“Summoning Our Common Will” addresses new UN global development agenda

“Summoning Our Common Will” addresses new UN global development agenda

New York—13 October 2015

The collective ability of the world’s people to willfully undertake their own development will be essential in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations last month.

That is one of the themes of a major new statement of the Baha’i International Community, which seeks to offer the insights of the worldwide Baha’is community as a contribution to Agenda 2030, as the new 15-year global development program is being called.

“People are at the center of Agenda 2030, and this is a major victory,” says the statement, which is titled Summoning Our Common Will. “But care must be taken lest people be treated primarily as passive objects to be developed, rather than as protagonists of development in and of themselves”

“The ability of people, individually and as members of communities and institutions, to achieve something they collectively value is therefore an indispensable means of achieving lasting progress.”

The SDGs are a set of 17 goals aimed at setting a global development policy through the year 2030. They were adopted the UN General Assembly in September, and include goals like “end poverty in all its forms everywhere,” “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” and “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.”

The BIC praised the process by which the UN crafted the goals, noting that it involved input from eight million people in more than 193 countries, representing “the largest consultation ever conducted by the UN.”

As such, the statement says, “the body of humanity today is able to envision and articulate, to a degree unsurpassed in previous ages, the world it collectively desires.

“The central task before the international community, then, will be to build capacity in more and more collaborators with the ultimate objective of promoting universal participation in the construction of that world.”

In this regard, Agenda 2030 reflects “growing commitment to the premise that every member of the human family has not only the right to benefit from a thriving global civilization, but also the capacity to contribute to its construction.”

“Consciousness of the oneness of humankind must be the bedrock of any strategy that seeks to engage the world’s population in assuming responsibility for its collective destiny.”

The statement offers the experience of the worldwide Baha’i community as an example of one group that is “striving to learn about the tangible development of their neighborhoods, villages, and communities.”

“To the extent that this experience can contribute to development efforts benefitting the whole of society, in keeping with the cardinal principle of the oneness of humankind, we are happy to offer it for exploration and conversation,” the statement says.

It outlines the global process of community-building currently being undertaken by the worldwide Baha’i community, noting that it has so far yielded several thousandgrassroots efforts of economic development.

These efforts are based on a process of “learning and capacity building,” the statement says.

“Development efforts grow in effectiveness as they increasingly reflect the numerous dimensions of human existence.

“For this reason, individual Baha'is and their likeminded collaborators around the world are reaching out to neighbors of all backgrounds and, in the intimate setting of the home, creating spaces for shared worship and exploration of the deeper purpose and meaning of life.”

For a link to the statement, click here.