The Office of Social and Economic Development was opened at the Bahá'í World Centre. [AWH8; BBD70; BBRSM154; BW19:58; VV78]
• See BW19:351–5 for a survey of Bahá'í social and economic projects.

The establishment of the Office of Social and Economic Development.

 In a message to the Bahá'í world the Universal House of Justice called on individuals and Bahá'í communities to apply the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh systematically to the problems of their societies. This seminal statement pointed to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as a source of order in the world, asserted the coherence of the spiritual and the material dimensions of human life, praised the social and economic progress achieved by the Bahá'í community of Iran, announced the establishment of the Office of Social and Economic Development at the World Centre and defined the role of various Bahá'í agencies in fostering development. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October, 1983, Mess63-86p602-603,AWH6–10; BW19:153, BW92-93pg229-245]

• For the response of the Bahá'í world to the letter see BW19:112–13.
• See also Social and Economic Development: The Bahá'í Contribution, a paper prepared for the United Nations Department of Public Information Annual Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations ("New Approaches to Development: Building a Just World") held in New York 5 September 1984.
• The document Bahá'í Social and Economic Development: Prospects for the Future, prepared at the World Centre was approved for publication by the Universal House of Justice on the 16th of September 1993, for use by the Office of Social and Economic Development (OSED) in orienting and guiding the work in this area. Most central to this vision was the question of capacity building. That activity should start on a modest scale and only grow in complexity in keeping with available human resources was a concept that gradually came to influence development thought and practice. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 26 November, 2012]
• See also The Evolution of Institutional Capacity for Social and Economic Development by the Office of Social and Economic Development dated 28 August, 1994. It described two types of organizational arrangements that emerged in the Bahá'í world capable of undertaking increasingly complex development efforts - training institutes and Bahá'í-inspired agencies.
• A related document, The Prosperity of Humankind, was issued by the Bahá'í International Community's Office of Public Information and disseminated at the United Nations' 1995 World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It offered a vision of social and economic development based on Bahá'í concepts. The document was first released on 23 January 1995.
• A Clarification of Some Issues Concerning Social and Economic Development in Local and National Communities was prepared by the Office of Social and Economic Development in November of 1999 to respond to a number of questions that had arisen over the previous few years. It touched on such issues as degrees of complexity in development activity, the relationship between teaching and development, and participation in development projects.
• See also Social Action by Office of Social and Economic Development dated 26 November, 2012.
• See also For the Betterment of the World:The Worldwide Bahá'í Community's Approach to Social and Economic Development by Office of Social and Economic Development released on the 27th of April, 2018, updating publications of 2003 and 2008.
• See also Vick, Social and Economic Development: A Bahá'í Approach.
• The Office of Social and Economic Development was succeeded by the Bahá'í International Development Organization on 9 November 2018.

Humanity has done well to articulate material indicators of development, and even to achieve a number of them. But focusing only on that which is quantifiable has obscured the critical importance of factors related to higher aspects of the human spirit, such as the value of relationships, the quality of one's character, and the coherence between principles and deeds. The need to bring such factors to the centre of the development discourse was outlined in The Prosperity of Humankind, which made clear that ideals require the force of spiritual commitment to cement them. The statement laid out an ambitious vision of humanity's capacity to take charge of the course of its development, and addressed a set of principles and concepts indispensable to the task, from reimagining collective decision-making to rearranging economic priorities. It called for "unconditioned recognition of the oneness of humankind" and "a commitment to the establishment of justice as the organizing principle of society". [BIC 3 March 2020]

The publication of For the Betterment of the World: The Worldwide Bahá'í Community's Approach to Social and Economic Development by Office of Social and Economic Development. It contained essays, photographs, and overviews of local projects around the world illustrating how Bahá'í principles of social and economic development were being carried out in practice.
• See 2018-04-27 for an updated version.

See also: Bahá'í Centres of Learning in Australia.

The announcement of the election of the 12th Universal House of Justice. Those elected were Paul Lample, Chuungu Malitonga, Payman Mohajer, Shahriar Razavi, Stephen Hall, Ayman Rouhani, Stephen Birkland, Juan Francisco Mora, and Praveen Mallik. [BWNS1258]
• The twelfth International Bahá'í Convention was held from the 29th of April until the 2nd of May. In the election of the Universal House of Justice over 1,300 ballots were cast by representatives of 160 national communities. [BWNS1256, BWNS1257, BWNS1259, BWNS1261]
• See Vimeo for a short film of the International Convention by Farideh Baki-Nasseri.
• The film A Widening Embrace was screened at the Convention, enriching the consultations of the delegates. It is a documentary film about the community-building efforts of the Bahá'í world. Many of the themes discussed over the days of the Convention were highlighted in the practical examples presented in the documentary which tells the story of the transformation of communities unfolding throughout the world by featuring the process in 24 communities representing different realities and contexts. The 77-minute film, which was commissioned by the Universal House of Justice, was made available in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, and Persian. [BWNS1260] .

