HE Aga Khan Development Network is a group of institutions working to improve living conditions and opportunities tn specific regions of the developing world. The Network's institutions have individual mandates that range from the fields of health and education to architecture, rural development and the promotion of private sector enterprise. Together they collaborate. in working toward a common goal — building Institutions and programmes that can respond to the challenges of social, economic and cultural charge. This presentation introduces the Network's principal organizations and provides an overview of their activities and goals.
The institutions that the Aga Khan has founded since 1957, when he succeeded his grandfather to the Imamat, reflect that sense of development's complexity. While all of them pursue specific mandates in social, economic and cultural development, they also work to identify ways in which these different pursuits can interact, mutually reinforcing one another.
The Network's institutions share common characteristics. Many Initiatives originally came to exist through the energy, dedication and skill of volunteers and both volunteer and professional staff are essential to the functioning of Network organizations today. They draw upon the talents of people of all faiths, and work to develop the competence of both volunteer and remunerated staff on an on-going basis.
Social Development
The efforts of the Ismail Imams in health and education go back to the Fatimid Empire, when they founded the University of Al-Azhar. Working within these Islamic traditions of social concern, the Aga Khan has fostered the development of a growing Network of Institutions and activities in health care, education and ni-
ral development. Today, the main Network institutions working in social development are the Aga Khan Foundation. Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Health Services and the Aga Khan Education Services. Each has a specific mandate.
AOA KHAN FOUNDATION: Founded in 1967, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is now a major non-governmental organization (NGO) active in health, education and rural development. With roots in the third world and support in the West. 1t cooperates with more than thirty other national and international agencies to finance programmes, primarily In Africa and Asia. To encourage a new generation of development practitioners aware of the realities of the third world, it also provides scholarships, training and Internships to young people from developing and industrial countries. AKFs headquarter's are in Switzerland. It has branches in Kenya. Tanzania, Uganda, Pakistan. India, Bangladesh and Portugal and affiliates In Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
AKFs education portfolio is divided into two distinct thematic areas : Young Children and the Family, and Improving the Quality of Schools. AKFs is one of the few International agencies to emphasize early childhood care and development. Its goal is to fund projects which meet the needs of
young children in ways that are appropriate to the cultural context of family and community.
AKFs rural development programme has focussed on poverty alleviation in fragile and degraded environments through participatory organization and better management of natural resources. Over the past decade, ft has established two major programmes that foster the development of the rural poor — the Aga Khan Rural Support Programmes (AKRSP) in India and Pakistan. With its focus on village organization. decision-making and skill development, the AKRSP approach in Pakistan was judged by a World Bank evaluation team to be a suitable model for widespread replication.
AKF also supports two other major experiments in rural development — the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the Sad guru Water and Development Foundation in India. Like the AKRSPs, these Initiatives In rural development are now moving Into critical stages of their development as self-sustaining institutions. AKFs support for them In the 1990s, including exchanges of personnel and experience, is designed to help them accomplish this transition.
AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY: With the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Institute for
Educational Development In Pakistan, the Aga Khan University (AKU) occupies a pivotal place tn the Network's social development agpvltles. Inaugurated in 1985, its pdr pose is to provide higher edu cation and stimulate research pertinent to Pakistan and the developing world, while main tainlng internationally ac cepted academic standards. Along with its educational aims and its mission to promote the welfare of the people of Pakistan, AKU is a major centre for health sciences training, continuing education, technical assistance and research.
Planned with the support of the medical schools of Harvard University and McGill University, AKUs Faculty of Health Sciences Includes both a Medical College and a School of Nursing and is affiliated to the Aga Khan University Hospital, which is located on the same campus. The Faculty of Health Sciences and the Aga Khan University Hospital to gether form the Aga Khan University Medical Centre (AKUMC).
