Implementation of a socioeconomic pattern of Aseman Plan (regulations of public investment and employment of manpower) has been taken into consideration by Barakat Foundation in 2018 with the approach of a sustainable livelihood and concentration on the development of business and employment in rural and deprived areas of the country. After identifying and selecting the target regions, Barakat Foundation in cooperation with the TADBIR Strategic Studies and Management Consultants Group has launched the aforementioned plan i.e. Aseman Plan in 22 cities and seven deprived provinces of the country.
In the Aseman Plan, 15- to 20-person groups are set up with the approach of social and economic empowerment in the target region. Generation of employment is the main objective of Aseman Plan. These people will be prepared to accept a job through education, self-credence, and self-confidence. This important effect shall be borne by the social and economic facilitators of the Barakat Foundation.
In this regard, a number of 1,100 applicants for co-operation were registered at the first phase of this plan through the public call in the tartest areas for identification, selection, and training of local facilitators. Of total 1,100 applicants, 550 of whom were qualified to participate in the written test. After organizing the test and performing the selection and interviewing stages, 130 applicants were introduced to attend the facilitator training course. This training course will be held in two one-week stages for a period of 288 hours in Farhikhtegan Complex of Science and Research Branch of the Islamic Azad University (IAU).
Serious Determination for Development of Deprived Areas
Managing Director of Barakat Foundation Eng. Saeed Jafari said that his foundation is determined to develop deprived and underprivileged areas of the country.
Speaking in the inaugural ceremony of the 1st Social and Economic Facilitation Training Course of Aseman Plan, Jafari said, “Barakat Foundation is the commissioner of social and economic programs of the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) and is active in the field of creating socioeconomic value in the deprived and less developed areas of the country.
He pointed to the salient measures taken by Barakat Foundation over the past 40 years in the field of eradication of deprivation in the less developed and disadvantaged areas of the country and reiterated, “in line with the recommendations of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) has focused on uprooting deprivation, economic empowerment and generation of employment in less developed and deprived areas in the country.”
He placed his special emphasis on the adoption of a new approach in the field of elimination of deprivation in the country and said, “in the past few years, this issue was considered physically while the desirable approach should be based on the development, human capital and hardware, and software facilities.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Jafari pointed to the development of deprived areas of the country as the main goal of this Foundation and said, “study of successful domestic and foreign plans in the field of elimination of depravity caused the approval of an economic pattern entitled ‘Aseman Plan’ in a way that this plan has started as pilot form in some regions of the country.”
‘Aseman Plan’ is the result of a change of approach to the activities of elimination of deprivation in the Barakat Foundation, he maintained.
“We are not seeking to construct production units or funding merely, rather, social participation is the main goal of the Foundation,” he stipulated.
Moreover, creating sustainable jobs for the eligible people, Barakat Foundation tries to motivate and encourage people to remain and live in rural areas of the country, Jafari stressed.
Identifying local facilities and talents and helping them has been taken into consideration in Aseman Plan, he said, adding, “in this comprehensive plan, we do not seek to create complex and complicated jobs, rather, we focus on the capabilities and potentials of each region.”
He termed participants in the first edition of social and economic facilitation training course of Aseman Plan as pioneers and harbingers of social and economic facilitators in the deprived areas and villages and said, “it is expected that suitable ground will be paved for the generation of employment and consequently, sustainable development in the deprived areas of the country.”
Emphasizing the Use of Popular Capacities and Potentials
Dr. Mahmoud Askariazad Chairman of the Board of Directors of Barakat Foundation was the next speaker who pointed to the facilitation as a way to flourish and demonstrate capabilities and potentials of rural areas in the country and said, “according to the statistics, rural population in the country stood at 76 percent in 1974 but the figure has now reached 26 percent, showing a considerable decline.”
Different countries on the path to development have come to this conclusion that rural communities do not have an external entity without motivation, potential and population, thus, suitable ways were paved for them and the issue of ‘facilitation’ was raised, he maintained.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Barakat Foundation said, “nowadays, the issue of facilitator governments has been raised. Participation and contribution of people in the development of the country is the main objective of the concept of facilitation, so that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution has consistently emphasized the need to pay due attention to the people and their potentials and capabilities.”
“We should provide the preliminary ground for the development in accordance with the human, physical, social and infrastructural capabilities of villages of the country, he said, adding, “in this regard, we should select the facilitators from the people of those regions that need to be developed, so that better communication can be made in this field. Therefore, facilities and potentials of the people of that region [including manpower and local capabilities] should be used for the development of these regions and consequently, throughout the country.”
In the end, he addressed facilitators attending the ceremony and said, “facilitator should feel the power and courage in himself or herself in order to solve problems together.”
Managing Director of TADBIR Economic Development Groups Dr. Aref Norouzi was the other speaker in this ceremony who called for paying more attention to the rural areas for promoting and improving the level of economic development of the country.
Rural areas in the country are tantamount to cultural, economic and security centers, he observed.
He pointed to the cultural, economic and security centers as three salient specifications of rural areas and said, “Barakat Foundation follows up its activity according to the aforementioned three specifications. In this regard, the Foundation is seeking facilitators who work in line with these purposes in the deprived and disadvantaged regions of the country.”
