual and material requirements as it becomes larger and larger in size.
The 28 December 2010 message of the House of Justice indicated: “A small
community, whose members are united by their shared beliefs, characterized by
their high ideals, proficient in managing their affairs and tending to their
needs, and perhaps engaged in several humanitarian projects — a community such
as this, prospering but at a comfortable distance from the reality experienced
by the masses of humanity, can never hope to serve as a pattern for
restructuring the whole of society.” The current series of global Plans sets
out provisions for gradually building individual and collective capacity for
the community’s mission. The institutions of a Bahá’í community that has been
allowed to become complacent will find it difficult to protect the younger
members from the forces of gross materialism, with the accompanying moral decay,
that are assailing society. This, then, points to the nature of the
capacity-building process in which every Bahá’í institution must energetically
engage. (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 23 April 2013)
“The capacity building… is still in its earliest stages… the demands of a world in disarray will test… its limits in the years ahead.”
Every follower of Baha'u'llah conscious of the forces of
integration and disintegration operating in society today sees the relationship
between the rise in receptivity to the Faith in all parts of the globe and the
failings of the world's systems. That such receptivity will increase as the
agonies of humanity deepen is certain. Let there be no mistake: The capacity
building that has been set in motion to respond to mounting receptivity is still
in its earliest stages. The magnitude of the demands of a world in disarray
will test this capacity to its limits in the years ahead. Humanity is battered
by forces of oppression, whether generated from the depths of religious
prejudice or the pinnacles of rampant materialism. Baha'is are able to discern
the causes of this affliction. "What 'oppression' is more grievous",
Baha'u’llah asks, "than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to
attain unto the knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it and from
whom to seek it?" There is no time to lose. Continued progress must be
achieved in the activity and development of the three participants in the Plan.
(The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2008)
We “need to gain an understanding of the dynamics of human
resource development”
The accomplishments of these years of prodigious effort have
not been confined to those clusters where the work of large-scale expansion and
consolidation is being thus revitalized. The approach taken during the Four
Year Plan, followed by the Twelve Month Plan and the previous Five Year Plan,
proved instrumental in creating conditions for the believers to extend their
endeavours to a wide circle of people, engaging them in various aspects of
community life. The benefits of the decade-long process of capacity building in
the three participants of the global Plans are now broadly apparent. Everywhere
there was a need to gain an understanding of the dynamics of human resource
development. Everywhere the friends had to learn the requirements of steady
growth - to promote systematic action and to avoid distractions, to bring
certain elements of collective decision-making close to the grassroots and to
create communities with a sense of mission, to encourage universal participation
and to accommodate different segments of society in their activities,
particularly children and junior youth, the future champions of the Cause of
God and builders of His civilization. (The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan
2007)
Development of Local Spiritual Assembly in terms of capacity
building process
…the development of the Local Assembly can best be understood
in terms of capacity building.
What needs to occur in the first instance is relatively
straightforward: Individual awareness of the process of growth gathering
momentum in the village, born of each member’s personal involvement in the core
activities, must coalesce into a collective consciousness that recognizes both
the nature of the transformation under way and the obligation of the Assembly to
foster it. Without doubt, some attention will have to be given to certain basic
administrative functions — for example, meeting with a degree of regularity,
conducting the Nineteen Day Feast and planning Holy Day observances,
establishing a local fund, and holding annual elections in accordance with
Bahá’í principle. However, it should not prove difficult for the Local Assembly
to begin, concomitant with such efforts and with encouragement from an assistant
to an Auxiliary Board member, to consult as a body on one or two specific
issues with immediate relevance to the life of the community: how the
devotional character of the village is being enhanced through the efforts of
individuals who have completed the first institute course; how the spiritual
education of the children is being addressed by teachers raised up by the
institute; how the potential of junior youth is being realized by the programme
for their spiritual empowerment; how the spiritual and social fabric of the
community is being strengthened as the friends visit one another in their homes.
As the Assembly consults on such tangible matters and learns to nurture the
process of growth lovingly and patiently, its relationship with the Area
Teaching Committee and the training institute gradually becomes cemented in a
common purpose. But, of still greater importance, it will begin to lay the foundations
on which can be built that uniquely affectionate and genuinely supportive relationship,
described by the beloved Guardian in many of his messages, which Local Spiritual
Assemblies should establish with the individual believer. (The Universal House
of Justice, 28 December 2010)
Dimensions of “capacity-building process in which the Local Spiritual
Assembly must engage”
Clearly, learning to consult on specific issues related to
the global Plan, no matter how crucial, represents but one dimension of the
capacity-building process in which the Local Spiritual Assembly must engage.
