The Aga Khan Foundation brings together human, financial and technical resources to address some of the challenges faced by the poorest and most marginalised communities in the world. Special emphasis is placed on investing in human potential, expanding opportunity and improving the overall quality of life, especially for women and girls. It works primarily in six areas: Agriculture and Food Security; Economic Inclusion; Education; Early Childhood Development; Health and Nutrition; and Civil Society.
The Foundation is largely an implementing organisation rather than a grant-making foundation. It receives grant funding from numerous development agencies, private foundations and corporations; raises funds locally in annual events in North America and Western Europe; and receives funding from His Highness the Aga Khan. In addition, an endowment contributes towards its operating costs.
When AKF does make grants or pursue collaborations, they are generally targeted to grassroots organisations testing innovative approaches in the field to specific development problems within AKF’s focus. AKF units are field-based, so queries are best sent directly to country offices.
AKF projects are designed to contribute lessons towards understanding complex issues and identifying potential solutions for adaptation to conditions in different regions. AKF measures success when beneficiaries report improvements in their lives, and when the processes which led to these improvements serve as useful models in other places.
Wherever relevant, approaches are tested primarily in rural settings but also in some urban settings, and within different cultural and geographic environments. Evaluation and dissemination are equally essential. International teams, collaboratively with implementers, conduct reviews at agreed intervals in the project cycle. The conclusions are shared with AKF affiliates, beneficiaries and interested governmental and non-governmental organisations. Valuable lessons are brought to the attention of policymakers to enhance decision making, and to the public to raise awareness of important issues facing developing countries.
AKF has helped to pioneer the Multi-Input Area Development (MIAD) approach, which leverages the capabilities of multiple AKDN agencies (and as is the case for AKF, multiple thematic areas of focus within each agency) in order to deliver social, economic and cultural interventions together in the targeted geographies to accelerate development over time. MIAD allows efforts to reach fruition, creates the basis for sustainable growth in remote regions and builds links with public and private sector partners.
Over time, economic drivers embedded within these efforts generate revenues that communities can utilise for development. AKF’s programmes have historically focussed on rural areas, especially within resource-poor, degraded or remote places. Enabling people in these areas to create the services they need and receive access to the opportunities they want is particularly important for AKF. AKF programmes typically link elements such as rural savings and credit, natural resource management, productive infrastructure development, increased agricultural productivity and human skills development, with a central focus on community-based participation and decision-making.
The ultimate objective is to enable community members to undertake well-informed activities for sustainable and equitable development. The first such effort began with AKRSP in the remote northern areas of Pakistan, an impoverished and rugged region which was isolated and bypassed by developments elsewhere. AKRSP’s challenge was forming sustainable, inclusive processes of development in which diverse communities could participate in creating joint solutions to common problems. In response, AKRSP has successfully tested participatory approaches to planning and implementation of development in rural areas, including the mobilisation of rural savings and the provision of microcredit; the application of cost-effective rural infrastructure development; institution and capacity building; and models for public-private development partnerships.
The model has helped shape activities elsewhere. Central to AKF’s efforts have been inclusive, community-based development approaches, whereby local organisations identify, prioritise and implement projects with AKF’s assistance. Once community organisations have started providing services, AKF expands the programme through establishing village organisations elsewhere. AKF then brings them into federated structures and links them with local governments through collaboration on development issues. It also provides fund-raising advice and contacts through its civil society activities.
Most AKF activities are implemented by effectively managed, local organisations interested in testing new solutions, in learning from experience and in being agents of lasting change. However, if no established group exists, AKF occasionally establishes new organisations to tackle particularly important issues. AKF generally maintains long-term involvement in building social institutions, and thus is able to make commitments to communities as well as carry through changes in attitudes, behaviours and organisational abilities, which require a longer time horizon.
