Reconciling Creation with Sustainable Development

By Yossef Ben-Meir

Marrakech

After completing my service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco about 30 years ago and pursuing a graduate degree in

international development

, I began to see how people’s participation in their own community’s development reconciles different global outlooks of what lends towards society’s consistent, lasting growth. For example, public participation reduces risk by sharing it, and by basing project investment decisions on a plethora of contextual information, free market capitalists concerned with meeting human needs find this inclusive approach appealing.

Furthermore, some socialists determine qualities of community-driven development to be a helpful way forward because of its tendency to manifest

decentralization

(localized control of decision-making and design of production activities). People’s participation in development induces qualities of national self-reliance, making it valuable for policymakers in developing countries who are concerned about their dependency relationship on the economies of more developed nations, ushering compromises on autonomy and underdevelopment.

For me, the fascination was that when local communities determine their projects to enhance livelihoods, education, health, and the environment—meeting their self-described needs—they achieve solidarity, in that all sorts of advocates may find this form of development viable for their different reasons. This was an exciting discovery because, if the

participatory development approach

(as coined in the 1980s) can meet the criteria to generate sustainable prosperity held by diverse world views, then it could broaden the breadth of supporters, render more resources for communities to implement their own action plans, and increasingly transition people in the throes of poverty to empowered lives.

In order to assess whether and how unity can be bolstered for participatory development among multiple viewpoints of what just and lasting growth requires, involves accepting on their own terms the criteria of modernizationists, socialists, world systems analysts, feminists of their global array, ethnic and other restorative justice activists, and others. In this way, they will each see their own emphases and reflections in connecting their perspectives to related qualities of participatory development, and therefore may feel compelled to come closer to, and even embrace, the community approach to desired change.

This intellectual journey has led me to include the

Old Testament

in the investigation, specifically the Torah (the five books of Moses), as it offers a vast framework of themes that are also premises of sustainable development. The spark of interest came when I read the work of sages from millennia past describing how

biblical Egypt

saved itself from catastrophic famine by, for example, incorporating decentralized management (localizing the silos to store grain) and the reduction of panic that resulted. And now, with the Jewish New Year having just passed and the reading of the Torah beginning again from the start with Genesis (the first book and chapter), I thought I would describe how this ancient text embodying truth to the Abrahamic Muslim, Christian, and Jewish people (of which the Kingdom of Morocco, where I reside, is part) bears a connection between its traditional interpretations with features of modern sustainable development.

To start, it may seem counterintuitive that Creation done by the One Almighty actually establishes the essentiality of partnerships to achieve long life. Each day of the week of Creation builds to the ultimate sixth day with the making of humanity and the seventh day of rest. Unlike every other prior day or stage of creating the natural world, the One God forged humankind by fixing in the creation fabric the necessary quality of collaboration. After all, God engaged the angels with “let us” make people, to show that best decisions and outcomes happen through cooperation, establishing our intrinsic inclination to accept decisions that we are part of making. The Absolute Divine further involved the earth from where humanity emerged, binding our physical and soul beings.

The making of humanity was solely and ultimately the doing of the Creator, but it was done by establishing forever since the virtue of humility by opening to participation. Indeed, no matter how high we perceive ourselves, none are beyond the precept of inclusion and respectful consideration of another. Of all the lessons learned from the successes and failures of global development since the Second World War, community participation in the determination of development projects is the

key factor

to achieve their sustainability, being equal if not more important than finance.

Many national governments and political parties find some form of people’s participation in decisions and community partnership in their core charters. However, the fallout in their application coupled with the needed resource allocation significantly explains the intractability of brutal global poverty, most often in rural places. Our challenge today is the need for improving the methodologies for people’s inclusion in decision-making with greater self-belief, less hindered with doubt and even trauma. For a much greater effect, we need far more local forums and facilitators to assist community collaboration and their analysis of priority opportunities for improving their lives.

After decades engaged in local project development in Morocco with public and private partners, domestic and international, I am constantly reminded when considering the sustainable course of communities’ initiatives—their seemingly improbable acquisition of finance, withstanding a horrific

earthquake

, and enduring years of

drought

with areas experiencing devastating floods—that we have not actually created anything, and neither did the angels nor did the earth itself sprout humanity. An intangible grace is needed alongside committed partnerships.

Certainly, God’s “inclusive” approach to Creation opened up, for those who will, the belief in multiple divinities; after all, who really is “us” doing the creating, and where would people be if not for the earth to first arise from? Ancient sages recognized this potential for misinterpretation. I find this aspect to also resonate with the practical, day-to-day experience of implementing sustainable development or perhaps even most walks in life. We can relate to wanting to do what we feel is correct and for the fair benefit of others and even ourselves, and don’t we often find perspectives and attitudes towards us that misread, intentionally or not, the good that we actually seek? Has anyone gone through youth and adulthood without ever meeting hurtful criticism in the face of our sincere best efforts, for what we thought was for the good of the many? The field of development practice is wrought with the struggle of constant opposition, usually by a relative few, to endeavors benefitting the whole society. The Creation Story also encourages us to not delay our mission of cooperation, even as the embodied Creation itself has a built-in difficulty.

And alas, our reward for participation, partnership, acting with urgency, withstanding difficulty, and embracing renewal, which is a sabbath, is long life for ourselves, for humanity, and for the outcomes derived from our commitment to each other. Our understanding of how to achieve sustainability couldn’t be more in alliance.

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and President of the High Atlas Foundation in Morocco. In 2026 he received the National Peace Corps Association’s Sargent Shriver Award for Humanitarian Service.

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