Its continued development implies adherence to the injunction laid down by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá that “discussions must all be confined to spiritual matters that
pertain to the training of souls, the instruction of children, the relief of
the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness
to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of
His Holy Word.” Its steady advancement requires an unbending commitment to
promote the best interests of the community and a vigilance in guarding the
process of growth against the forces of moral decay that threaten to arrest it.
Its ongoing progress calls for a sense of responsibility that extends beyond
the circle of friends and families engaged in the core activities to encompass
the entire population of the village. And sustaining its gradual maturation is
unshakable faith in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s assurance that He will enfold every
Spiritual Assembly within the embrace of His care and protection. (The
Universal House of Justice, 28 December 2010)
Capacity building process: (*) Systematizing the community’s
“experience in the teaching field; (*) Learning “to open certain activities to
more and more people”; (*) Sustaining the community’s “expansion and
consolidation”
In this long-term process of capacity building, the Baha'i
community has devoted nearly a decade and a half to systematizing its
experience in the teaching field, learning to open certain activities to more
and more people and to sustain its expansion and consolidation. All are welcome
to enter the community's warm embrace and receive sustenance from Baha'u'llah's
life-giving message. No greater joy is there, to be sure, than for a soul,
yearning for the Truth, to find shelter in the stronghold of the Cause and draw
strength from the unifying power of the Covenant. Yet every human being and
every group of individuals, irrespective of whether they are counted among His
followers, can take inspiration from His teachings, benefiting from whatever
gems of wisdom and knowledge will aid them in addressing the challenges they
face. Indeed, the civilization that beckons humanity will not be attained
through the efforts of the Baha'i community alone. Numerous groups and
organizations, animated by the spirit of world solidarity that is an indirect
manifestation of Baha'u'llah's conception of the principle of the oneness of
humankind, will contribute to the civilization destined to emerge out of the
welter and chaos of present-day society. It should be clear to everyone that
the capacity created in the Baha'i community over successive global Plans
renders it increasingly able to lend assistance in the manifold and diverse
dimensions of civilization building, opening to it new frontiers of learning. (The
Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010)
An
outcome of capacity building: “steady increase in the exercise of individual
initiative”
A
discernible outcome of the emphasis on capacity building has been a steady
increase in the exercise of individual initiative - initiative that is
disciplined by an understanding of the requirements of systematic action in
advancing the process of entry by troops. Endeavours are pursued in a humble
posture of learning within the framework defined by the Plan. As a result, activities
that give expression to a diversity of talents become harmonized into one
forward movement, and the stagnation caused by endless debate over personal
preferences about approach is avoided. Commitment to long-term action grows,
putting in context the initiatives undertaken by the believers at any
particular moment. (The Universal House of Justice, December 27, 2005)
Examples of capacity building outcome: Ruhi Books 3 and 5
provide believers with the opportunities to engage in “service and the
generation of knowledge and its diffusion”
At present the main sequence consists of eight courses,
though it is understood there may eventually be as many as eighteen that will
address acts of service related to such requirements as coordination and
administration, social action and involvement in the discourses of society. There
are currently two points along the sequence at which an individual may choose
to follow a specialized path of service. The first appears at Book 3. From
among the friends who complete it and begin to offer a relatively simple class
for children in the first grade of a programme for their spiritual education, a
percentage will want to dedicate themselves to this field of service, pursuing
in time a series of progressively more complex branch courses for teaching
Grades 2 to 6. This does not mean that they will abandon study of the main
sequence. Indeed, courses that make up a specialized path of service anticipate
that participants are continuing to progress, each at a pace suitable to his or
her situation, along the path traced out by the main sequence. Book 5, which
seeks to raise up animators of junior youth groups, constitutes the second
point at which a series of courses branch out.
Additional avenues of exploration will no doubt appear along
the main sequence in due time. Some may be of universal interest, such as the
two mentioned above, while others may be limited to specific local needs. As
with the main sequence itself, content and structure must emerge out of
continued collective experience in the field, an experience that is not
haphazard or subject to the forces of personal preference but is guided by the
institutions of the Faith. The generation of such an experience will call for a
still greater infusion of energy from a much larger portion of the population,
and it would be premature, in all but a few places, for institutes to give
attention to the creation or implementation of other branch courses at this
juncture in the unfoldment of the current series of global Plans.
Clearly, the approach to capacity building described above
represents an attempt to achieve a certain dynamics within a population that
brings together service and the generation of knowledge and its diffusion, a
subject which we discussed, albeit briefly, in our Ridvan 2010 message. Here we
address a few practical considerations, which the emergence of the two aforementioned
specialized paths of service has made all the more relevant. (The Universal
House of Justice, 12 December 2011)
The conception of capacity building “entails a profound understanding
of Baha'u'llah's Revelation.”
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 Baha'u'llah's Revelation. (The Universal House of
Justice, 12 December 2011)