AGA KHAN HEALTH SERVICES: The Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) Is one of the most comprehensive non-profit health care systems in the developing world. Building on the Ismaili community's health care efforts
during the first half of the century, AKHS now provides primary health care and curative medical care In India. Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania. Bangladesh and Syria. The Network includes five general hospitals, the Aga Khan University Hospital irt Pakistan, five maternity homes and more than 230 health centres. Organized in national service companies in Kenya. Tanzania. India and Pakistan, these health facilities are also linked internationally through Network-wide strategies In human resource development, hospital management nursing development and primary health care.
AKHS's primary health care programmes are designed to reach vulnerable groups tn society, especially child-bearing women and young children, with low-cost medical tech nologles of proven effectiveness: immunization, systematic prenatal care, aseptic deliveries and oralrehydratlon therapy for diarrheal disease. Experience with PHC with in the Network, where AKHS works closely with both AKF and the AKU, has confirmed both the efficacy of primary health care in improving health status, and Its cost-effectiveness.
AGA KHAN EDUCATION SERVICES: The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) provides schooling and other educational services in 300 facilities in the developing world, ranging from day care centres to primary and secondary schools. With roots in the Ismaili Community’s traditions of educational activity, these schools and centres are now managed by national service companies in Tanzania. Kenya, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Today, AKES faces the same constraints as other providers of education in the developing world, whether public or private: population growth outstripping resources, poorly trained teachers, inappropriate curricula and in some areas, the low health and education status of women and girls. Their programmes alm to diminish these obstacles to educational access and achievement. To increase access, AKES has continued Io create schools; In close collaboration with the Aga Khan Housing Boards and the AKF. it has also supported community-based school construction. In the north of Pakistan, AKES Increased the number and range of facilities available to girls.
Fxxinomic Development
The Ismaili Imamat s con cern to stimulate economic activity that can Improve the quality of life has given rise to Institutions that now span several continents and sectors of activity. From self-help finance and Insurance companies
founded for the Ismail! Community at the turn of the century, the Imamat's economic activities have grown to include initiatives in Industrial development and tourism promotion as well as financial services. Located principally in Asia and Africa, they serve broad national constituencies with companies and projects that range from food processing to telecommunications.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) carries out these Network activities in economic development. It looks for projects with development potential as well as financial viability and works to build them Into companies with lasting institutional strengths. Its criteria for project design emphasize both technology transfer and local resource use; It seeks to harness both international expertise and local know-how to the task of improving living standards In the developing world.
INDUSTRIAL PROMOTION SERVICES: Launched tn 1963 to reinforce private sector activity in industrial development in Asia and Africa, Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) Is an industrial development and venture capita] Institution. IPS companies exist in Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan. Uganda and Zaire; in the developed world, there are now IPS Joint ventures in small and medium-sized businesses in Canada and the United Kingdom. A focal point for these nine affiliates and a clearing house for technical information is provided Industrial Promotion Services S A, Switzerland.
TOURISM PROMOTION SERVICES: Tourism occupies a strategic position in AKFED's approach to economic development in the third world. It enables developing countries to use their advantages in climate and geography to revitalise local architectural and craft traditions, create employment and earn foreign exchange. Tourism Promotion Services (TPS). AKFED s tourism development arm. was established in the early 1970s.
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AKFED provides an institutional umbrella for a number of leading finance and insurance companies in Africa and Asia. Most of these were founded as small self-help companies In the first half of this centuiy by the present Aga Khans grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah.
At the outset, most of the self-help companies were financed by contributions from the Ismaili Community to mark the successive Jubilees (Golden, Diamond and Platinum) of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah. The present Aga Khan opened their service to non-lsmailis, profession alised their operations and moved them Into the main stream of national commercial life.
To meet urgent needs for housing finance In India. AKFED co-sponsored the establishment of the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) through equity participation 1n 1978.
The Aga Khan Development Network has participated tn the creation and development of cooperative financial Instltu tlons tn India and Pakistan, Including the Development Cooperative Bank, one of the largest cooperative banks in India.