AGA KHAN - A FAR CRY FROM HIS ANCESTORS

Aga Khan Development Network Focus Areas

Architecture 
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, established in 1977 by His Highness the Aga Khan, recognises examples of architectural excellence that encompass contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, restoration, re-use, and area conservation, as well as landscaping and environmental issues.

 

Civil Society 
Aga Khan Foundation's Civil Society activities focus on extending, improving and sustaining health, education and welfare services for the poor by creating partnerships involving government, business and citizen organisations . 

 

Culture
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture focuses on the physical, social, cultural and economic revitalisation of communities in the Muslim world. It includes the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme, the Music Initiative in Central Asia, the Museums and Exhibitions Project, the on-line resource ArchNet and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Economic Development
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. AKFED focuses on building enterprises in parts of the world that lack sufficient foreign direct investment. It also makes bold but calculated investments in situations that are fragile and complex.

 

Education
The AKDN's education programmes cover a wide spectrum of activities ranging from early childhood care and education through to degrees in medicine. The Aga Khan Education Services, the Aga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan University, the Aga Khan Academies and theUniversity of Central Asia are the lead organisations in education, but all institutions are involved in some form of training or education, whether it is through curriculum reform, exhibitions of Islamic art or literacy programmes for employees of economic project companies. 

 

Health
With community health programmes in large geographical areas in Central and South Asia, as well as East Africa, and more than 200 health facilities including nine hospitals, the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) is one of the most comprehensive private not-for-profit health care systems in the developing world.

 

Historic Cities
The Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme (HCP) promotes the conservation and re-use of buildings and public spaces in historic cities in the Muslim World. HCP undertakes the restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures and public spaces in ways that can spur social, economic and cultural development.

 

Humanitarian Assistance 
Focus Humanitarian Assistance is an international group of agencies established in Europe, North America and South Asia to complement the provision of emergency relief, principally in the developing world. It helps people in need reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid and facilitates their transition to sustainable self-reliant, long-term development.

 

Microfinance
Since its establishment in 2005, The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) has taken over 25 years of microfinance activities, programmes and banks that were administered by sister agencies within the Aga Khan Development Network.

 

Music
The Aga Khan Music Initiative (AKMI) was created by His Highness the Aga Khan in 2000 to support the efforts of Central Asian musicians and communities to sustain, further develop and transmit musical traditions that are a vital part of their cultural heritage.

 

Planning and Building
The Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS) works to improve the built environment, particularly housing design and construction, village planning, natural hazard mitigation, environmental sanitation, water supplies, and other living conditions. AKPBS achieves these goals through the provision of material and technical assistance and construction management services for rural and urban areas.

 

Rural Development
The Aga Khan Foundation is committed to reducing rural poverty, particularly in resource-poor, degraded or remote environments. It concentrates on a small number of programmes of significant scale. The model of participatory rural development it has pioneered combines a set of common development principles with the flexibility to respond to specific contexts and needs.