Majid rahnema biography

Majid Rahnema (1924 – 14 April 2015) was a.
Majid Rahnema was a diplomat and former Minister of Iran, born in Tehran.
Dr.

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Majid Rahnema

Iranian diplomat, economist and poverty researcher

Majid Rahnema (1924 – 14 April 2015) was a diplomat and former Minister of Iran, born in Tehran. He represented Iran at the UN from 1957 to 1971. He worked on problems of poverty and production processes of poverty by the market economy.

Biography

Long an ambassador, he represented Iran at the UN for twelve successive sessions of 1957 to 1971. He was Commissioner of the United Nations in Rwanda and Burundi in 1959, for elections and the referendum that led these countries to independence. He also served on the University Council of the United Nations from 1974 to 1978, and also resident representative of the United Nations in Mali.

Between 1967 and 1971 he was Minister of Science and Higher Education in Iran under the Shah. In 1971, he created an Institute for Studies of Endogenous Development, inspired by the educational ideas of Paulo Freire, to begin a development project basis with the farmers of Lorestan.

After his retirement in 1985 he taught at the University of California at Berkele

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Majid Rahnema

Development Workshop worked with Dr. Majid Rahnema (1924–2015) on the transformation of his ideas into practice in the Seheleh Integrated Development Project in Luristan Iran in the 1970s. Dr. Rahnema, born in Tehran, was a globally respected educationalist and theoretician promoting the concept of endogenous or locally-driven development. His development approach grew out of collaboration with Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich.

Dr. Rahnema’s work focussed particularly on problems of poverty and production processes of poverty caused by the market economy. In 1971, he founded the Centre for Endogenous Development Studies in Iran. For several years the Centre focused on applying his concerns on poverty to the practical work undertaken by the Centre’s 'Selseleh Integrated Development Project' (SIDP). With a multi-disciplinary group of development workers in Luristan, Western Iran, the aim was to assist Luri nomads address the great difficulties they faced under the forced sedentarization under the Shah’s policies. DW co-founder Farokh Afshar, professor at the Universi