The Universal House of Justice announced that the Office of Social and Economic Development would be succeeded by the Bahá'í International Development Organization with a five-member board of directors to serve a five year term of service with appointment to be made on the Day of the Covenant.
• In addition a new fund, the Bahá'í Development Fund, was inaugurated which will be supported by the Universal House of Justice, individuals and institutions. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 9 November, 2018]
• Three days later the Universal House of Justice announced the appointment of the members of the Board of Directors for the Bahá'í International Development Organization for the five-year term beginning 26 November 2018: Elisa Caney, Maame Brodwemaba Nketsiah, Lori McLaughlin Noguchi, Sina Rahmanian, and George Soraya.
• See also BWNS1308.

The passing of Urbain Joseph Ledoux (b. August 13, 1874 in Ste Hélène de Bagot, Quebec). He was buried in Saint Joseph's Cemetery Biddeford, Maine.
• He is believed to be the third French-Canadian to become a Bahá'í outside of Canada. [OCBB94]
• He gave an address to the National Convention at the Hotel McAlpine on the 28th of April, 1919 entitled The Oneness of the World of Humanity. [SoW Vol 10 May 17, 1919 No 4 p58] "This talk 'sounded so French-Canadian' that later francophone believers could still be moved to tears in reading its text." [OCBB94]
• He received widespread publicity for his opening of bread lines in New York (The Stepping Stone) and for "auctions" of the jobless to employers in New York and Boston during the Depression of 1921. He was received by President Warren Harding shortly after arriving in Washington, D.C. in September 1921. Ledoux spent a little over three months in Washington, D.C. 1921-22 campaigning for a public works program funded by a tax on companies that made excessive war profits during World War I. His tactics included setting up a hotel housing the unemployed on Pennsylvania Avenue, an auction of the jobless, speaking before the unemployment conference, calling for the arrest of international arms conference delegates. He walked around the city carrying a white umbrella, a lighted lantern and a Bible or a copy of the Sermon on the Mount saying he was like Diogenes searching for an honest man.
• Urbain Ledoux is shown in Boston in 1921 auctioning off an unemployed man. He conducted these auctions in New York and Boston in order to garner publicity for the plight of the unemployed and to find work for the jobless. He called himself "Mr. Zero" because he said he didn't want any publicity for himself.
• "Mr. Zero" returned to Washington in 1932 with the Bonus Expeditionary Force, leading an unauthorized march on the White House July 16, 1932 that resulted in his arrest along with two others. The march frightened President Herbert Hoover who set in motion the eviction of the bonus marchers from the city—a move that backfired on Hoover and helped to cement his reputation as someone uncaring about the plight of the nation's unemployed. Photos.
• Find a grave.
• His obituary in the New York Times April 10th 1941.
• He is reported to have "rescued" 85 year-old Sarah Farmer in Portsmouth where she was being held in a sanatorium against her will. [Boston Post 4 August 1916]
• See a story from Ephemeral New York.
• There is a short description of Urbain LeDoux in He Loved and Served: The Story of Curtis Kelsey p 33-34.

A brief entitled The Future of Canada: A Bahá'í Perspective was presented to The Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects of Canada on behalf of the Canadian Bahá'í Community through the National Spiritual Assembly in Saskatoon. [The Future of Canada: A Bahá'í Perspective]
• Photographs in this publication were contributed by Elizabeth Martin. [HNWE44]

They considered "remarkable" the recently enacted of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (also known as the Constitution Act of 1982), and the Multiculturalism Policy of 1971, as well as Canada's contribution to human rights accords on the international level and steps towards the creation of single global society.

The National Assembly shared the measures taken in its own community for the advancement of the rights of women, for more understanding between the Anglophone and Francophone populations, to assist the settlement of immigrants and measures taken to increase participation of the indigenous friends in society at large by establishing a variety of events. Some of there were "unity gatherings" , "native councils", "summer and winter schools", "Unity feasts", and conferences, all of which have served to bring together in social and administrative activity anglophone, francophone, and native Canadians.

They included with the brief a copy of A Violence Free Society by Dr Hossain Danesh and several submissions made by the Bahá'í International Community to various United Nation agency on the question of human rights and minorities as well as an article taken from the publication "Refuge" describing the Iranian Bahá'í refugee program.

In this submission, they emphasized the necessity of educational programs. They asked that careful consideration be given to the idea of holding a national conference on education focussed on this question of minority participation in Canadian society.